Yesterday I took a trip down to Freeport High School to visit with three different groups of students. The first group had around 60 tenth graders, most of whom were boys. My goal with them was to answer questions about what I do as an author, and then to workshop a couple of writing exercises with them. With so many students, I was really expecting it to be a challenge. What were the odds I could actually get all of them to write and then share what they had written?
The answer? Very good, it turns out.
They had a bunch of great questions they’d prepared ahead of time, and when it came time for writing, they all took to the prompts like a fish to water. I mean, I’ve taught freshmen in college for the past couple of years, and getting 20 of them to do a writing prompt and have it go off without a hitch can be a struggle. Yesterday? All of them were sitting quietly and writing. It was a great feeling. (They weren’t as keen as a group to actually share what they’d written with everyone, but I can totally understand that. Sharing your writing publicly can be very daunting. And some of them did share, and they did a great job.)
The second group was much smaller, and all I was doing was answering questions about writing and my work. It was with a group of students who are keen on writing and reading, and they had more than enough fodder to keep the conversation flowing for the whole time.
We finished off with a group of ESL students. Around 10-15 who are speaking English as their second, third, fourth, or even fifth language. Ideally, I wanted to run the same writing exercises with them, though I wasn’t sure how it would go. (For different reasons. I had no idea going into it how good their English was.) This class was fantastic, however. All of them were engaged, they all participated, they had a slew of great questions (unprepared ahead of time for me), and they all happily wrote for both prompts. Interestingly, they were much more eager to share what they’d written than the first group had been. That might be because it was a smaller group, or they were more comfortable with each other. (The first group was 2-3 classes meeting together as one.)
It was a great day. I’m always so encouraged when I walk away from these sessions. I know there’s a sentiment among some that the youth of today are [insert adjective here that’s not very flattering], but each time I work with them, I walk away upbeat and optimistic. They were kind, respectful, engaging, funny, and interested. What more can you ask?
Also, they gave me this awesome bedazzled copy of Vodnik as a thank you, which I thought was pretty epic. I’ve never seen a bedazzled book cover, and it worked great for the design of this one. Many thanks to the students, librarians, and teachers of Freeport High for having me out. I don’t get the chance to do it too often, and I always enjoy it when I do.
