Imagine both my surprise and excitement when I received this tweet from author Gabrielle Wang who I have been lucky to meet and also follow on Twitter.
Gabrielle also added that the character is a girl who is different from everyone else in town…
It was our first week of classes in the LRC and the Year 4-6 classes were certainly intrigued when I explained Gabrielle’s request. Voting for the character’s name generated a thoughtful discussion about why students chose Ziggy or Archer. Many voted for Ziggy or Archer name because it was an unusual or unique name to them and so it suited a person who was different. Some people chose Archer because it would suit a tomboy or others thought it was a good name if the character might have been going on a quest. There were lots of questions and wondering about the character which encouraged the students to think like a writer.
It was also an opportunity to discuss the concept and value of ‘crowd sourcing’ because Gabrielle was using social media to ask her readers for their opinions and ideas.
These are the results of how our Year 4-6 classes voted for Ziggy or Archer. It was interesting to see how results varied within year levels…
Gabrielle had also asked some other schools and one school had 70% voting in favour of Ziggy.
This week quite a few of our students asked if Gabrielle had decided on her character’s name yet so I asked her on Twitter and this was Gabrielle’s response.
The book Gabrielle is writing with Ziggy as one of the main characters is called ‘Hushing Wood’ and it will be published in February 2017. You can read more about Gabrielle’s writing and illustrating on her inspiring blog.
Thank you for the opportunity to be involved in your book in a small way Gabrielle. Good luck as you continue editing, and illustrating ‘Hushing Wood’. We’ll look forward to it being published so we can read about Ziggy in a year’s time…
What a great activity – so much was gained by completing your voting task. Obviously Gabrielle Wang came to the right place to ‘test’ her market and what a close vote! If I was voting I think I probably would have gone for Ziggy as it was the slightly more unusual name so it would stick in your head. Mind you Archer is quite a famous name in Australian history! 😉
I look forward to Gabrielle’s book in February next year.
Hi Louise,
Gabrielle’s request also demonstrated once again the wonderful opportunities Twitter can offer to teachers and students.
I showed my age when I asked if students knew Ziggy Stardust and most looked at me blankly!! Thankfully some knew why Archer was famous.
I would have chosen Archer because it’s not a name you would expect for a girl.
Miss Y 🙂
I think that Archer is a better name because it’s a unique, skilful and cool name.
I would call my dog Archer, but I like Cheeno better as a dog name if it had brown fur. Unfortunately I don’t have a dog.
Roman
Hi Roman,
Thank you for subscribing to our LRC blog and leaving a comment!
Thank you too for explaining your reasons for choosing Archer.
Hopefully one day you will have a dog with brown fur and you can call it Cheeno. I like the name! I think if I ever own another dog it will be a girl and I will call her Poppy.
Miss Y 🙂