The purpose of the V.I. Writing Project Conference on Literacy held Monday was to improve writing in local schools, with participants given the tools to get students to enjoy writing.
"We want students to enjoy what they are doing," said Dureama Moorehead, presenter of Teaching Writing Through Poetry. Dianna Osborne, co-presenter with Moorehead, said the students’ writing should not be forced.
"Don’t put pressure on the student," Moorehead said. "Let them be creative, and write what they feel. Don’t say, ‘This is wrong or right.’"
The participants in the workshop paired off, were given pictures and then created and read their poems out loud.
Around 50 people involved in education attended the very first literacy conference held on the St. Croix campus of the University of the Virgin Islands. The theme was Building Literacy in an Age of Technology.
The V.I. Writing Project is a partnership between the National Writing Project, the Department of Education and UVI (all conference sponsors) to improve writing and learning and to connect reading, writing, critical thinking and research in classrooms.
Veronica Prescott, former teacher in the gifted-and-talented program of the Department of Education, presented a hands-on workshop on reading and writing with digital technology.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, children from 8 to 18 spend close to 45 hours a week watching TV, playing video games, instant messaging and listening to music online, Prescott said.
"Children love technology," she said. "With technology you will get their attention."
She told the participants to actively engage their students with music, videos and cameras. With cameras they can create picture books and stories, she said.
"Technology grows rapidly, so teach children for the future," Prescott said. "When they leave school, be sure they are prepared for the world."
She had participants break off into three small groups and listen to music, watch a video and look at artwork, then come up with a model lesson plan.
There were 11 different workshops held, such as The Beauty of the Book: Reading Books in an Era of Technological Breakthroughs and Interactive Writing: A Strong Start for Literacy.
Jacqueline Jones Royster, English professor at Ohio State University, was the keynote speaker. She said good things can happen with technology, but teachers need to know there is bad technology, too, and use tools wisely. Teachers need to know who their students are, where they live and the community they live in, thus creating a global agenda, Royster said.
"What she presented was very attractive to us," said Valerie Combie, director of the V.I. Writing Project. "It was an excellent presentation, with the participants fully engaged."
Daryl Richards, principal at Alfredo Andrews Elementary school, attended the conference along with six teachers from the school.
"It was great discussing strategies to get children interested in writing," Richards said. "Now we can access where they are and where we need to take them to write."
