Literacy Matters - Winter 2020

this read-aloud session, these included a question and answer session with the author and a writing workshop (Magical Books, 2017). This helped participants as they wrote their informational pieces. Other writing activities included writing a thank you letter to the author Kathy Brodsky, and writing book reviews that were published in all the national Nigerian newspapers. There were several components of these sessions that the organizers felt had value. After the read-aloud session, participants wrote questions they intended to ask the author. This was followed by a surprise Skype visit from the author. Students were thrilled to be speaking to an author for the first time and to the author of a book they all enjoyed. Participants had the opportunity to ask their questions, listen to Kathy Brodsky read-aloud books of their choice, and give advice on how they could hone their writing skills. After this experience, participants wrote a thank you letter to Kathy Brodsky. This was sent to her from the organization’s email address. After reviewing their letters, it was noted that they had begun thinking about their writing piece. Following the reading of participants’ heartfelt letters, Kathy Brodsky was inspired to send a gift copy of all her books to the club.

participants at this session. The author wove the story of mail, recycling, and opportunities for change into an interesting read.

A significant part of the book centers around mail delivery. An envelope is used by a girl to post a letter. The girl writes her recipient’s address on the envelope, stamps it, and drops this envelope in a mailbox. The reader learns how the envelope travels from the little girl’s mailbox to her friend’s mailbox. Eventually, the envelope’s final destination is in a book after it is recycled. During this session, the organizers discovered that children had never posted a letter before or visited a post office. This could be due to the influx of technological devices and the relegation of other forms of traditional media to the background. At the session, children were informed about the difference between the United State Postal Service and the Nigerian Postal Service. After this read-aloud session, Magical Books planned a visit to a Nigerian Post Office so that the children could learn how the Nigerian Postal Service operated (Magical Books, 2017). As part of these sessions, writing activities were included as well. To attend the session at the post office, children were required to write letters to Kathy Brodsky. This letter-writing activity was aimed at preparing children mentally for a visit and also to ensure a meaningful and purposeful experience. During the post office tour, children posted their letters. Before the visit to the post office, event fliers were sent via email to the parents of the children. Some parents were concerned that their children, who were between ages four and seven, would have trouble writing letters. The parents also indicated their children did not know much about Kathy Brodsky. Magical Books allayed parents’ worries by providing a writing guideline and a letter-writing sample to support children through the writing process. Parents were also encouraged to support the younger group of participants where needed (see Appendix G). In addition, the organizers also provided them with a questionnaire which they completed as they researched about Kathy Brodsky (see Appendix H). The questionnaire included questions about the author. Children conducted research on the internet to learn more about the author. This exercise gave children background information about Kathy Brodsky, helped to place the writing activity in context, and supported them with the knowledge needed to flesh out their letter. Kathy Brodsky responded to each child’s letter by posting a handwritten letter to their postal mailbox. While the children were waiting for their letters to arrive at each child’s postal address, participants were eagerly checking their mailbox. At the end of the post office tour, children were required to write a thank you letter to the tour guide and a summary of their experience at the post office. This was an authentic and purposeful reason to write. The children were excited to communicate their thoughts through writing.

Reading Matters Writing Matters

Figure 1. A student’s copy of the thank you letter emailed to Kathy Brodsky after the video conferencing via Skype. Kathy Brodsky received thank you letters via email from all five members of the Literacy Club. A 12-year-old participant wrote the above letter .

During the Literacy Club, children wrote reviews of the new books sent by Kathy Brodsky. The experience with an authentic audience and the idea of having these reviews published in real newspapers motivated the writing of these reviews. In partnership with Kathy, their book reviews were published in all the major national newspapers in Nigeria:The Nigerian Tribune (Nigerian Tribune, 2017), The Guardian (Nwanne, 2017), The Nation (Ojo, 2017) and The Leadership (Abulude, 2017). Children were encouraged to write their own stories after the author visit. One of the participants had the opportunity to read her story on a pre-recorded TV program targeted at young readers. Although this program did not air, the whole process was exciting for her because she was eager to get feedback on her story, and she worked hard to fine-tune the piece. The Friends and Fun Club In November 2017, the organizers selected another book titled The Inside Story (Brodsky, 2009) to read aloud to the

Literacy Matters | Volume 20 • Winter 2020 | scira.org | 23

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