National Day of Writing is Celebrated
As far as reasons to celebrate, this one might seem slightly odd, but not to the English teachers and their devoted students at Huntington High School. The department celebrated National Day of Writing last week with and assortment of classroom activities.
The event’s planning committee included freshmen Colin Kirkpatrick, Samantha Levine, and Jaime Moskowitz. The teenagers worked with Kelly Quintero-Lashley, a high school English teacher and the humanities coordinator at the school, to create a program capturing the importance of writing in everyday lives.
Classroom activities included creative writing, memoir and read-alouds. “There were also drop-in sessions during the lunch periods where students composed both poetry and prose,” Mrs. Quintero-Lashley said. “Students were also engaged in meaningful conversations about the changing nature of writing in this age of abbreviated text messaging, blogs, e-mail, political sound bites, and Twitter.”
The teenagers also discussed the politicization of writing, media tools and literacy. Earlier this month Congress passed a resolution supporting the designation of October 20 as the National Day of Writing. “The language of this document mentions the role of writing in building a global economy and community, as well as the role of young people as leaders in ‘developing new forms of composing by using different forms of digital media,’” Mrs. Quintero-Lashley said.
Participants were challenged to recognize their pioneering roles as writers in this, the digital age. This year’s organizing committee “plans to hold National Day of Writing events every year in October,” Mrs. Quintero-Lashley said.
Huntington’s English Honor Society, led by its President Colleen Teubner, aided in planning for the successful event, which was a welcome change of pace for high school students.
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