Mighty Writers

1. Mighty Writers A learning process by Kristina Kazanjian

2. Motivation to learn • One thing is clear that children strive when given task, we just must remember they are capable of completing those tasks. • Peter Levine believes that “young people respond well to being given responsibilities and opportunities to serve their communities” (126). • At Mighty Writers many of the students enjoy being able to create their own stories, and they even strive for improvement, and rejoice when improvement is achieved. I worked with a 5th grade boy who was upset because he revised his story and did not get a higher grade, this altered his mood for days. He was asked to revise again and add more detail with promises that he would receive a higher score. When he did this and resubmitted he did receive a higher score not only did he shout for joy and tell all of his friends, but his entire demeanor changed. Even though he was not serving the community he was given a task and told what his reward would be for completing the task; a higher score to show his peers.

3. Which students get reached and which students do not • Mighty Writers is an afterschool program, meaning the students there are students who’s parents have enrolled them in these programs, there are still many students who are not in this same position and never get to experience afterschool programs. These student who are not enrolled especially will not get the chance to interact with media in an educational realm. • Peter Levine notes that much of youth created media work and youth media focused programs are in an afterschool setting. He states however that it needs to migrate into actual school programs to reach these other students who are not in the afterschool programs. He goes on to state that community-based engagement and voluntary projects (like some afterschool programs) always draw a self-selected youth (128).

4. Different backgrounds = different ideas • When students come from different backgrounds it is easy to see a difference in their work. • When David Buckingham and Issy Harvey speak about two videos made at VideoCulture, they compare the differences in theme and media language. Even though both groups had the same task with the same theme each piece was vastly different in subject, meaning, and appearance. The stated that: • “Differences might be traced to the social and cultural differences between their producers” (179).

5. Different Background = Different Ideas • At Mighty Writers this was very easy to see especially when looking and comparing stories written by various students. • Depending on the age group students are assigned a specific type of story with broad guidelines. Obviously each story varies but some vary more then others. • Kesarah a 13 year old girl I work with was beginning to write her story about role models. I had worked with other students on this assignment and most were written about family members, teachers, or mentors. Kesarah role model was Ron Paul the politician, and went on to list her reasons, he did not follow others, he did not believe in the current government, and he is smart. She had examples to back up her statements. I was astonished even after knowing and working with her for a few weeks. Why was Kesarah’s paper so different from the others? I am not completely sure, but I can confidently say it is because she is much different from the other students. She is homeschooled along with her sister, not only that but I believe they come from a higher social economic class then the other students. Kesarah’s influences and personal interactions differ from the other students, which is why I think their work is so drastically different as well.

6. The audience • Both Peter Levine, David Buckingham and Issy Harvey strongly believe that youth produced media needs an audience and a real audience with real feedback. They believe this is important for the students reflection and growth. Not only does it add to their learning experience but it also gives them a motivation. If they have an audience then they can actually have their voice heard while expressing their opinions and beliefs. • “One important motivator is the belief that one can reach other people: an audience…But others may be more interested in finding a responsive audience that provides comments and feedback; or they may seek a politically relevant audience that can act in response to their media” (129).

7. The audience at mighty writers • The audience at Mighty Writers are the writhers at Mighty Writers and the adults who work, intern and volunteer there. This audience does create motivation to an extent. Students’ writing pieces are posted on the walls so that they can read each others work, and small booklets are usually made for some of the workshops. However this audience is not an active or vocal audience. Students do not reflect on their peers work nor are the even required to read their peers work. I believe reflection and discussion like Levine, Harvey and Buckingham suggested would be beneficial for all students. Also I feel as though Mighty Writers should team up with other afterschool programs with similarities and once a month or once every other month bring all the students together and have them share their work with new faces.