Journal 8

To collaborate means to work together with others to complete a project or to work on an activity. In Jenkins’ “Why Heather Can Write,” Heather Lawver is introduced as a teen who was inspired by the fact that J.K. Rowling’s novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was getting kids to read and wanted to promote literacy in her own way. Thus, The Daily Prophet, an online “school newspaper” for the fictional Hogwarts, was born. Heather recruited kids to write stories and columns for the newspaper, involving the kids in the writing process. She even personally edits each story to get it ready for publication. She encourages the kids to review the revised versions of their stories for issues on style and grammar so that they may learn from their mistakes and become more effective writers. Remarkably, Heather is able to create the revision process of writing through her newspaper. The newspaper allows the kids to gain experience and knowledge through consulting with other writers and bouncing ideas off of one another while also expressing their thoughts in an accepting environment. Children of various ethnic, racial, and national backgrounds “formed a community where individual differences were accepted and where learning was celebrated” with the help of the newspaper. In everyday writing, collaboration can be found almost anywhere. As Emily said, scrapbooks are an excellent example of collaboration in everyday writing. Considering scrapbooks as a social event, everyone shares their ideas and opinions with each other to help someone visualize their thoughts and ideas and transfer them into the form of a scrapbook.