Literacy Matters - Winter 2020

have been attributed to students knowing that the writing activities had no impact on their academic grades and that the after-school program was less of a formal academic setting. Irvin, Meltzer, and Dukes (2007) note that for students to attain proficiency in literacy, they need to be motivated to participate in literacy-related tasks; and be eager to improve their skills in reading and writing. Research posits children who are more enthusiastic about learning are more willing to write and read new genres (Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall, &Tower, 2006). Additionally, children retain information by engaging in higher-order thinking with texts and are active in designing features of tasks when they are aware that an authentic audience will read their articles and listen to their presentations (Hiebert, 1994, p. 396). Duke et al. (2006) define authentic literacy tasks as “those that replicate or reflect reading and writing activities that occur in the lives of people outside of a learning-to-read- and-write context and purpose” (p. 346). Therefore, reading and writing activities that are authentic have to be those that serve communicative purposes or functions (Duke et al., 2006) and go beyond academic tasks that evaluate students through assignments and class exercises (Irvin et al., 2007). The organizers of the Magical Books after-school program focused on making writing enjoyable, meaningful, and authentic for participants in the Literacy Club and the Friends and Fun Club . The following section describes the writing audience as well as the authentic literacy tasks students completed. Writing Audience The organizers wanted to present an experience to the Literacy Club and the Friends and Fun Club that included an author, newspaper readership, and a post office tour guide. Magical Books reached out to an American author named Kathy Brodsky. Kathy Brodsky writes children’s books addressing varied themes. Readers can learn from, connect to, and apply these themes to their lives. Due to Kathy Brodsky’s accessibility and writing style, Magical Books chose to work with her on this authentic literacy project. I met author Kathy Brodsky at the 2016 International Literacy Association Conference. At that time, she donated a copy of one of her books to Magical Books . She was willing to interact with participants via Skype. The Literacy Club This program was targeted at enhancing participants’ literacy and critical thinking skills. Five children between ages eight and fourteen participated in the first cohort of 2017. At one of the sessions, High Wire Act (Brodsky, 2015) was read aloud to the group. This was used as a mentor text to introduce them to the art of writing an informational piece. The High Wire Act (Brodsky, 2015), which emphasizes the importance of traffic lights, was suited for this type of writing because participants could see how the author wove a story around traffic lights. In this story, there was a strong wind that blew a traffic light off the wire, and this caused a commotion on a busy road. This made the character of the traffic light realize how important it was in helping people get to where they needed to be in the city. Other activities were connected to

with iRead Camp , a book club in a different state in Nigeria. Students took turns interacting with iRead Campers within their age group. Participants from both clubs shared books they were reading, their favorite subjects, and interesting facts about themselves. The children were engaged in these activities. Participants were more engaged in the activities organized at the Readers’ Fun Club because they were involved in the development of the program, and activities were centered around their interests. The organizers identified this as a major strength of the Readers’ Fun Club. The organizers built upon this strength and integrated experiential learning in the next iteration called Friends and Fun Club . Experiential learning through excursions was lacking in both the Literacy Club and the Readers’ Fun Club. This led to the introduction of the Friends and Fun Club. The Friends and Fun Club After Magical Books observed the impact of the Readers’ Fun Club on children’s engagement, the team decided to introduce Friends and Fun Club. From November to December, Magical Books planned exciting events for all members who had attended any past clubs. It was also open to new members . The November cohort consisted of eight new members and one previous member who were between ages five to nine-years- old. The December cohort consisted of five new members and five former members between ages four to thirteen-years-old. Activities emphasized bonding and learning with friends through enjoyable activities. These included going on field trips, participating in read-aloud sessions, writing, coloring, playing educational games, and interacting with an author via Skype. The Friends and Fun Club was also targeted toward a younger group of children starting at age four. These children had the opportunity to participate in enjoyable activities that were connected to authentic literacy. Participants were also excited to speak to an author for the first time and go on a field trip. The Literacy Club, Readers’ Fun Club, and the Friends and Fun Club were each designed to suit particular needs, which includes creating authentic literacy experiences, making learning enjoyable, and learning through field trips. Each iteration of the programs allowed us to improve on our content and adjust the clubs to support our students’ interests and needs. All the clubs had interesting and educational components. Albeit, we focus on two major clubs that embedded writing activities which connected students to an authentic audience: : Friends and Fun Club and the Literacy Club . Writing for Authentic Purposes at the After-School Club Writing is an important literacy skill; however, at the beginning of the Literacy Club program, it was observed that many children who came into the club did not enjoy participating in writing. The children showed little enthusiasm during writing activities. The children’s lack of enthusiasm was evident in their very short and incoherent writing documents turned in during the first two weeks of the program. This could

Reading Matters Writing Matters

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