Raising Readers and Writers

A few weeks ago, I was having breakfast with an old friend. We’ve known each other since our girls (who are now 22 years old) were in kindergarten and we decided to take on the role of Girl Scout leaders. She is a gifted teacher and someone I enjoy spending time with. We share the same passion for literacy and can commiserate about our children. She’s contemplating starting a blog and is worried about having enough to say. As we talked that morning, I came up with about 4 different topics that she could blog about. I told her that as things happen in your classroom or even your life, you  automatically think about how you could write about that on your blog.  She laughed and said, “It’s Blog Curse, you know, like Math Curse!”

Well, I was afflicted with “Blog Curse” yesterday at the Dublin Literacy Conference. As I listened to Dr. Tim Tyson and the other speakers, I thought of a million things I could write about. As Dr. Tyson talked about the possibilities with technology, he kept coming back to the point of teachers as leaders. He said, “School can be anything you imagine. The hard part is not plugging in the interactive white board. The hard part is envisioning the possibilities.”

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about the possibilities for my 4th and 5th grade after school writing club. We finished writing scripts for the drama club and are ready to start something new. I want each of them to choose a topic that is important to them and makes them feel passionate. I want them to think about what means to much to them that they want the world to hear their voices. And I want them to know that their voices matter. Our final project will be a multi-modal, multi-genre display. I sent an email with my rambling ideas to our technology teacher and we are going to meet this week to discuss the possibilities. (I think she’s afraid to open any emails from me!)

I’ve also been reading The Digital Writing Workshop and Teaching The New Writing to get some ideas of where to go. Since I meet with my writing club tomorrow, I wanted to get started on something.

To begin with, I want the students to create a page that tells about themselves. I am going to read Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Meyers. I read Karen’s review and bought it right away (thanks to one-click shopping). I think the kids will love the vibrant illustrations and jazzy language. (I looked in the mirror and what did I see?  A real handsome dude looking just like me.  He put out his fist.  I gave it a bam!  He said, “Jeremy!  I said, “That’s who I am.”) I’m going to use it as a springboard for the students to think about the different roles they play in their lives. Then I’m going to have them create a page that shows who they are using Glogster. I just recently heard about Glogster and I took some time to explore it tonight (which means I’ll be up really late tonight finishing up my lesson plans). Here’s my attempt at introducing myself. I’d love to spend more time with it, but I do have to get more school work done tonight!

Kevin Hodgson commented on yesterday’s post how attending conferences like these energize us. I so agree with him. I can’t wait to get to school tomorrow and see my little ones and my writing clubbers. I have so much to share with them!