Author and educator Brian Heinz has been a frequent speaker at the Riverhead Middle School's annual Author in Residence program. Last year, Mr. Heinz offered the students at RMS his
workshop entitled, "The Book: From
Writer to Reader". With the use of a
'road map' style mural board and dozens of visual aids, Mr. Heinz explained to the students "how a book becomes reality from raw idea to finished product, and the many steps and people involved in the process." This year, Mr. Henz presented his workshop entitled, "The Opening Page".
     "The Opening Page" is a writing workshop, whereby Mr. Heinz uses overhead transparencies, chart board examples, readings, discussion, and brief exercises, to help students learn to "artfully reveal the critical elements of 'story' (character, setting or strong sense of place, and the problem) on the opening page." 
     His exercises and examples focus on: use of sensory detail, four ways to engage the reader, use of specific, concrete words, an emphasis on writing utilizing "rich" verbs and nouns, and concluding with the concept of "Show! Don't Tell!" and the use of figurative language forms.
     "To sell the idea of a book to a publisher you usually send them about a six page overview of your book," explained Mr. Heinz, "but it is the first sentence of the first page that is the most important. If that doesn't grab the person reading the overview, it's all over." He went on to talk about student writing and how important that first noun followed by a verb that creates "a picture in the reader's head" is in the writing process.
     "It's great to be able to bring an author like Mr. Heinz," explained RMS principal Andrea Pekar. "He very quickly helps bring to life the importance of what we teach all year long as part of the Six Traits of Writing, our Language Arts and writing curriculum, which emphasizes some of the same aspects of writing."

Photo caption:
Brian Heinz, author and educator, speaks to Riverhead Middle School students about the importance of "The Opening Page".