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WISS Book Week
By WISS Admin | June 19, 2009
WISS has been a busy place! Following the author visits in March, the recent Book Week, aiming to celebrate the gifts of writers and to inspire a love of books in students, ignited another round of book sensation on campus.
To ring in the Book Week, the theme of which was “IB learner profiles & attitudes towards learning in literature”, the students across grades started at the end of May to create visually inspirational posters that draped the bulletin boards and corridors.
The Book Week commenced at the gym/theatre on Monday, June 1st. At the opening ceremony hosted by Primary 
Principal
On the following day, visiting author Randall P. Girdner shared with a packed house his first graphic novel “Boyd Mcloyd” and his life as a professional writer. Inspired to start writing 20 years ago, Randall has been 
forcing himself to draw comics every day in the past four years and has kept a cartoon diary of his two daughters’ daily lives since 2007. He stressed the value of practice: “Just as athletes prepare for the Olympics, we need to exercise our brain every day to be more creative. Don’t fear to put down some bad ideas because you can always be amazed at digging out some treasure.” During his individual meetings with each grade, Randall demonstrated how he drew on the digital sketch pad and the software” Scribbles” to create artwork and got interviewed by the inquisitive students with questions such as “Which is your favorite book that you have written? “, “Why did you choose to be an author?”, “Who is your favorite character in the book and why?”, “What is the most difficult part of writing a book?” “Is there any comic artist you admire?” and a lot more. Randall was completely impressed during his visit, stating, “It was a wonderful experience visiting WISS. As an author and a teacher, it is a great feeling to see a group of students who have such a passion for books and such a thirst for knowledge. The students that I worked with throughout the course of the day were attentive, informed, and were eager to ask questions and learn more about a variety of subjects.”
A book fair was held throughout the next two days, which added to the total excitement. In the meantime, parent volunteers in the WISS Early 
Childhood Program and Primary School came to read stories to the students, who were prompted to make connections between the stories and the IB learner profile. For instance, the Grade 4s figured out that the characters in Wings exemplify the characteristics of being “caring”, “principled” and “open-minded”.
This exciting week was wrapped up with a rousing parade on Friday morning when the students and staff alike dressed up as their favorite book characters and exhibited their exuberant attire in front of the whole community. Later that day, upper Primary and Middle School students assembled to attend a workshop on writing by Ridley Pearson, the famed author of “Peter and the Starcatchers”.
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