Reading specialist visits St. Paul of Akron Elementary School in Firestone Park

Sandra Philipson has an obvious passion for teaching. Although not her chosen profession in the classic sense of “being a teacher," Philipson has spent much of the past 12 years visiting more than 450 schools, where she reaches out to children with a variety of writing workshops. She is a reading specialist and literary consultant with an impressive background in the education and publishing fields.


Claiming that she has the “best job in the world, I get to work with kids and dogs," Philipson’s mission is to get children excited about writing. What makes her approach unique is that not only does she visit the children and speak to them about the joys of reading and writing, she brings her dogs with her.


Dogs, you ask? Yes, it’s a natural fit, because these dogs are the central characters of books that Philipson has written specifically for children. With her first book, Anne Loses Her Leg But Finds Her Way, published in 1999 about her real life dog Annie, who lost a leg to cancer, she has carved a career reaching out to children telling them that writing about the world around them can be fun.


During a Feb. 3 visit to St. Paul’s Elementary School, children from all grades had a chance to listen to Philipson’s message and write stories of their own. They met Ollie and Tak, two of her dogs who are real life characters in Philipson’s books. Their message was to encourage reading and writing and to impart an enthusiasm for the process.


One aspiring writer in the crowd was very enthusiastic about the day. Gracie Walter, a third grade student, said “it was a very good day and very fun. I got to meet a famous author and draw a picture story about a Fancy Flamingo."


This evening Philipson and the dogs met with 100 or so parents who came to find out what they might be able to do at home to encourage literacy in their children. She offers a laundry list of ideas for developing readers, among them: reading aloud to your kids and have them read aloud to you; ask questions about the stories you read together; choose a variety of things to read; read everything everywhere you go together (road signs, billboards, etc); and be a role model by being a reader yourself.


She also offers suggestions to encourage writing in children such as teaching them to write thank-you notes, have them write book and movie reviews and post them on the family refrigerator, create homemade books as gifts for other friends and family members and interview older family members and write their stories down for the future.


If your child has difficulty finding story topics, Philipson suggests creating a “writing box,” something that family members can put items in that would remind them of story ideas. Things in the box could be a shell found on the beach on a family vacation, mementos from a concert, a picture of something interesting – anything that might trigger an idea for a budding writer.


During the question and answer session with the parents, Gracie Walter’s hand was the first up. Her question to Philipson was “when you want to write a new story, what is the main idea?" Philipson’s response was to try to write about something familiar and to think about the message you want to tell.


Gracie later told us that she would indeed like to grow up to be an author. She is currently working on a story at home, but finds the hardest parts about writing are using the computer keyboard and finding some quiet time to concentrate. With four siblings at home, her mother acknowledges that can be a challenge.


St. Paul’s kindergarten teacher, Ruth Dietzel, worked with the PTO group at the school to sponsor the day with Philipson and her dogs. “The PTO group was very responsive when I brought them the idea” said Dietzel, who had heard about the program from a literacy conference at Kent State University last fall. Mr. Brodbeck, St. Paul’s principal, was equally pleased at the response from the PTO as well as the turn out for the evening event.


Dietzel’s class members each wrote a short story after hearing from Philipson and they were all posted around the assembly room for the parents to read.


Find out more about Sandra Philipson, her books, and her dogs on their website.


Image captions:  Gracie Walters with Tak; Sandra Philipson greets the kids; Wall of stories by kindergarten class; Parents attend presentation by Philipson.
with a variety of writing workshops. She is a reading specialist and literary consultant with an impressive background in the education and publishing fields.