Lately I’ve been so moved by my students’ life stories…I just began thinking that other people need to hear these stories. Their experiences are so far removed from my own… dropping out, going to jail, having babies, seeing friends die in gang-fights–all the stereotypical experiences mean very little until you hear about them in the unique voice of an individual child. As of right now, my students are on-track to reach “significant gains” in TFA lingo, meaning they will close the achievement gap by 20% when they take the state high stakes exam in early March so their writing has already come a long way and they’ll continue to grow. I was wondering… what if I wrote a grant to get their stories published in an anthology? It might increase their investment and give them some confidence. I’d really like to get some comments on this one… how-to’s, opinions, connections, suggestions–anything. What do you think?
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December 18, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Allison
That’s an awesome idea!!
I think everyone (sometimes secretly) wants their story to be heard, and that could be great motivation for them.
I’m not quite sure how you’d get them to focus on those stories that you mentioned…not sure if these are stories they just tell you because they’re par for the course and only worthy of an oh-btw as they’re leaving the classroom, or if they’re things that have already been written.
You might look into self-publishing. I know for me that’s something I can’t at this point ever see myself doing for something that I’ve written – but just from what I’ve heard of the publishing world, it takes a long time to get something published, and it seems like with this kind of project you wouldn’t want it to take years, you know? Or maybe go for a university publisher maybe through a uni that’s really involved in education?
I know someone online who works for a publisher – textbooks I think? She interned @ Random House too. She graduated this last year, so she’s pretty low on the totem pole, I think, but let me know if it would be helpful to get in touch with her…not really sure how (much) she would be able to help.
Really, the more I think about self-publishing, or doing something local like happened with Script (except I’m guessing it’d be a bit bigger than that). And depending on how it went etc, I mean you could print enough to sell at bookstores in Houston (and to your friends, of course lol), and then send some off to publishers which could lead to a bigger market?
Anyway, those are my thoughts now
Maybe some helpful, hopefully? 
December 21, 2009 at 12:24 am
Ryan
Hey Friend,
I think that’s an awesome idea. It seems like a perfect chance to try to give some voice to the voiceless, especially to kids who may feel as if their voice/life experiences don’t matter. I’m not sure exactly how you would do it, but my first thoughts would be to see if you could talk to a local, independent bookstore (like Auntie’s up here) who could maybe point you in the right direction as far as people in the know, connections etc. What about doing something online to get things started? Like a blog, where you post a different story each week? That may let you test the waters so to speak…
I’m joyed to here that your students are doing well, and subsequently that you are doing well. I hope you have a great few weeks off (sort of..). Miss you! Take care
keo