Last semester in my literacy studies class, I asked my students to create literacy autobiographies using Glogster. This semester I’m having students in my writing from children’s literature class write a literacy autobiography, but I decided to have them brainstorm in four ways.
- First, they created a literacy lifeline–to help them think about their literacy development. I used dipity to create my lifeline and to give them a model. I really liked this application and will definitely use it again.
- Second, I asked them to do a six word story to get at the problem/trouble/conflict they thought would be at the heart of their narrative. Some of them had felt overwhelmed by how big the project was so they really liked trying to reduce it into just a few words.
- Third, I asked students to create a Glogster that included at least 6 moments related to their central problem. They also shared their Glogsters with each other, and I think seeing the work others had done was helpful in thinking through their own literacy development.
- Fourth, I had students do a looping exercise to help them focus. I hadn’t intended to do the looping, but when many of them said they were still having trouble getting to the heart of their development, I decided that looping would help.
By the end of class Wednesday, my students seemed to feel comfortable about the fact that they needed to produce a rough draft in a week. Here’s hoping that all is going well with their writing.
And here are their literacy autobiographies:
