Great writers need an audience

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My 4th grade class is full of children who are full of ideas. Getting them to talk about their ideas is not a problem--getting them to write about their ideas can be a problem. Almost all of my students have learned English as a second language. Although many of my students are bilingual in Spanish and English, they struggle to communicate their wonderful thoughts in written form. Correct spelling, word choice, and verb tense become barriers to my students' writing. They spend so much energy on the mechanics of writing that their ideas never make it onto the page. I tell my students that great writers don't necessarily have better ideas than other people; great writers are able to put those ideas down on paper. A technique I use is to have them read to a partner what they have written. Once they hear what they have written they do a much better job of revising and editing their work. Merely looking at words on the paper is nothing compared to hearing those words spoken. But I want to offer my students the opportunity to hear themselves read. I want them to feel free to let their ideas flow onto the paper before they begin to revise and edit and censor. I want them to experience the magic I feel when I listen to them read their story to me. For my class of 28 students, I would like to purchase seven portable digital voice recorders. My students will use these to record themselves reading their own prose and poetry both during and after the writing process. Not only will they be able to listen to their words as they write--they can also document their words and share them with the class or with their family. My students' ideas and comments amaze me everyday, yet they often feel too shy to speak in front of the class. With 28 of them in one room it is an impossible task to give them all the time they need to practice speaking. They are going to be so excited to use these portable recorders; I know that the experience of speaking and listening to their own words will empower them not only to be better writers, but also better orators!