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In September I received an invitation from Paul Allison of the New York Writing Project to participate in a discussion about a new website for publishing student work. In 2010, we worked together to create a platform around the Gulf oil spill called “Voices on the Gulf.” From this experience, Paul created Youth Voices. My students participated for a little while, but eventually the content became inappropriate for my young students. I moved away from using this site because it did not meet the needs of my students as younger voices.
When Paul contacted me that he was ready to open a new site for elementary students, I was thrilled. An authentic audience is extremely valuable in teaching writing. Many of my students are isolated as one of few gifted students in their class. When they write, they want people to read it. They crave a wider audience.
Kidvoices.live is now live! Some of my students have begun posting their creative poetry there. The platform is similar to blogging at Kidblogs, but different enough to serve a slightly more sophisticated purpose.
Kidvoices.live is open to other elementary classrooms as well. If you want to join and get your students involved, you can. You have to provide a unique email for each student. You can use a gmail + account or a parent’s email address. Once they sign up, each student will have a user name and password for future log-ins. I recommend sending home a parent permission letter. Paul plans to post it on the site, but you can also contact me for a copy.
Last week we read a story from Scholastic’s Scope magazine that was very close to us. The Great Flood of 2016 occurred in our area as well as in the setting of the article, Baton Rouge. We then read from Here We Go about helpers and volunteering. (PowerPack #8 on page 65) My students wrote response poems about the flood, and the larger topics of fear and hope.
When students have the opportunity to share writing online, they grow as writers, as digital citizens, and as people navigating this world.
Reflections on the Teche 
Thank you for sharing this information. Our kids need to know their voices are important. This provides a wonderful forum for just that!
I love the idea of response poems. What a wonderful way to process and reflect about text! I have been trying to think of ways to engage young children with response to reading in more unique ways. I can’t wait to use this idea. Right now we are reading about helping others and the concept of scarcity. Your poem response would be a powerful, challenging way for students to reflect. I’m also intrigued about the kidvoices website. I have second graders. In the past I have used kidblog. But, I’m excited to hear about a new website celebrating younger voices.
Perfect timing! Just had a question about where ELSE students could post besides Kidblog! Thanks for the tip about parent permission! ❤
This sounds terrific, Margaret. I’m glad for your students, & will share with former colleagues!
What an amazing opportunity! You are right — an authentic audience makes all the difference. So glad you got involved with this worthwhile endeavor!
After participating in the G2Great chat last week about poetry, it’s timely to see poetry being used to respond to reading informational text. The KidVoices platform looks intriguing – still trying to figure out best way for my Ss to reach a broader audience. There are so many options. We are signed up for Write About and have dabbled in it a couple of times, but have not gone public. More to research – thanks for the lead!
You are doing such great work by encouraging students to write and then share with an authentic audience!! Thanks for sharing about this site, too!
I’ll be checking this out, for sure! Thank you for bringing it to my attention! Love how you’re always finding authentic audiences–
I love this! As a teacher of a third grade, above benchmark, writer’s circle for the last six years, I can see the usefulness of such a site. Also, I would like to thank you for searching for places for gifted students to share their talents. TAG education is a topic near and dear to my heart.