First Impressions of the BWC

Upon arriving at Ridgeway last Thursday morning one of the first things that caught my attention was the number of boys that approached us (Mary, Principle Tilley, and myself), asking excitedly if the Boy Writers Club was going to meet that day.  Clearly, they were looking forward to it and considered it a fun activity, if not a privilege.

On day one we conducted a pre-VTS assessment with the boys which involved asking them to look at a picture (“A Meeting, 1884” by Maria Bashkirtseff) and respond to the big 3 questions in writing.  Then, using the VTS scoring rubric, I analyzed their writing and tallied up their use of adjectives, conditional language, evidenced assertions, etc.  Responses were most imaginative and varied greatly, but one of the more interesting things I noticed was that several of the boys identified the tallest boy in the picture as an adult which clearly impacted their perceptions about "what is going on in this picture".   At least two of them identified him as a mail man and a couple of others asserted that he sells newspapers or delivers telegrams.  Others who simply generalized that he was an adult asserted that he was directing or instructing the other boys in some way.  The pervasiveness of this idea surprised me because from my point of view, the tallest boy, although he is probably the oldest and perhaps the ringleader of the bunch, is still very much a child.  I do think there may be some muddling of the responses because some of the boys wanted to talk and share their observations during the exercise.  This is evident in that some of the boys who were seated at the same table made very similar observations, however, the identification of the oldest boy as an adult seems to come autonomously from several different groups.  This says a great deal about the importance of gaze when viewing a work and how factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, etc. can significantly alter what one sees in a piece.

The boys did a great job participating in the VTS discussion that followed.  I think we heard at least one comment from everyone.  Since the image we looked at depicted a scene from Treasure Island, the boys then illustrated a treasure map on the outside of a folder that will hold their work for the rest of the semester.  I am always impressed with the creativity that comes out during activities like these and the sheer abandon with which many of them execute their ideas.  I admire how playful their process is and how little they hesitate or fret over making "mistakes".  This tells me that the boys feel safe and secure in this space and in this group, which is especially important for prompting the richest VTS discussions.  Looking forward to tomorrow's session!