Children's Stories

We will write children's stories to celebrate, to teach, to enjoy. Think about the children sitting in the classroom, bedroom, or library bored because they have yet found a book that excites or moves them. Let's write for them using colorful words and rich language. Help them smile, laugh, feel warm and silly, or get lost in their imaginations. We can also write to empathize with them and show them we care about their young pains. 



My children's story was inspired by three things, my seven-year-old son, an academic competition that took place almost three decades ago, and the preamble from a piece of text. 

Thirty three years ago as a student at Doolittle East Elementary, I was training for an academic competition in the Chicago Public Schools district 11. We had to compete against the math and science powerhouses in our district. Our coach, Mrs. W., told us that we could not afford to come in second. We had to be the best, and we were. We crushed the competition. Although others were surprised, we were not. 

Often times, people confuse striving for the best as conceit or arrogance. It was just our way of thinking. The members of that academic team have gone on to serve society. My main man, DRD, now works for the federal government in Washington, D.C. after earning a law degree.

Why strive for the best? I read a preamble that contained the following words:

We live in a world where millions die from easily preventable diseases… and still more face hunger as a daily fact of life. We are locked inside a worldwide economic system that dispenses crumbs and extends privileges to a relatively small number, while forcing billions to seek desperately for work that more often than not numbs the mind, crushes the spirit and destroys the body.... We walk through our days in a world where the lives of countless children are ground up and destroyed...as victims of poverty and humiliation...their potential crushed, or their lives cut short.


I WANT TO BE...

by

Alfred W. Tatum
July 26, 2009

I want to be 
the fastest

I want to be
the smartest

I want to be
the strongest

I want to be
the coolest

I want to be
the richest

I want to be
the happiest

I want to be 
the healthiest

I want to be
the nicest

I want to be 
the sharpest

I want to be
the neatest

I want to be
the proudest

I want to be the 
the worldliest

I want to be 
the awesome-est

I want to be 
the best

person ever. 

My seven-year-old loved it. He added the line, I want to be the awesome-est. 

Let's not be apologetic for what we want for the next generation. 

Beauty

Beauty
Dr. Alfred W. Tatum
February 4. 2014
5:54pm


There's something sad about beauty.

It fades when an uninvited competitor appears.

Beauty is more robust when it is alone.

Among a crowd, not so much

unless there is an unrelenting eye that requires its presence to endure.

Let's Open the Floodgates

Welcome to the UIC Reading Clinic! It's time to open the floodgates as writers to define yourself, engage others, nurture resilience, and build capacity. We will write for others and ourselves during our time together. I wrote the following poem to capture what it means to be a floodgate writer.

Floodgate Writer

Alfred W. Tatum

February 1, 2012

5:38pm

Gushing, rushing waters

Is what my words feel like

The dam builders are in the way

I will use the 13 letters I know to tear down the walls

CAPITAL LETTERS, small letters, misspellings, no commas

two periods and an exclamation point

I don’t care

Pictures, sketches, scribbles

and an occasional stain from my snack

I have to write

to figure some stuff out, to scream,

to scratch my back, to touch my toes

to get that booger out of my nose

My stream of thoughts is pounding against my head

pencils – where are the pencils!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excitement, fears, no cowardice tears

Open the floodgates and let me through

I feel another thought coming

signed

FW

Poems by UICRC Student Authors

Children's Stories by UICRC Student Authors

Short Stories by UICRC Student Authors

Informational Pieces by UICRC Student Authors

Poems by UICRC Mentors

Children's Stories by UICRC Mentors

Short Stories by UICRC Mentors

Informational Pieces by UICRC Mentors

Welcome to the Spring 2014 blog for CI 526. Let the writing begin.

The following piece was inspired by a recent CNN literacy report that targeted the literacy gap between student-athletes and the general student population at 21 schools including Oklahoma and Oklahoma state.

CNN Official Report

sixteen soccer fields
run a 4.4
swish, baby - all net
all implicated in the CNN report
that North Carolina education is fraudulent
shine the spotlight instead of the stadium light
inside a new fight
to be different than anyone else
because I swim faster and have new warm-up suits
I am cut from the same cloth
but you see me differently
because I wear my name on the back of my shirt
but you've only revealed your dirt
We've never been advanced
but you want to advance your cause
as if you really care about me
It's not that complex
16 on the ACT
now you want to get rid of me
sixteen soccer fields
run a 4.4
swish, baby - all net
What's your official score?
What's your official sore?

by

A.W. Tatum
January 15, 2014
4:20 pm