As students filed through the hallways of Rainbow Creek School on October 8th, faces were droopy and eyes rolling as it was likely expected that they were about to sit through another boring assembly. But as they approached the gymnasium doors, eyes lit up and smiles appeared as the students could hear the melodic sounds of rock n’ roll pounding out of their gym.
Once inside, it was quickly determined that this was going to be an assembly like no other. For at the front of the gym was Canadian Author, Sigmund Brouwer who was blaring classics from such bands as ZZ Top, the Beach Boys and Queen. But when he blasted out ‘What Does the Fox Say’, the students could contain themselves no longer and jumped to their feet to join in the song.
Brouwer was there presenting his Rock n Roll literacy show, where he presents to roughly 80,000 students per year, to get the students pumped up and excited about reading and writing. He brought a unique sense of play to the serious business of learning to read and write. Armed with music, humor and heart, he connected the dots for people who work with kids to cultivate reading and writing skills. He is a bestselling author that has written nearly thirty novels, with close to four million books in print.
“I start deciding what to write by asking myself how do I want to make them feel?’ said Brouwer just before explaining to the students that he could change their emotions by playing different songs. He played a clip of the theme song from “Jaws” to show that he could scare the students. To show them that they could feel pride for their country, he played a clip from the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. In a moment of humour, he then told the grades 4 and 5 that he could play them something that would terrify them…….and he cued up Justin Bieber….and sure enough, they all screamed.
Throughout the presentation, obviously with stops of music and joke telling, the point that the bestselling author was making was that just as one can have those reactions to music, the same experience can be had through reading. “Books are boring. They are nothing but paper and ink. But stories are awesome!” explained Brouwer.
You can check out more about Sigmund Brouwer by visiting www.rockandrollbooks.com.
