At a critical juncture for the future of children’s literacy — as reading for pleasure has declined nationwide and access to school libraries has been made more difficult by reduced funding — comes a national writing project supporting the next generation of aspiring writers. The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance has launched “Empowering Young Writers,” a series of slideshows and teaching materials — selected from more than 500 children’s books — that demonstrate various writing elements and techniques for students in fourth through ninth grades. The online tools, available for free, are designed to help educators, librarians and parents as students return to school this year.
Speak your language
The Empowering Young Writers initiative grew out of Mary Brigid Barrett’s experience as a creative writing instructor. In addition to serving as president and CEO of NCBLA, the author and illustrator spent over 20 years reading and evaluating thousands of stories from elementary and middle school students, which proved to be eye-opening. “Schools in poverty-stricken communities often don’t have access to the same writing instructional materials as those in affluent communities,” she said PW“I’ve learned that teachers, especially elementary school teachers, are very interested in learning more about how they can help their students develop better writing skills.”
Barrett also witnessed how, for today’s students, storytelling on screen trumps reading print books. Her concern about declining skills—namely, children’s inability to express their observations in writing—led her to take action and develop a slideshow to show NCBLA board members. With their approval, Barrett and her dedicated team—led by NCBLA Vice President and founding board member Katherine Paterson, who funded the entire project; Assistant Director Geri Eddins, who managed website content, electronic publishing, and permission requests; and Annisha Jeffries, children’s librarian and director of the Cleveland Public Library’s youth department, who served as literature and diversity consultant—got to work.
Barrett, who handled all research and outreach, began assembling the images and book excerpts for all 26 slides. The materials were selected with a focus on diversity of subject matter, as well as a range of geographic settings, socioeconomic conditions, and book genres. The Empowering Young Writers toolkit also includes pedagogical guides to enhance classroom content. Writing concepts are organized into five categories: writing tools, story foundations, characters, plot, and setting, each with guided activities and thematic prompts.
Each of the works shown in the slides required more than 18 months of solicitation for permission under Eddins’ direction. NCBLA publications editor Karen Lotz (Publishing Director-at-Large at Candlewick) and publications agent Ginger Knowlton of Curtis Brown, Ltd. also assisted with the time-consuming process, which involved obtaining permission from publishers and, in some cases, contacting the authors and illustrators themselves.
Barrett commissioned James Ransome to use his artwork in Grandfather’s turn in Writers’ Tools: Your Five Senses, and Jack Wong for his illustrations from If you can swim to incorporate it into a slide about developing a sense of wonder. “We had a nice email exchange … He expressed his admiration for our work and I was able to thank him for writing a book that helps kids love water and swimming,” she said.
The publishers granted five years of permission to access the featured works, which are promoted through organizations such as the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. Their efforts couldn’t come at a better time, Barrett said. He pointed to a recent survey by Scholastic that found that the willingness to read for pleasure steadily declines as children get older. This is most evident at age nine, and after that the number never recovers.
In addition, Barrett noted the important role school librarians play in getting books into children’s hands and educators in encouraging and nurturing aspiring writers. “Teaching young people to read and write and teaching them to understand how a story works – not just in books but in the media that surrounds them – teaches them to think and observe and evaluate and communicate what is important to them and their future,” she noted. “Reading books and writing fictional and nonfictional stories inspires their dreams and gives them the tools to make those dreams come true.”
This article has been updated.
