When: July 2016
Where: Allston, MA
Institution: Harvard Ed Portal
Facilitators: Trecia Reavis, and Karen Woodward-Massey
I had the privilege of working with Trecia Reavis and others facilitating a Pre-Texts workshop at the Harvard Ed Portal for five mornings in July 2016. We used the book “The Boy Who Loved Words” as inspiration for a wide variety of activities to help the learners unravel the meaning of the story. In the end, the students had created their own works of visual, performance, and three-dimensional art and literature inspired by the story.
The kids were K-2nd graders so there was a range of learning from pre-readers through youngsters who were easily able to read and even read out loud to others. It was a challenge to provide the right amount of attention to and boundaries for each of the kids. It was very satisfying to see kids who at first weren’t interested in a project make it their own. Some had a hard time getting started and needed to be told they didn’t have to be perfect, that anything they did would be great because they, the learner, did it. Also, some of the learners were just beginning to recognize letters or make sentences and needed someone to help them get started and/or write a sentence down that they made up. Once they created a sentence and were helped by the facilitator and/or a more advanced reader, they started creating more and more sentences and really got interested in writing!
More photos and information here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/culturalagentsharvard/albums/72157672228288305