Evidence:  Response to Article #2 : Session 5 [Part]

Mining for Gems: The Making of Readers and Writers

by Pat Thomas

This article was a teacher’s personal experience of developing readers and writers that were “stimulated by language: enjoying it and recognizing the power it held.”  In her class, “gems” were a “word, phrase, or sentence that is particularly remarkable or moving.”  She began by sharing some ‘gems’ she found in her own personal reading.  She encouraged the students to find ‘gems’ also and record them in their own “gem journal”.  Once they were finding and sharing gems, she encouraged them to begin writing their own gems.  They were even allowed to use someone else’s gem as long as they gave credit.  The students were on fire with mining for gems and using them to best convey their meaning.  Their writing process was improved greatly with the use of the computer lab during their writing period.  By the end of the year, the teacher felt the students wrote stories and poetry better than adult authors.  “Through an awareness of gems, the search to discover the joy, wonder, and power of language took on a life of its own that will become a framework for the future.”