Getting "Lit" with Mackenzie

Below is a zine that highlights social activism through water narratives. Enjoy (it looks better in person).  This is a digitalized version of a zine I made in response to eco-narratives on water protection and climate change in relation to youth leadership. The fun thing about presenting knowledge through multi-modal outlets is that you get to appeal to multiple parts of the brain. I referenced my art ability, my spacial-awareness, my transfer of information to others, my persuasiveness, and much more while making this zine. This zine was interesting to make because it felt like a project, rather than a chore.  Educators who want to engage students within the material and allow opportunities for multi-outleted demonstration of concepts should look into zines and other digital creations. In addition, when students are exposed to an understanding of digital outlets of certain informations, it is important for them to see the relevancy in providing awareness and opportunity fo...

  Tonight, I am writing a blog post. Also tonight, I sat in a circle with over 15 of my classmates in the English Education program at UWM and we talked about times where we felt like a writer, and times where we felt like that was taken away from us. The biggest commonality between our experiences were the feedback we’ve gotten from those whom we’ve looked up to as a mentor. Some of the feedback we’ve gotten pushed us onto this journey to help other students learn to love and develop their skills in reading and writing. Some of the feedback we’ve gotten stopped us reading and writing for years. The feedback and relationship between mentor and student is part of the driving factor for writing continuance.     Feedback is an integral part of the assessment process. It helps both teachers and students evaluate the effectiveness of their learning strategies and the mastery of the subject matter. This ongoing assessment ensures that students stay on track and make progress. F...

Let’s take a trip back to fall of 2023 when I was taking a writing workshop all about creative non-fiction in zines . That class (and my classmates will probably second this) changed the way I write, the way I think about writing, and my perspective of art in daily life. I guess you could say I am a zine super-fan after all. I never could have thought that my life was art, or had any relevancy in a reader’s mind. After being introduced to digital creation in literature, I found myself engaged more in the act of writing. I had never been so excited to do homework, and so free to take literary risks within my writing. Digital Literacy and zines have an undertone of meaning within community engagement, identity, and freedom of expression.   There are an array of ideas, colors, and textures on each page of a zine that tells a unique story, captures a moment in time, or challenges societal norms. Zine culture is a celebration of diversity, a platform where artists, writers, and activis...

  My writing is all about the process, and it’s different every single time I write. Sometimes, when I’m writing, it comes so naturally to me. I paint words on the page like a jazz musician playing the saxophone on the street—it just flows and works. Sometimes, when I’m writing, I am completely lost. I’m a kid in a maze of mirrors—thinking I know where the path ends, but end up bumping into myself again and again and again.   The thing is, writing and its processes doesn’t have to be linear. Vicki Spandel outlines an idea in her piece, “The Right to Write Badly,” which says that writers have, “The right to be heard, to find a personal voice, to be assessed thoughtfully and compassionately, to make writing process not an external structure but a part of their thinking” (ix). Writers have the power to take their processes and styles and apply or transfer them to multiple variations of their lives. The idea that forming thoughts and finding voice within writing using a critical l...

 Hi, there!   My name is Mackenzie, and I am currently a junior in the English Education program at UWM!    I love everything about writing, language, and storytelling. I find that the written word and storytelling are behind everything we know about anything, so I look forward to all forms of collaboration within that realm. I am especially interested in memoirs right now, reading about others’ experiences is fascinating to me—it reminds me that we are all part of humanity!    I currently work within a preschool program , working with the three-, four-, and five-year-olds, but I have experience working with secondary students in various educational settings. I have a large background in the performing arts, both as a performer (I am actually a classically trained singer, which not many people know) and as an instructor (I was a theater teacher for 3K-8th grade for almost 4 years)—my love for literature came from it! The ability to present ideas out o...

  Throughout my high school years, I checked out a total of zero books from my library. The materials I needed to succeed in my own educational experience were available to me, but in limited forms. From time-sensitive check out times, to limited quantity of items, the literary resources I needed to better myself in the physical format were not always attainable. Noticing that a majority of students weren’t utilizing the resource of the library, our (rather rural) school district made a change to implement digital resources. Starting with online versions of textbooks, close-reading materials, and photo-copied uploads, students started to gather the resources needed for success in class in a new digital format. However, the technology implemented didn’t stop at uploading materials to the internet…and student engagement showed a dramatic increase within the digital addition. Students who were able to utilize digital sources, whether that be within the access of materials, the u...