Page 39 - MY Book - My Voice

with a thin black drawing-pen. In between the drawings the children could write, if they wanted, about their life living on the beach. In the end, the paper was folded into an accordion and glued into a book cover. The children wrote a title for the book and their name at the front cover.All the children got engaged in drawing. They concentrated and worked hard to make detailed studies of sh and trees. The children who chose also to write, wrote about shing, preparing sh and eating sh.The goal for the writing-exercises is to write to express and to communicate, to enhance the joy of writing. Many of the children had poor spelling, and some of the children could not write at all. In the workshops, we never comment on the spelling or handwriting. That would be to break the deal, that there is no right or wrong in this workshop; it is all about expressing yourself within the limits given.After the workshop, the children rushed o to prepare for exam at school the next day. My thoughts goes to those children who couldn`t write at all and were heading o to the o cial exam of 6th grade.Many of the children have bad experiences from school and get little or no help in doing homework from their parents. The hope is that workshops like these can broaden the perception of what a book might be: something personal and relevant, and that this can incite motivation and interest in learning.I became curious and hoped to be able to visit one of the children at home, to learn more about their living conditions.37