A community writing project

Teaching Pre K-8, Nov/Dec 1999 by Llibre, April Love

Middle school writers have

a ready-made audience

in local businesses

Providing an audience for young writers can be a daunting task for a language arts teacher, but it's a most important one. A living, breathing audience can instill a desire for perfection in a writers heart. The problem often lies in finding that audience.

A community writing project provides the answer to that problem and also offers a way for a school to give back to the local business community. The business/school partnership is often incredibly one-sided, and giving a little something back is a very worthwhile endeavor.

The topic. For my eighth graders, this writing unit focuses on the descriptive essay. The subject of the essay is some person in our community whom the writer knows and admires. Each student works toward a four-- paragraph finished product which includes the requisite opening/ending sections and two body paragraphs.

In the body, the students practice elaborating with details that answer the question why, and they focus on delivering showing writing rather than telling writing.

By using language which shows, a good writer has the ability to describe things to his or her audience in a way that makes them see and think. The writer leads the audience through a piece of life that allows them to reach a conclusion on their own. For example:

The catch. The trick to getting the audience is that the 'topics" chosen by the students are employees at local businesses. Our community is rural, so the large-scale employers are obvious. We have facilities with big names like Duke Power, Schlumberger and Kendall. I list 11 businesses on my board as choices for my writers, with one fall-back business as selection number 12: our local supermarket. ("Okay, if you don't know any admirable person working in one of these 11 businesses, surely you know someone who shops at the supermarket.") The local hospital or nursing home is always an option too. If two students choose to write about the same person, that's fine. In my experience with this project, two essays about the same subject rarely say the exact same things.

When the choices are made, the writing begins. The writers are careful. They are keenly aware of the fact that this piece is going up on a wall somewhere instead of at the bottom of my overstuffed backpack in a to-be-graded folder.

We have three computers in each class, and my students usually seize the opportunity to type their final drafts for publication. After the essays are completed, I laminate company banners which bear the slogan Westminster Middle Reaches Out and the students' essays about the company's employees. By this time, our "subjects" have usually been tipped off by an excited writer/niece or writer/grandson, and the audience awaits.

I contact each company through its human resources division. Some companies have separate public relations offices to handle this sort of project. I explain the project, emphasizing that it's our way of saying thank you for all that the company does for our schools. I deliver the banner to the contact person, who displays the banner in the cafeteria for all the employees to enjoy.

The quirks. Delivery of each banner is a timeconsuming project. Our school's DARE officer volunteered to handle it for me. Principals may enjoy helping with the delivery of banners because it's great P.R.

Computer time for slow typists can hold up the creative process. This year I hope to team up with the computer science instructor so we can use the lab to shorten typing time in English classes. Teachers of younger writers may focus on handwritten paragraphs or a team venture with a high school keyboarding instructor for student typists/proofreaders.

A final snag can be that some businesses may have two cafeterias on site. In that case, I simply photocopy the essays and laminate two banners.

Set aside two weeks for this unit, and then witness the obvious excitement of your writers. They'll enjoy this project almost as much as the audience will. A real audience has a way of making a real writer.

April Love Llibre teaches eighth grade English at Westminster Middle School, Westminster, SC.