Toronto Youths Embrace “Play with Poetry”. A Creative Literacy Initiative

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
List of Figures
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Introduction
Planning the “Play with Poetry” Program
Purpose
Goals
Benefits Anticipated
Program Design
Sourcing Funds and Sponsorships
Promoting the Program
Assigning Program Personnel
Learning Aims and Outcomes
Implementing “Play with Poetry”
Session 1: 05 June 2010
Session 2: 12 June 2010
Session 3: 19 June 2010
Session 4: 26 June 2010
Session 5: 03 July 2010
Closing Day: Celebrating with Community: 10 July 2010
Assessing the “Play With Poetry 2010” Program
Participants’ Profiles
Data Collection
Limitations of the Program
Results
Conclusions
Implications for Practice
The Future of “Write, Live, Love”
References
About the Authors

Dedication

This publication is dedicated to Bajnath Gosine (1906-1982) who was born in the West Indies on the island of Trinidad. He was the father of Meerabai Gosine and the Aja (paternal grandfather) of Vitra Gosine. To him, we owe our love of literature and passion for writing. He encouraged everyone to live their best life and in that spirit would often quote this verse from the famous poem, A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882):

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their appreciation to all members of the Imagine Group from Toronto, Canada for their valuable contributions to the birth of the “Write, Live, Love” project.

Abstract

This report describes the design, implementation and outcomes of a creative literacy program entitled, “Play with Poetry” (PWP) which was hosted in 2010 by the Imagine Group from Toronto, Canada. PWP 2010 was presented as the pilot for a community service project entitled, “Write, Live, Love” envisioned by the Group as a series of out-of-school programs that would combine poetry, the visual arts, and language to uplift and empower youths. PWP 2010 was delivered to forty Canadian urban youths, aged ten to fourteen by a team of professionals who sought to advance the participants’ creativity along with their communication skills and abilities. The outcomes suggest that programs which are so designed and executed would inspire, release and guide creative expression as well as strengthen the life skills of participants.

Keywords: poetry, youth, literacy, creativity, community, Canada

Introduction

“Play with Poetry” (PWP) was delivered from June-July 2010 as the first creative literacy program launched under the “Write, Live, Love” project. This project was envisioned by six Canadian professionals residing in and around Scarborough, Ontario who formed the Imagine Group in April 2010. Members set their group goal as: the design of community-based programs for teaching young people in Greater Toronto how to discover and express their artistic passion. PWP 2010 was a voluntary initiative that became a reality through the dedication and commitment of the Imagine Group and a team of teacher poets. Forty youths, aged ten to fourteen from diverse cultural backgrounds accepted the Group’s invitation to engage in a non-traditional learning experience that promised to inspire them and release their creativity.

Planning the “Play with Poetry” Program

Purpose

To create a learning experience in which poetry writing is interwoven into visual art expression so as to engender an appreciation of both art forms and stimulate participants towards new creative expression.

Goals

1. To teach young people how to express creativity.
2. To teach literacy communication skills for creative expression.
3. To increase non-traditional learning opportunities in underserved communities.

Benefits Anticipated

- The release of creativity, confidence, curiosity, goodwill and passion.
- Improvement in the participants’ academic performance.
- An awareness by the youths of their potential value to the community empowered with their new knowledge and skills.
- Cohesion of a community group as a result of the bonding among the young participants.

Program Design

The project “Write, Live, Love” would be implemented as a series of programs so as to: engage and advance the creativity of young people, improve their self-perception, increase their social worth, and introduce them to new career paths. The Toronto Public Library (TPL) agreed to support the venture and offered to host the pilot program as well to promote it at TPL venues in Toronto and its environs. The program organizers put forward this design:

- The pilot would be presented under the banner of “Play with Poetry 2010” (PWP 2010) over a six-week period (June-July 2010) that would begin on June 05.

- Members of the Imagine Group would coordinate the collection of data for a program assessment bearing in mind the rights of the participating children.

- A survey would be conducted at the end of the program to source participants’ views about the program.

- The program of activities would consist of an introduction, a number of two hour teaching sessions and a closing ceremony.

- A teaching plan would be developed by a special advisor to the program in conjunction with selected teacher poets to guide each session as to the theme, structure and content.

- Funding would be sought to acquire the essentials to conduct the program viz.: teaching expertise, teaching tools, and a safe and comfortable learning space.

- Sponsorship would be sought for the hosting of a closing event where presentations, performances and an exhibit would showcase the range of achievements by the participants.

- Young people from ages 10-14 would be invited to sign on encouraged by website advertisements and attractive print posters. The posters would be created and placed in local community centers as well as in branches of the Toronto Public Library in and around Scarborough and East York.

Sourcing Funds and Sponsorships

Dedicated effort from the organizers resulted in adequate financing for the proposed activities of the pilot program. Funding for teaching by professional poets was made available by the League of Canadian Poets and the Toronto Arts Council. Materials used in the teaching delivery and practical exercises of the program were obtained through the Toronto Public Library. Funds for publishing selected creative output were provided by the Imagine Group with support from the Toronto Public Library. The Closing Day event was sponsored by Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen. Voluntary expertise supplemented all else with the main volunteers being the program’s Special Advisor, Lillian Allen (Professor, Ontario College of Art & Design) and the rest of the Imagine Group.

Promoting the Program

The promotion of PWP 2010 was coordinated by Keli Liu (Imagine Group member) who assembled an advertising team that applied itself to raising awareness about the program. An offer to host the event was made by the Albert Campbell Branch Library, a branch of the Toronto Public Library located in Scarborough.

Publicizing PWP 2010 involved classroom visits to nearby schools, creating posters with student input (see Figure 1), and placing them at specific locations such as, the program venue, other neighboring libraries and certain high traffic spots in Toronto. The team also designed and exported a web-based advertisement to the MetrolandMedia (Toronto) community information portal inviting youths to explore their writing skills in fun and creative ways.

To plan and budget more effectively, the team engaged in a weekly tracking exercise of the student registration numbers and observed an incremental rise in registration as the opening of the program drew closer. The increase observed in the pace of the enrollment suggests that the promotion strategy had done more than attract public interest; it had successfully portrayed the program as an opportunity not to be missed.

[Figures and tables are omitted from this preview.]

Figure 1: Poster Advertising "Play with Poetry 2010" (Imagine Group, 2010)

Assigning Program Personnel

With the financial and personnel needs satisfied, the program design was finalized through the expert handling of Lillian Allen (1986 and 1988 Juno Award-winning Poet for Best Reggae/Calypso Album). She was instrumental in planning the curriculum and in advising on how best to conduct the teaching sessions. Lillian’s leadership skills, knowledge and experience helped build the foundation for the “Write, Live, Love” initiative which would be launched via “Play with Poetry 2010.”

Four professional poets, including three award winners viz.: Ronna Bloom, Klyde Broox, Brenda Macintyre, and Robert Priest agreed to teach a range of topics that would focus on the literary arts and link poetics with aspects of the visual arts. At the start of the first session Lillian Allen would set the tone with an introduction to poetry and offer closing remarks at the end.

The Imagine Group members viz.: Vitra Gosine (project coordinator), Lillian Allen, Chad Campbell, Kirk Davis, Keli Liu and Gary Norman assumed responsibility for the planning and oversight of the program’s activities. Later on, members took on responsibility for the logistics of the teaching sessions to ensure ease of delivery and satisfactory attendance by the participants. As well, there was a consistent Group presence to provide personal attention as needed and to ensure the safety and comfort of everyone inside the learning space. At the outset, the members sought to harmonize the interests of the participating stakeholders while keeping the program true to its intent.

Learning Aims and Outcomes

The learning aims set for the students of PWP 2010 were as follows: to create and connect poetry, art, song and music; to connect the literary and visual arts; to express oneself through language, art and music; to display one’s artistic skills before an audience; and to function as a team player.

Students would be taught skills for the fulfillment of the abovementioned aims using a guided teaching and learning strategy. At the end of the program they would have learnt to: create, write and recite poetry; match both rhythm and sound; apply rhythm and music in the delivery of poetry; connect visual thinking and poetry for expressing abstract ideas; and listen, communicate and negotiate.

Opportunities would be created for practice and feedback throughout the program so that the learning process could be observed and better assessed. Such information would also be used for continuous improvement of the learning experience.

Implementing “Play with Poetry”

Session 1: 05 June 2010

Introduction to the World of Poetry

“Bowl of words” was the title of the lesson that introduced the students to the concept that a poem can be inspired by one word. Ronna Bloom (Poet in Community, University of Toronto) sought to develop their confidence to write freely and trust where the word would take them. To achieve this objective, Ronna first directed them to a set of rules which stated: 1. Don’t think; 2. Just write; 3. Keep your hands moving as you write; 4. Writing is like a pipe of water, just let it rush; and 5. It does not have to make sense. Her next step was to create a forum in which students could find the confidence to read their poetry. Some read out loud and some asked the teacher to read their poem aloud. The making of young authors had begun.

Producing poetry through team work was demonstrated by Ronna as she taught students how to collaborate and create a group poem from words. Each one was asked to volunteer a word. Words were then selected for the topic via a show of hands. The top three word contenders were ‘child’, ‘human’ and ‘myself.’ The word ‘child’ won the vote and the topic would be “a child’s job”. The teacher began by saying, “The job of a child is…” and a student would finish the sentence. This exchange continued until the energy level in the room seemed to bubble and overflow while keeping pace with the responses. The product of this team exercise was a poem entitled, “The Job of a Child” (see Figure 2).

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Figure 2: The Job of a Child (Imagine Group, 2010)

Session 2: 12 June 2010

Poetry and Rhythm

“Rhythm and words” was the name given to a session about awakening the rhythm in poetry. Robert Priest (1989 recipient of the Milton Acorn People’s Poetry Award for The Mad Hand (1988)) began by reading poems from his work, The Secret Invasion of Bananas and Other Poems (2002) considered a classic in contemporary Canadian children’s poetry. Using one of his poems, “Darth Orange,” Robert encouraged the students to imitate its rhythm while expressing their thoughts in their own words.

Students set about creating a poem about a fruit of their choice by describing its transformation and at the same time exploring how rhythm could be applied to words. Confidence seemed to increase as they wrote their individual poems using the “Darth Orange” rhythm. “Darth Tomato,” is a sample of the creative output of this session and it was selected for publication.

To deepen their understanding of what it meant to be a writer the students had to first identify writers that they liked or found to be inspiring. This exercise stimulated them to think and assess quickly and to be more communicative. Robert Priest then offered the class step-by-step advice on how to develop oneself as a poet: continue to read poetry; be open to its music; and let one word trigger the next. There was much output from this session in terms of the number of poems produced and the verbal responses made.

Session 3: 19 June 2010

Poetry and Sound

For the “Poetry and Sound” session, the main objectives were to teach vowel sounds and test memory. Dub poetry was used so expertly by Klyde Broox (2005 City of Hamilton Arts Award for Literature) in teaching this session that it became one of the more popular techniques used in the PWP 2010 program.

Klyde Broox began his lesson by discussing sound in relation to poetry to raise students’ awareness of the importance of memory in acquiring and retaining knowledge. Participants were placed in groups and each group was asked to remember different variations of vowel sound combinations. The groups or teams collaborated on how they would recite their piece and each group then presented to the rest of the class. They personalized the sounds, determined which person in the team would say which sound and at times came together to give a great final sound byte. The exercise was treated as a competition and participants were invited to vote to determine which team was the best. The activity was evidently exciting for them and as they played with the length of each vowel sound they became more creative and began to form characters. As the enthusiasm grew some groups created multiple versions of their presentation and performed for the rest.

The teaching of poetry and sound progressed with Klyde singing a poem and having the class recite after him as well as finish each of his sentences while keeping the song of the poem alive. He then guided the students on how to create a group poem whereby they were invited to contribute words of any kind, about anything, not having to make sense to anyone, or even be in English. The students’ spontaneous responses released their energy and reflected their cultural diversity through words expressed in English, Hindi, African, Spanish and French languages.

Klyde directed the students to create a poem with its own music from this apparent jumble of words and by working together they succeeded in producing a group poem. Klyde closed off the workshop by reciting one of his poems to the class. His final words of advice were “practice, practice, practice.”

Session 4: 26 June 2010

Song-catching

The “Song-catching” session taught by Brenda Macintyre (1992 Juno Award-winning Native Canadian World Music Singer, Healer, Artist & Speaker) drew its name from a novel activity called ‘song-catching.’ It offered the young people another opportunity to freely express themselves, this time, by keeping a musical beat as they sang along to songs being delivered by Brenda. The intent was to prepare students for a group or team exercise where the musical beat would accompany the word.

Practicing to match rhythm and word was the aim of the follow-up exercise whereby poems would be created by teams and both recitation and musical sound would be expressed simultaneously. By combining words selected from the blackboard, each group produced and recited a poem while the rest of the class found the beat or pulse of the poem and kept up a beat with shakers. Students’ listening skills seemed to improve as well as did their understanding of how music could be incorporated into poetry. Moreover, their presentation skills and self-confidence were visibly improved by the opportunity to perform before peers.

Session 5: 03 July 2010

Poetry and S ong

“Making poetry into song” allowed students to experience how poetry could be turned into a musical piece. Robert Priest began by singing words of a poem and turning it into song while playing his guitar. The students did not produce music themselves but paid close attention to the techniques employed in blending multiple art forms to create a single product.

In this session, students were directed to combine the visual arts with poetry where they learnt of the role of language in self expression and about language as an artistic technique for expressing one’s individuality. The exercise required participants to first of all draw a simple shape to represent a face followed by shapes that represented the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. They were then asked to choose from a selection of words in different fonts, sizes and colors, to arrange and glue them on their page, and finally to fill in the face as a form of self-portraiture.

The completed artwork was examined to provide further insight into the thoughts and communicative abilities of the students. Color analysis has often been a means of determining a child’s emotional state with a lot of red or black being viewed as a troublesome sign (“Drawings,” n.d., para. 4). However, in this group the ‘calm’ blues and greens and the ‘cheerful’ yellows and oranges stood out in the enhanced drawings signaling to the teaching personnel that students were comfortable within themselves. This colorful drawing (see Figure 3) was among those included in a publication that showcased PWP 2010 products.

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Figure 3: Self-portrait of a Student (Imagine Group, 2010, p. 51)

Closing Day: Celebrating with Community: 10 July 2010

PWP 2010 completed what it had set out to accomplish in time for the closing event. The participants’ parents and other stakeholders who had helped to make the program a reality were invited to share in its success. The community responded positively to this gesture and the youngsters’ became even more excited at the prospect of celebrating their achievements with family and friends.

After a warm welcome, the spotlight was turned on the participants giving them an opportunity to demonstrate their communication skills. Examples of poor reading were delivered by the teacher poets and the participants in turn employed their knowledge to critique the presentations. To help participants retain the lessons learnt, a summary was composed out of the responses and shown to everyone present. It was entitled, “A Guide to Presenting” and consisted of these simple instructions: 1. Read slowly with a measured pace; 2. Read loudly but in a modulated tone; 3. Complete each sentence/phrase; 4. Pause after completing the sentence/phrase; and 5. Convey emotion in delivery.

The gift of a literary chapbook entitled, Kids imagine: poems by the grandmasters was made to each member of the class. Poetry written by the students as well as samples of self-portraiture made up this work. The process of writing through which the participants expressed their thoughts and ideas indicated that the final application of learning and a deeper understanding of the topic did take place (Larson, 2010). The young authors were invited to read their poem(s) aloud to the audience and all but one demonstrated the self-confidence to do so.

The presentation of Certificates of Completion to the forty participants of “Play with Poetry 2010” was accompanied by congratulatory remarks and applause. It was the highlight of the event and the formalities came to an end soon afterwards. Lillian Allen closed the program by thanking the participants, parents, teachers, and corporate sponsors for their support in uplifting the younger members of the community. As for the youngsters, the excitement continued while they talked excitedly, shared refreshments, and said goodbye to their classmates.

Assessing the “Play With Poetry 2010” Program

Participants’ Profiles

The PWP 2010 program was launched on 05 June 2010 with 44 registrants ranging in age from 10-14 years. They were all residents of the Greater Toronto area and students of Canadian public schools. Forty (40) of the 44 persons completed the program. The 40 names were recorded altogether in a scroll format (see Figure 4) and presented to each member of the class.

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Figure 4: Students of the "Play with Poetry 2010" Program (Imagine Group, 2010)

Data Collection

Data was gathered by program personnel over a six week period to support the following activities: assess the program’s success in meeting its goals; evaluate the extent of the participants’ appreciation of the program; assess the participants’ perceptions on the quality of the program; and assess the participants’ social awareness. Program personnel agreed that the data sets listed below would supply relevant data for the activities above:

1. A weekly record of student attendance.
2. Photographs capturing student-teacher interactions as well as artistic performances by both parties.
3. Student output from practice exercises designed to test communication and creativity skills.
4. Oral presentations by students to showcase creative products.
5. Responses to a survey administered to students who had completed the PWP 2010 program.

The survey instrument was a semi-structured questionnaire comprised of two sections: the first was aimed at quantifying perceptions with regard to enjoyment of the program, its teaching effectiveness and the supportiveness of its personnel; and the second was intended to secure qualitative data on each participant’s favorite part of the program, on ways to improve future poetry programs, and on the important things learnt by participants about themselves as well as their classmates. A 5-point Likert scale (1 = very little to 5 = very much) was used to rate responses to the close-ended questions in the first section.

Limitations of the Program

- Most members of the Imagine Group had little experience in managing a community service project.
- No guaranteed source of funding was secured beforehand.
- No manager for the day-to-day operations was identified.
- Not enough time was allocated for contingency planning.

Results

- The student attendance rate ranged from 80 to100 percent.
- A review of the verbal and visual responses of the students recorded during the teaching and practice sessions indicated that there was discernible improvement in the communication and creative skills of all students.
- A literary chapbook entitled, Kids imagine: poems by the grandmasters was published and copyrighted to the Imagine Group in 2010 (see Figure 5). It contains sixty-six pages of poems and self-portraits that represent the students’ individual and collective creativity. This product was born out of collaborative work between students and teacher poets and it provides evidence of unique creative expression.

[Figures and tables are omitted from this preview.]

Figure 5: The “Kids Imagine” Chapbook (Imagine Group, 2010, cover)

- By publishing outcomes of the practice sessions in the form of a chapbook a permanent record was created of the written and visual communication skills acquired by this cohort of students.
- Thirty nine out of forty students delivered their poems to an audience on Closing Day employing the clear diction, sound levels and tones appropriate to the content.
- Results of the survey provided valuable feedback about the students and the program itself. Thirty three questionnaires were returned from the forty that were distributed. The response rate of the participants was therefore relatively high (82.5%). Thirty three responses were received for each close-ended question in the first section of the questionnaire but in the second section the number of responses to the open-ended questions varied and no question drew as many as thirty three responses.
- In “Section One” each of the five close-ended questions on the questionnaire received a positive response (4-5 ratings combined) from a majority of respondents (i.e. over 50 percent). The responses and statistics for questions one to five are as follows: 85 percent enjoyed being part of the program; 86 percent were taught how to create poetry well; 85 percent enjoyed reading and sharing their poetry; 94 percent experienced the friendliness and helpfulness of the program staff; and 97 percent enjoyed the guest poets.
- In “Section Two” of the questionnaire which contained six open-ended questions, the most popular response to each of the first five questions is reported below accompanied by the corresponding statistics; for the sixth question the participants’ verbatim responses are provided: 1. Their favorite part of the PWP program was writing and/or creating poetry (30.8 percent); 2. Their least favorite part of the program was writing and/or creativity (20 percent); 3. What they learnt about themselves and others was that each one could write and/or create poetry (36.4 percent); 4. What they would like to learn in future poetry programs was writing and/or creating poetry (66.7 percent); 5. What the host could do to make future programs better was to offer more writing and/or creating poetry (42.1 percent); and 6. Any other comment ̶ “No;” “Other kinds of food please;” “You guys rock;” “I have nothing to say, I love you all.”
- By employing a semi-structured questionnaire personal viewpoints were gathered along with pre-defined responses about the program. Comparisons between both sets of responses helped to establish the reliability of the feedback received from the participants.

Conclusions

The “Play with Poetry 2010” program met its goals: a group of young people learnt new ways to express their creativity; their literacy communication skills (writing, listening, speaking, and reading) were improved through language, art, music and song; and the program itself boosted non-traditional learning opportunities for youths by reaching completion.

Both individual and collaborative learning were achieved. This was demonstrated by the participants’ literary and artistic output and through their verbal and non-verbal communication during class and before an audience.

The PWP 2010 program created a supportive environment for social development among peers. Team exercises which encouraged the use of techniques such as peer critiquing, negotiation and collaboration afforded shared learning experiences for all. In responding to the survey most participants exhibited the self-confidence to share important things that they learned about themselves. Although fewer participants elected to express what they learned about others the observations made were all positive.

The feedback was clear and consistent regarding the success of the program. Every aspect of the program viz.: subject content, teaching, attendees, teaching staff, and support personnel received a positive rating from the majority of participants. In fact, most participants went on to express their desire to continue learning about poetry. Some even offered suggestions for the content of future poetry programs. All in all, the design and conduct of this program did contribute to the learning of both creative and life skills important for this age group.

Implications for Practice

After examining “Play with Poetry 2010” from inception to completion it seems entirely possible that a program like this can be replicated successfully anywhere once there is adequate financing, careful management and committed leadership. By basing their strategy on meaningful engagement with community stakeholders, the organizers did succeed in identifying community partners, securing sponsorship, and attracting suitable personnel.

In retrospect, the organizing team recognized that the foundation for the program could have been better laid. Members therefore composed this guide to inform future planning based on the lessons learnt: 1. Develop a comprehensive plan to guide each event; 2. Prepare a detailed budget for all anticipated costs; 3. Secure reliable and adequate funding for each event in advance; 4. Engage the news media in event promotion to expand youth participation and community involvement; 5. Establish a pool of interns that includes program graduates and other young volunteers; and 6. Equip interns with the training required to lend one-on-one support to students engaged in a creative literacy program.

The Future of “Write, Live, Love”

The consensus by the Imagine Group to roll out the “Write, Live, Love” project was predicated on the program’s success in meeting its goals despite the limitations reported. Members agreed that the human and financial resources expended on the pilot did bring returns to a group of young residents and to their families, schools and community.

Shortly after PWP 2010 was completed, Lillian Allen became engaged in creating a unique literary experience where the poet community and other community members could collaboratively program, inhabit, vibrate and empower togetherness within a live poetry village (“About Poetry Village,” n.d., para. 1). The Imagine Group welcomed the opportunity to contribute to this experience having secured the support of teacher poets, writers and storytellers. From 09-10 September, a poetry workshop entitled, “Whatz up with Broccoli – Play with Poetry” was presented at the “Junction Arts Festival 2010” (Toronto, Canada) led by Vitra Gosine and Keli Liu. Eighty (80) children learnt to use the spoken and written word to create their own works of poetry and word art (Junctioneer, 2010).

Since then, the Group has directed its focus towards strengthening the Imagine network in keeping with its vision, “to create a support network which empowers youths to explore and express themselves through creative writing.” Data relevant to grants and sponsorships for youth empowerment and community building continues to be sourced, recorded and maintained.

With the support of social media applications the Group hopes to attract school-aged youths believed to be challenged in learning literacy skills. The possibility of arts-based literacy initiatives succeeding where traditional programs fail was also explored by Michael Bitz, founder of “The Comic Book Project.” Bitz’s findings showed that the pilot for his project did, in fact, help 733 children meet the four New York Learning State Standards for English Language Arts related to reading, writing, listening, and speaking (Bitz, 2004).

References

About Poetry Village. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://poetryvillager.wordpress.com/about/

Bitz, M. (2004, April). The Comic Book Project: Forging alternative pathways to literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 47(7), 574-586. Retrieved from http://www.cii.illinois.edu/InquiryPage/bin/docs/u14217_Digest100BitzForgingPathways.pdf

Drawings. (n.d.). In Encyclopedia of Children’s Health. Retrieved from http://www.healthofchildren.com/D/Drawings.html

Junctioneer. (2010 August 24). “Whatz up with Broccoli – Play with Poetry.” In Overview of events at this years Junction Arts Festival. Retrieved from http://www.junctioneer.ca/overview-of-events-at-this-years-junction-arts-festival/

Imagine Group. (2010). Kids imagine: poems by the grandmasters (1^st ed.). Toronto, ONT: Imagine Publishing.

Larson, D. (2010). The power of poetry. Journal of Liberal Arts and Education, [1-4].

About the Authors

Meerabai Gosine-Boodoo is currently a librarian at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago. Her publications to date have contributed to the existing body of literature in continuing professional development, library user education, and teaching literacy through the arts.

Vitra Gosine is currently a Senior Manager with the Transactions and Restructuring team at KPMG. She holds significant experience in the management of Canadian financial services and brings to bear her literary skills on developing creativity in children.