Ali Edwards wrote the following today in her Words + Photos Post (Day Three):
What if you encouraged your kids (by example and through encouragement) to be the kind of people who grow up telling their own stories?
To me, this is the kind of work we’re doing in Writing Workshop. But it makes me wonder… what if we enabled our students to scrapbook the stories of their lives (i.e., through words + pictures like Ali is pushing us grown-ups to do this week)? Would it make them better, more thoughtful, life-long writers?
What would we need to do this:
* digital cameras (Yes, cameras — plural!)
* printer with ink and photo paper
* scrapbooking supplies
I think this is doable, albeit expensive. How do we, as teachers, especially those who work in Low-SES Schools with little funding for enrichment activities like this, make chronicling students’ lives possible through both words + pictures? (We seem to be focusing mostly on words here at Two Writing Teachers, which is why I’m putting out this question. I’m interested in feedback, thoughts, and ideas. Please post a comment with any of those three things.)
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Yes, we should be scrapbooking with our students! It’s not only a great life-long hobby, but also helps develop writing and artistic skills. Students learn to build a narrative and present their ideas visually. And thanks for the link to http://www.dedicatedteacher.com, Natalie. I checked it out and found the scrapbook sheets and templates especially handy.
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Yes, you should scrapbook with your students. Do you remember when art class used to be FUN? Before state-mandated objectives turned it into a checklist of “activities” instead of “projects”? Let them create, design, imagine, remember, ponder, analyze. Don’t get caught up in creating a rubric and all that busybody crap. Set your students free to be creative and expressive. And scrapbooking doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Use your imagination and search the net for cool ideas.
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I’m a huge fan of scrapbooking in school! I think it’s a fun way to touch on multiple intelligences, while totally engaging the kids in creating their memoirs. I’ve found some great teaching resources and workbooks at http://www.dedicatedteacher.com that are easily downloadable. The workbooks especially are very helpful and easy to use for kids. Keep up the great blog, Stacey!
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Good points from both of you!
They actually use my inexpensive digital camera to take pictures, but really don’t do much with them… it’s me who scrapbooks everything and displays the layouts with magnets on the door in the hallway.
I need to do more thinking about this… I appreciate your feedback!
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*g* Cali explained what I was thinking so well! An artist who comes to mind is sark – you can find quite a few books of hers on Amazon.
You could also have just ONE digital camera, have students bring in an object, take pictures of the students with the object, and use the printouts for illustrations, if they get frustrated with their own artistic endeavors.
There are ways to go about trying this that aren’t highly expensive at the front end. However, if when you try it, the students respond remarkably well, the investment might be worth it anyway!
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It seems to me, civilizations recorded illustrated journals prior to photography and film. The important part of scrapbooking is the memories, not the quality of the visual accompaniments.
Cali
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