After reading one of the posts in http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/ a couple of weeks ago about Writing Summer Loss, I got to do a lot of thinking regarding this topic. They are right. There is a lot of articles talking about how much reading loss their is during summer time, publications with ideas on this topic but no so much is found around the area of writing.
So, for this year, I've decided to send my students with summer journals. Our amazing after-school tutoring coordinator donated 50 amazing journals to our ESL class. BIG THANKS TO HER! Sending home summer journals home this summer is not going to be enough in order for this to be successful. There is a lot of scaffolding to do in order for this to be successful.
The idea: keep a summer journal
Each student can record their thoughts, experiences, every day life, little moments, big moments in different forms: writing, sketching, through a poem, through photographs.
The concept: this summer journal will become a collection of "seeds" to be developed into big ideas (poems, stories, etc) throughout the next school year. (The teacher who is looping with one of my ESL classes is already loving the idea!).
The process: for the next four weeks, we will have intense mini-lessons on this Summer Journals. We will start writing in schools but continue thro
ughout summer. I want to give them plenty of tools, and ideas so they don't feel "stuck" during the summer, without knowing what to write about.
Where to start: by personalizing these journals. I have a collection of my students pictures in my school computer from all these years. Students will decide how to personalize each journal by including pictures, stickers, quotes, words, art, etc.
Stay tuned. I will be sharing all my mini lessons on Summer Journals in this blog. Because Writing is an Art, there are many ways to express it. You'll see what I mean. :)
Happy Monday everyone!
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