WWW: Lining Up Your Family's Story

Good News: The Word is out that this coming Friday, November 1 is National Family Literacy Day.
(If it hasn't reached you yet, click here to read my Monday TeachingAuthors post.)
Even Better News: all of November celebrates Family Literacy.

What better way to celebrate (1) families, (2) reading and (3) writing than to celebrate families actively reading and writing together?!

Parents and grandparents, educators, librarians, state Centers for the Book and booksellers are doing just that in this event the National Center for Family Literacy has sponsored since 1994.

All sorts of ongoing activities accommodate the Reading Together part: Read-a-thons, Read-alouds, Reading Exchanges, even Reading Recordings.

And all sorts of ongoing activities accommodate the Writing Together part, many of which feature the collective telling of a family’s story.

Of course, each of our family stories is unique, with its own cast of characters in a variety of settings over a known period of time, its multitude of memorable scenes lovingly realized (think occasions, celebrations, life-and-death events, seminal moments, ups-and-downs and benchmarks.)

Just as unique are the possible ways to tell our family stories.
Picture albums.
Scrapbooks.
Even diaries and journals.
Family trees.
Geneology travels.
My August 23 TeachingAuthors post about Story Corps
offers links to question generators storytellers can use when interviewing family members.
It also notes the November 29 day-after-Thanksgiving National Day of Listening, when family stories are shared.

It was Facebook’s newest profile offering – Timeline – that got me thinking.

Why not limn our family’s stories, using the time-honored learning tool we first learned in Kindergarten and fine-tuned as we worked our way to and through high school: the time-line!

(For images of time-line possibilities, click here.)

Enjoy! Enjoy!

Esther Hershenhorn

                                             * * * * * * *
 

Creating a Family Time-line

Limning your family’s story involves focus, thoughtful questions and organization.

(1)   Define and know the family you’re limning.

       
            Immediate?
            Extended?
           Ancestral?
           Communal?
           Professional?
           Religious?
           Educational?
           Collegiate?
           Writers?
           Fill-in-the-blank.

(2)  Choose your cast of characters.

(3)  Consider and boundary the time-line’s beginning and end.

(4)   Choose your Focus.

Family history?

            Family travels?
            Family accomplishments?
            Family Smiles and Tears?
            Comings and Goings?
            All of the above?
            Fill-in-the-blank.

(5)  Choose events that show action that supports the focus and thus  TELLS A STORY.  (Think scenes that build; think plot.)

       Possibilities to consider:
             Life-and-death events
             Occasions
             Celebrations
             Landmarks
             Benchmarks
             Seminal Moments
             Highs and Lows
             Ups and Downs
             Travels
             Unforgettable Moments
             Actions/Consequences
             Wins and Losses

(6)  Choose how you will represent the markings.
   
              Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down
              Photographs
              Stick figures
              Text bubbles
              Color-code
              The sky’s the limit!

(7)  Align your concrete details vertically, horizontally, diagonally, however-you-choose!

Have fun! Imprint your style!  The more hands and heads and hearts involved, the merrier the process, the truer the story.

And, who’s to say you cannot complete this exercise to immerse yourself in the lives of your fictional characters?   J  

Note:

For those teachers needing a tried-and-true easy-to-follow classroom activity, click here for Portland, Oregon teacher Jaime R. Wood’s offering.

 

Families that Read and Write Together_______? Fill in the blank!

All sorts of delicious treats (and maybe even tricks) await children and their families on the other side of midnight this Thursday, thanks to National Family Literacy Day November 1.
Think: treats for the mind and heart, anytime, all the time.

Sponsored by the National Center for Family Literacy, the day has been celebrated since 1994.

Indeed the entire month of November celebrates Family Literacy.

Statistics show:

(1) Children whose parents regularly read to them during their first year of school make better grades in high school.
(2) Children who grow up in homes with lots of books tend to go further in school.
(3) Children learn from 4,000 to 12,000 new words each year as a result of reading books.

How’s that for facts to help fill in the blank of this post’s title?

All across the country, folks are booking family reading time.

Family members are reading to each other – in their homes, in cars, on planes, trains and busses.
Thanks to state Centers for the Book, public libraries, schools and bookstores, families are participating in read-a-thons and read-alouds.
(For specific school Family Literacy Night ideas, check out ProTeachers.)

As for bookstore celebrations, this Saturday, November 2, my Writers Family – The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators – launches the Inside Story event at independent bookstores around the world.
I’m honored to be joining fellow SCBWI-Illinois members Gina Bellisario, Marlene Targ Brill, Jeff Ebbeler, Dimitri Lunetta, Kevin Luthardt and Aaron Reynolds at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville to share the “inside stories” of our latest books.

Click here to read the list of participating bookstores in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia – and – in the U.S., in Washington, California, New Mexico, Utah, Florida and Massachusetts.

SCBWI’s Inside Story event is yet another opportunity for families to celebrate literacy.

But even better, it’s also an opportunity to support literacy. 
For this first-time-ever bookstore event, SCBWI is partnering with First Book, the nonprofit organization that connects book publishers and community organizations to provide access to new books for children in need. 
For each book purchased during the Inside Story event, the bookstore will donate $1 to First Book.


                                                
What does this effort mean for the millions of children who receive their first books from First Books?
I’m happy to fill in that blank with the recipients’ words.

“Books are better than Recess,” says Briana, who received new books from First Book – Monroe County.

“Thank you for the books. I like to read. I like to keep the books,” says Jonathan Evans.

Gracie says, “I like the library, but I love the books I get at Circles because those are mind to keep forever.”

So, once you tweak your Halloween costume and ready your Treats,

flip to your November calendar,
scan any and all bookshelves,
choose your venue
and
book your Family’s Reading Time.

Happy Reading and Writing, Family-style!

Esther Hershenhorn