Creative writing binds Lourdes and Judge students

Friday, May. 16, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — Students in grades 9-12 from Judge Memorial Catholic High School’s creative writing class showcased their literary works to students at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School.  The partnership between the two schools benefits both groups of students by fostering a love for reading and writing.

The Judge Memorial students, taught by English teacher Linda Simpson, learned the specifics about writing for children, fine-tuned their writing skills and used their imaginations to take their individual  idea from creative vision to reality and “published” a children’s story.  Complete with illustrations, stories such as Owen the Otter in Overalls by Anna Bartholomew, Sick Day by Milo Garcia, The Brass Child by Sisi Ganellen and many others were read aloud by the high school authors to Lourdes students in kindergarten and first grade.

“I believe students need to learn to write with an audience in mind and to share their writing with others,” said Simpson.  “The combination, and love of children’s literature, led me searching out ideas for bringing all this together.”

For Lourdes emerging readers and writers, the far-reaching effects, beyond the excitement of being in the same room with “the big kids from Judge,” were huge. It was meaningful for them to have the high school students demonstrate and model their reading and writing efforts.

“Reading affects writing and writing affects reading,” said Sue Patillo, Our Lady of Lourdes reading specialist.  “These two things taught together result in significant gains in both areas.”  

As one first-grader said, “I am writing a book just like Philip!”

Kindergarten teacher Agatha Maxwell said, “It’s something for our students to look forward to and know why they need to work hard.”

Kindergarten student Misael Batalla said she really liked  the experience, and “their pictures were really good. They did a lot of hard work.”

The collaboration between the two schools “promotes a love of reading and writing for our younger students at Lourdes, while giving the Judge students a voice and a community to support their efforts,” said first-grade teacher Kathy Sandoval.  “It’s definitely a win-win!”