Literacy in the Adventure Primes
Many children in the Adventure Primes have been creating their own books in recent weeks. After spending time observing two frogs found by Uppers teacher Vanessa, two children were inspired to write fictional stories about frogs. One student created a comic book based on the movie Jaws and another created a story about a monster truck doing tricks.
We support the children wherever they are in their literacy development. Some children want to just describe the story verbally, while others ask a teacher to write the words about each illustration in their book. Some children will dictate to a teacher, and then copy down the words themselves. Some children will sound out words by themselves, or with the help of a teacher. No matter the method, creating stories is such a powerful way for children to share their imaginations.
Last week the Adventure Primes were excited to learn that a real author was coming to visit the Center School. On Monday morning we had a snacktime discussion to prepare for Hannah Moushabeck's visit. Here are some excerpts:
"Tomorrow we have a special visitor coming to our school. Her name is Hannah Moushabeck and she is an author. What do you know about authors?"
F They write.
Q They write the words in books.
"That's right. Authors write books. Every single book that exists was written by someone. Someone had to decide to write it before it could exist. Why do you think people decide to write books?"
V Because they want to make kids happy.
K Because if it's based on a true story they want to bring the story to life so people don't forget it so that they can read about it.
F So people will always remember.
E So they can get better at writing.
N Because they want kids to learn how to read and write and want kids to learn about what happened before they were born.
M Books are good. I like to think about the pictures.
F Once I went to Roundabout books for an author visit. The author was Astrid Sheckels.
H So kids can learn facts about things.
When Hannah visits tomorrow she will talk about being an author, and read us the book that she wrote. After that, she will answer any questions that kids have. What questions do you have for Hannah Moushabeck?
V What books did you write?
N Why did you write your book?
E How many books did you write?
V Did you write any history books?
During her presentation for the Primes' classes on Tuesday, Hannah shared about some of the books she has helped with. The students were especially excited to learn she had a hand in helping to publish Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site. She also shared about her family, and the stories she and her sisters heard growing up about their father's own childhood in Palestine.
Hannah spoke about how, in all of her years working with books, she never saw a book about people from Palestine, so she decided to write one herself! Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine is her very first book. She hopes that people who read this book think about three questions:
1. Where is your homeland?
2. Whose homeland are we living on now?
3. What are your family stories?
After her presentation and reading, many of the Adventure Primes approached Hannah to proudly tell her about the books they have been writing. Hannah loved their enthusiasm and predicted that maybe someday she would help publish some of the Adventure Primes' stories. Her advice was to keep writing! It took several years for her to end up with the final draft of her story.
On Wednesday morning there was a flurry of new interest in book-making. Two students created books about maps. There were also books about unicorns, the second installment of a book series describing what you might see while out on an adventure, and a book titled Shape World. We have added a manual book-binding machine to our art area to support our prolific authors.
