Writing is Everywhere!

On Tuesday, October 20th, in honor of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) sponsored National Day on Writing, every classroom in my elementary school took a few minutes to make a list of all the different ways people use writing at home, at school, and in their jobs. The number of items the students named surprised everyone. Everything you read was written by someone. Writing is everywhere!

 

 

Going to the doctor requires filling out the medical form. Movie tickets have writing on them. Money has writing. Credit card slips require signatures. Many board games need writing to play. Writing is used for contracts, bowling scores, texting, e-mails, bulletin boards, grade books, phone numbers, labels, picture captions, scrapbooks, video games, letters, tests, journals, shopping lists, raffles. In one fifth grade class, I challenged the students to name an adult who didnt need to write. One student raised his hand to say, A homeless person doesn't need to write! Another student countered, What about the signs homeless people hold? As a class, we couldn't come up with an occupation that required no writing at all. Even in jobs that don't require much writing on a daily basis, you still have to fill out a job application to get hired.

My elementary school cited 85 separate examples of writing in everyday life in addition to books, magazines, and newspapers. I assembled all the classroom lists into one long scroll that was over thirty feet long. We unrolled it on our in-house television show and then posted it in the cafeteria. This short exercise highlighted an important point for our students to consider. Writing is not a talent reserved for those who grow up to be authors or journalists. It is an essential skill for a successful life. And in our digital age, when more and more business is being conducted via e-mail rather than on the phone, the ability to effectively communicate in written form becomes even more important.

NCTE launched a National Day on Writing Day to draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing in our society. On their website, they established a National Gallery of Writing where students and adults from all over the country are encouraged to submit their writing. The goal is to have 100,000 pieces in the galleries by June of 2010. Visit this impressive project and consider submitting your own writing and the work of your students.

Jacqueline Jules, author, poet, teacher, librarian.
http://www.jacquelinejules.com/