Mr. Basile, an academic research writer, came and spoke to the 4th graders about the writing process. We wanted students to hear that as a scientist who wants to be published you have to be willing to revise your paper more than once. Mr. Basile spoke about how he has a writing group that helps him edit his work. He talked about how you may rewrite your piece anywhere from 4-15 times on average. Most students were really interested in how long it takes to get published, which is on average a year. We also talked about how academic research helps us become better teachers. Currently Mr. Basile is doing research how well boys do in math and science. We look forward to reading more of his work as it gets published.