Stories Are Not for Sale

In her latest blog for The Huffington Post, LitWorld's Founder, Pam Allyn, addresses the importance of integrity in the humanitarian field. She stands in fierce opposition to activists, foundations, journalists and non-profits who claim that manipulating individual stories is okay when it "helps" people. Sharing inauthentic stories is never okay. At LitWorld we take a tremendous amount of care with the authenticity of stories and storytelling. We cherish those stories, and we protect and defend them. The truth in them is the beacon of hope that every child has. Taking that away harms all the work that non-profits do and puts at risk all the true stories that need to be told.

Please read and share Pam's piece: http://huff.to/1v5t5sz.

5 Ways to Use Technology for Family Storytelling

Technology has dramatically changed the way we communicate, create and collaborate with each other. It makes our world more connected and amplifies individual stories. And yet keeping up with the latest apps and gadgets and learning how to use them can feel intimidating and overwhelming. One of the things we love the most about technology and the digital age is that it encourages us all to be curious, forever learners. Embracing technology and experimenting with new devices and platforms in your home makes you and your child co-learners. It is okay not to know everything. It is liberating for your child to see you as both a learner and a teacher and above all an open-minded explorer. Here are five ways to use technology for family storytelling.

1. Make visual literacy meaningful.

Learning how to tell a story through a photo, and how to see the story within a photo is an important part of literacy. A fun way to incorporate visual literacy and technology is to use some of the great photo sharing apps to give out positive affirmation. LitWorld's Story21 Family LitClub uses 23snaps to express love and praise within families. Every week families take portraits of each member and caption the photo with one nice thing about that person or one thing they did well that week. At the end of the program we'll be printing photo books of their pictures and writing using the app. It is important to publish and celebrate the artistry and thoughtful work you are doing as a family, and the photo book captures precious moments in your family's narrative.

2. Decide what you stand for.

At LitWorld we are constantly thinking about our mission statement and core values. What are we "for"? What change do we want to see in the world and what practices and mindsets define who we are as an organization? This practice is a valuable exercise to do as a family. Defining together what you value and believe in is an important process to go through as a family. Your resulting mission statement or core values will provide touchstones for your child as he navigates the world.

A great app that we've found for this type of activity is CloudArt. It's an app for making word clouds and for brainstorming. Use it to think together about a concept or big idea. We have found that this visual way of writing really brings kids with varied interests, strengths and needs together. Start by making a family word cloud about each of your core values. This way each family member can share their personal understanding of every value. Don't forget to come back to these word clouds regularly to review, revise and to talk about the specific ways that everyone is exemplifying the core value.

3. Collect and share inspiration.

The internet gives us the extraordinary opportunity to learn from people around the world and to benefit from their experiences, creations, and wonderings. Of course it is also an opportunity to share our own inspiration and ideas out into the world. Pinterest is a great way to curate all of this inspiration. If you're unfamiliar with this platform, it is a website that allows you to create digital bulletin boards by "pinning" images, quotes, articles and more to your personal Pinterest page.

Open a family account and create some categories together that you will "pin" artifacts to as you come across them. For example, you may choose to make inspiration boards titled, "Places we want to explore;" "Things that make us laugh;" "Books we love;" "People we care about." Make sure you come together as a family regularly to review new additions to each board so that you and your child can share what it was about a particular quote or image that inspired you to pin it to a particular board.

4. Imagine and create together.

Not all family storytelling has to be non-fiction. Writing together is a wonderful way to explore curiosities and to learn about each member's creative process. Of course the stories you create can be based on real experiences, but they do not have to be. There are some great apps that can structure the writing process and bring your stories to life. We love Toontastic, an app we've used in our Story21 program to write superhero stories, and stories of friendship. This app teaches elements of story (character, setting, plot, build, resolution, mood/tone) in a really fun way. Once you finish recording and creating your story, you can play it as a movie too.

We also love Scribble My Story, which is a storybook creating app. The families of our Story21 program appreciate the freedom the app gives them to create whatever they can think up. It's also great to use with younger children because it has story templates where children can add elements to a pre-written story such as key words and their own illustrations.

5. Go offline. 

Technology and the internet do not have to be synonymous. While it's wonderful that we have the power to share everything that we create, not everything belongs online. Use a video camera (or your iPhone or tablet) to record family interviews. Have each member take time to think about the questions that they are really curious about and then hit record. Make it truly inter-generational by involving grandparents, great-aunts and even lifelong family friends. Have a private viewing party and debrief afterwards by talking about what was the most surprising thing that each family member learned, and what their favorite and least favorite part about the experience was.

Remembering A Beloved Friend of LitWorld

At LitWorld we are privileged to be surrounded by extraordinary girls and boys, women and men. These individuals inspire us and it is an honor to work hand-in-hand to create a future where every child has a safe space to learn. One of these passionate and compassionate kindred spirits that we had the absolute honor to know and to love was Elinor Ratner and last week we were saddened to learn of her passing. 

Elinor was a member of LitWorld's Advisory Council and a founding member of our Gala Committee. We join with our extended LitWorld family to celebrate Elinor and all she accomplished in her 94 years. We will forever remember this inspiring, generous and fiery woman through her daily embodiment of LitWorld's guiding principles, our 7 Strengths.

Elinor Ratner (third from left) at the LitWorld Gala 2013 celebrating with members of the LitWorld team and Gala Committee.

5 Ways to Make Reading & Writing Poetry a Favorite Family Activity

Anyone who has had the pleasure of chatting with a toddler knows that from the earliest age children are natural poets who make creative, hilarious and curious observations about their surroundings. But when it comes to reading aloud or choosing books to take on vacation, poetry is often overlooked. Poetry often gets falsely labeled as too abstract or hard to decipher. In reality, poetry is all around us, and there is a reason that Dr. Seuss books have been a staple in every household for decades. Here are five ways to make poetry a favorite family activity.

1. Read, sing and recite aloud. Repeat.

Poems are ideal candidates for your daily read aloud or singalong. (In fact, songs are poetry.) The rhythm and cadence of poetry is so pleasing to the ear and these patterns make it easy for your child to remember and recite. Make reading a poem before dinner - or another time of day when you are all gathered - a family ritual. Dip your toes in the water by reading a poem that you already love or read out the lyrics to a favorite song. From there explore new poets that you have never read. Ask family, friends, teachers and your local librarian for more suggestions.

Through reading aloud your child is able to read above his independent reading level. Guide your child to appreciate the beauty of the language by reading the poem more than once, and by asking questions and sharing your own ideas and observations. For example, "Why do you think the author wrote this poem?" "What do you picture in your head when you hear this poem? Why?" "I love the way the author compares thunder to a grumpy old man."

2. It's not a crime if it doesn't rhyme.

Children often resist writing because it feels cumbersome to play within the rules of grammar or other conventions of English. At the same time, some children clam up when it comes to poetry because they think it all has to rhyme, and that can feel intimidating too! Liberate your child from these fears by explaining that poems come in all shapes and sizes. Some have unique structures, but some are simply free verse where anything goes! Explain that the most important thing is to communicate an idea, feeling, observation or memory with the reader of their poem. It is a powerful feeling to be in full control of how  you will say exactly what you want to say. Reluctant writers often thrive when they are introduced to poetry. Encourage your child to try on all the different types of poems - haiku, limerick, acrostic, rhyming couplet - to see which feels good for them. Celebrate every poem that is written.

3. Be a poetry collective.

One of our LitWorld LitClubs is an intergenerational group that brings together young boys in foster care and elders of the Hebrew Home for the Aged. They meet once a month to document their shared experiences through poetry. The poems they have written together are always moving and honest and weave together into something beautiful every time. You can create the same experience at home by starting with a simple prompt and having each member of your family respond to the prompt either out loud or written on a shared piece of paper. If you choose to answer out loud, make sure someone is designated as a recorder so that when you have all added your line to the poem you can hear the finished piece. You may choose to go around the circle multiple times to end up with a longer poem.

Some sample prompts could be:

I have the courage to...

I wonder why...

I wish I could...

I am... (Try asking everyone to respond to this using a common theme - you could each compare yourself to an animal or a color and give a simple, short explanation for the choice.)

4. Start with what you know.

Sometimes reluctant poets will find it easier to do a "found poetry" exercise to get their words flowing. Gather your family together and choose a topic to do a free write about for specific amount of time, usually between 2-5 minutes. Take turns picking the topic and try using family photos as prompts as well, asking everyone to write down their memory from that moment. When time is up you can take a few minutes to share what you have written. Next each member should go back and reread what they have written, underlining the words or groups of words that stand out. Rewrite all of the underlined words to form a poem and share out loud with each other.

5. Make an anthology

Honor the beautiful poetry your family is creating by curating it into a published anthology accompanied with photos or illustrations. This can be a traditional scrapbook or journal or a digital anthology. There are many great apps and companies that will allow you to layout the design of a photo book or scrapbook and will mail you a print version. Make your child the lead designer of the anthology. She may choose a specific theme or keep it more general. Introduce the idea of the anthology early on so that the process of writing poems and the process of documenting those poems can inspire each other.

This post is part of an ongoing summer reading and writing series. Check back often for more tips to make this a season of stories.

How to Use Your Child's Reading Identity to Transform Summer Reading

We love to doing and practicing the things that we love. It is that simple. The path to lifelong readership starts by figuring out who you are as a reader. Make this summer rich with reading experiences and memories by centering reading around your child's interests, wonderings and passions. Here are five ways to transform summer reading by focusing on your child's reading identity.

1. Start with what makes your child light up with excitement.

Pay attention to the books your child talks about and wants to read again and again. Do they have rich illustrations? Are they written poetically? Are they about a certain subject? Are they part of a series? Use this information to find similar books. Ask your child's teacher, or your local librarian or book store for recommendations based on the books that have resonated with your child. If you are on Twitter, you can also tweet questions to teacher-librarians who love to answer book related queries. Try @MrSchuReads or @ShannonMMiller.

In addition to honoring books your child has cherished in the past, make summer about exploration. Ask your child to write a list called "The Top 5 Things I Want to Know More About Right Now." Use this list to find interesting fiction and non-fiction books, articles and blog posts to satisfy these natural curiosities.
 

2. Share the love.
 

Put your child in the "expert's" seat by sharing out mini reviews of the books he couldn't put down this summer. It's fun to recommend books to others and to feel like part of a reading community. If a family member, friend or another child in the world does read the book, make sure you facilitate a discussion about the book afterwards so you child can practice talking about text. Questions like "who was your favorite character?" Or "what was the most exciting part of the book?" are great jumping off points. As you child sees the joy that others get out of his recommendations, he will continue to curate more suggestions and to seek out recommendations from fellow readers.
 

There are some great online forums for review writing and book sharing. Try Biblionasium and Goodreads, and of course make sure you child is registered for the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge so that he can log reading minutes and share his reading progress with his "audience!"
 

3. Make new friends, but keep the old.
 

Build lasting, visceral summer reading memories by re-reading old favorites again and again. Often parents fear that a gravitation towards well tread books means their child is failing to branch out. Actually, re-reading is a great way to practice close reading. Each time your child reads the text they will uncover new nuances and descriptions that they may not have noticed the first time. It is a great way to build fluency and stamina and confidence as a reader. Be part of the re-reading by honoring the attachment your child feels to a particular book. Make it the center of a family tradition. Each summer your child will look forward to her summer reading because of the loving memories you have created together.

4. Be a genuine reading role model.

So much of the reading we do can be invisible to a child. Make it a point to share what you are reading with your child. From a daily blog to an article about your local baseball team, share what you learn from the text you read, and share what you love about your reading habits. At the same time, be honest about what you are reading, don't just focus on the "classics" and don't only focus on positive reading experiences. It is very powerful for your child to understand that it's okay not to like everything they read, that even you do not enjoy every book you pick up. Give them the authority to stop reading a book part way through if they truly don't like it. It's much better for your child to build positive reading experiences rather than struggling through a text that doesn't resonate with him for the sake of reading cover to cover. Explain that as readers have full control of what we read and how we read it. We may read start to finish, or we may read only certain chapter, anything goes!
 

5. Bring books to life.
 

Extend good reading experiences by taking reading inspired field trips together, or creating projects based on favorite books. Has your daughter just finished Harriet the Spy? Make a tomato sandwich picnic and have spy lunch at a park. Bring blank journals to decorate and people-watch to inspire a first "spy" entry. Project-based learning also pairs well with non-fiction text. Go back to your child's list of curiosities and use these subjects to think of ways to pair reading with hands-on learning. If cooking is on the list, take out a great recipe book and make your child head chef for a day. If a certain profession is on the list, in addition to taking out books from the library, call friends or family members to see if they know someone that your child could interview or job shadow for a morning.
 

Enjoy making warm summer reading memories and check the LitWorld blog often this summer for ongoing reading and writing tips.

#BringBackOurGirls An Urgent Call to Action

The kidnapping of the Nigerian schoolgirls is a crisis of our humanity. What will become of us if half of humanity is not fully safe, empowered and free? We will all perish. Let us begin to repair the world today.

In her latest piece for The Huffington Post, LitWorld Founder Pam Allyn answers the question weighing heavily on all of our minds: What actions can we take to stop catastrophic attacks on women and girls?

Read the full piece here and join the rally for our world's girls on Twitter using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

LitWorld Featured on CNN and Al Jazeera Live

LitWorld messages and innovations are spreading around the world. With the recent abduction of over 250 girls from a classroom in Chibok, Nigeria, spreading our mobile and nimble programs is more urgent than ever. Literacy and access to a safe education are fundamental and foundational human rights that break the cycle of extreme poverty and guarantee better health and livelihood outcomes for girls and boys. LitClubs harness the transformational power of story. Children who understand their own stories and who are exposed to the stories of others build empathy, compassion and leaders who understand that their words have power to change the world.

LitWorld's Executive Director, Pam Allyn, was recently interviewed by CNN International and Al Jazeera Live to talk about the global learning crisis and to explain how we can tell a new story for our world's children, and how they in turn will tell a new story for our world. Watch the interviews below.

Uploaded by litworld on 2014-05-06.

Uploaded by litworld on 2014-05-06.