Local children have plenty of experience reading about amazing characters engaged in curious situations, but some got the chance Thursday to write those stories themselves.
The only catch was they had to collaborate with their parents.
Olga Brener Intermediate School focused on writing during one of its regular family literacy nights, with literacy coach Carrie Ninham pointing out that writing is not necessarily something that families focus on at home.
“A lot of times we’ll do book clubs and we’ll do reading activities, but we’re trying to focus this month — even in the classrooms — on writing,” Ninham said. “Writing can be fun.”
The writing night was sparsely attended, but the four families that did participate were asked to create their own suspenseful stories with superheroes as the main characters. The families were given a few minutes to plan the story and then were asked to do tandem writing — where one family member writes the story for three minutes and then passes it on to the next family member.
Ninham encouraged the families to develop their characters and discuss their purpose in the stories.
“What is your character’s goal or purpose? Is it to save the world?” Ninham said. “What does the character look like? Any helpful gadgets? Does he or she drive a vehicle? What’s the landscape?”
Jackson Boucher and his father, Nathan, developed a hero who has a weakness for cold, so he lives in the jungle, where it is nice and warm.
Ninham told the group that it was important for key facts to complement each other.
“In the jungle, it’s warm, so if he’s going to go outside the jungle, that’s where he’s going to run into trouble,” Ninham said. “That will make for an interesting story.”
Sheila Raddant, who brought her daughter, Ashley, to the literacy night, said they spent a lot of time developing their character’s attributes, such as being super strong and having winged shoes, but almost forgot one detail until just before the writing began — the character’s name.
“I’m glad that Levan saved the day,” Raddant said, reading from the story.
Writing tends to be one of the more difficult subjects in the classroom, according to Ninham, because although parents work with their children on developing reading skills and math facts, writing is not always seen as a group project.
“It’s so abstract. It’s not something very concrete, and a lot of times (in school) you’re asked to write about things that you don’t find yourself interested in,” Ninham said. “To get kids to buy in, it’s good to have creative writing.”
Olga Brener is looking at doing at least one more literacy night before the end of the school year, and Ninham is looking at possibly combining reading and writing.
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