Stephen Kozan is a central Pennsylvania native and published author who works with schools to provide a creative writing workshop for students in grades 3-8. On Thursday, February 27, 2020, Mr. Kozan met with the students in grades 3-5 at Fink Elementary to begin the creation of a new children's book. He engaged the students by having them participate in something he calls “InstaArt.” The students contributed ideas for a unique fictional creature. One of Kozan's illustrators, Tony Maulfair, starting bringing Fink's creature to life on paper while the students spent 20 minutes writing an idea for the storyline for their book.
At the end of the workshop, Mr. Kozan collected the students' writings and selected three story ideas to develop further. The three young authors selected were all from Mrs. Gail Jones' fourth grade class. Pictured left to right are Mahdi Altalal, Makenzie Willard and Brooke Camp. Mr. Kozan will return to Fink to meet with the student authors to develop their plots. And here is the most exciting part of all...one of those lucky students will be chosen to work with Mr. Kozan's team of professionals to publish the story into an actual storybook! Next school year, Mr. Kozan will return to Fink to launch the book release of the Fink student author!
A week after Mr. Kozan's visit, Fink students were STILL talking about the writing workshop. Students are bringing in their journals to share their stories with their teachers. Fink teachers are AMAZED at how Mr. Kozan's visit has sparked their interest in writing. The writing bug has bitten! And Fink is so excited to have a published author in their midst!