A story about their "safe place"

http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/banaszewski.htm

 

Using the link David provided, I waded my way through numerous links/sites and found a great example of getting reluctant writers involved through both the medium and the activity. I feel in the "new media" world we sometimes substitute good, solid lessons/activities/assignments for a "cool" way of doing something. We obviously need to do both and not lose sight of the end goal. I loved the example on this particular page of a teacher with a solid methodology and using technology a a carrot or celebration rather than a substitute. He did some pre assessment, and then took the students step by step through the writing process until finally each was ready to produce a digitized story.

Students were to write a story about their "safe place". He involved pre-writing activities, brainstorming, peer  conferencing, etc., etc. In the end, he finds the value in the written piece in community building, as each student gets to know more about the other through the sharing of thoughts and feelings of what makes each feel safe. And, as he says, "Nothing compares to the power of the student's spoken word".

"Back in the day", I remember doing a readers' theatre activity with a class of 20 boys and eight girls..... really reluctant readers. Unaware of the term "podcast" back then, I suggested that we convert each groups' work into a "radio play". I found them to be entirely motivated in the reading, then the writing (converting written word to spoken word - script) and then of course the production. A very successful project, even with poor equipment.