The Slice of Life Writing Challenge for March

I am again participating in this year’s Slice of Life Writing Challenge set up and run by two amazing educators –Two Writing Teachers, Stacey Shubitz and Ruth Ayres. This will be the fifth year for this writing initiative. I have taken part since 2009.

Participants have to create a slice of life writing piece each day for the month of March. The aim is to write and share a story about an aspect of your day, your life, your thoughts for the entire month. Each year I find myself meeting the challenge, - Difficult though it seems given time constraints of work and the time differential between Australia and America. It becomes an irresistible force for the writer within to meet the deadline each day.

Should You  Choose To Accept This Challenge…

I am hoping that some of you might take this opportunity to extend your own writing by taking up this challenge too. It might seem like a big commitment, but that’s why it’s a challenge. You could use an existing school blog or create your own. You could encourage students to participate with you. You could share the writing task.

So, every day you write a Slice of Life Story, please head over to the blog’s main page and post the link to your post by submitting a comment on that day’s post prior to 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (Australia) 

 You can grab the colour coded buttons (Link directly below) for the Slice of Life Story Challenge, created specifically for the month.  Ruth and Stacey would be honoured if you posted one of them on your site, alongside your story, each day. For me, it's the blue button, purely because it's my favourite colour...

http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/slice-of-life-buttons-2/

If you need more information, then point your browser to http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com , where you’ll find some easy tips for making the Slice of Life Story Challenge come alive in your classroom. 

Hope to see you online throughout the month of March as part of the Slicer” Community!

Slice of Life Story- A Ghostly Experience

It’s a tall and elegant tree which stands on the nature strip (verge) in front of a house four doors down from mine. It appears to stand in a pool of light such is its presence. Its trunk is pale and smooth. It is a tall tree and to take in its full majesty, you have to tilt your head back. It seems somewhat reverential to take such a stance.

Each morning when I walk in the crisp air, I pass this tree and I have developed a ritual. I simply cannot walk past without running my hand over its smooth bark. I pay homage to its natural beauty.

Our family call it the smooth tree. But in fact it is an Australian eucalypt, or gum tree. It’s botanical name is Corymbia dallachiana but it’s commonly known as a Ghost Gum. Ghost gums, are evergreen trees and grows up to 20 metres in height with white to cream and pink-tinged bark, often with brown scales. They are a visually striking tree. It is a tree that begs to be noticed, –a tree that presents as friendly and welcoming to passers by.

It’s hard to avoid eucalypts in Australia. They’re everywhere! No other landscape seems so dominated by a single genus.

They’ve also migrated successfully all around the world. When I spot them in another country I think how far both the eucalypt and I have traveled. I’ve seen them in Turkey and on the coast in Sicily. There is even a eucalypt growing on Alcatraz island! I’ve spotted them in movies as well. California has its share of eucalypts. When I first arrived in the US to live and work, I remember buying a large bunch of eucalyptus leaves at the Grand Army Plaza, market in Park Slope, Brooklyn, just so Vicki and I could hold onto our far away homeland in spirit at least. The pervasive smell brought Australia into our apartment for a while…

I have introduced my tree touching ritual to my grandchildren. Now they can’t walk past the smooth tree without gently running a hand over it. I want them to value natural wonders. I want them to notice the beauty in simple pleasures such as paying homage to a ghost gum. I want them to connect with their world in ways that lift their consciousness way beyond small screen technologies.

Slice of Life Story -Saving Ephemera!

The ‘raw stuff’ I paste into my notebooks includes an array of what is often referred to as ephemera. That is, printed or written matter, not necessarily intended to be retained or preserved. By preserving such things in my notebook I am changing the intended destiny of these items. How’s that for power?

Hold on Ephemera, I'm here to save you!

When I secure these items in my notebook, it’s because I want them to last. Their preservation is important to me. I want them to act as memory aids. We writers are magpies; collectors of ephemera. The stuff we rescue may turn out to be important records of life and social customs, popular culture and national events and issues. Who knows?  It may also be viewed as treasure by the gatherer, yet insignificant to another.  These various artifacts assist me to stay in touch with actual experiences. They become markers of my life’s journeys. They stimulate my recall.

Today, as I pasted new items into my notebook, they spoke to me, stimulating my recall. I lingered as they announce their potential as future writing ideas.

I often leave space around these items. This allows me to return at a future date to further explore the memories they dredge up. They possess a special magic. This is a magic powerful enough to reclaim long forgotten memories.

Sometimes this ephemera just sits between the pages waiting patiently to be rediscovered. I can never be quite sure what piece of ‘stuff’ I will settle upon in the future. It is only in the critical act of rereading these precious pages that musty memories are given the opportunity to spark into life.  Maybe the spark created will explode into words to be shared with a wider audience.

Teaching Young Writers About CHOICE

I don’t wake up each morning thinking, -today I’ll write a persuasive essay, or maybe an exposition! It surprises me how the approach to student writing is so often so genre specific. When a student approaches and opens the conversation with -I want to write about fishing, the logical response is, How do you see yourself writing about this?  Immediately, we establish in the mind of the young writer the notion of choice. Choice is good...

CHOICE motivates efforts to write and this in turn builds CONFIDENCE and consequently the desire to stay ENGAGED is heightened for the writer.

Each day I anticipate writing. Usually, I have a sea of possibilities surging away in my head. Topics and issues that have been consuming my conscious thought from the previous days and hours.

I once had a memorable conversation with author and illustrator, Terry Denton as we stood waiting for our respective children on Fisherman’s Beach, Mornington. Terry’s words have remained with me over the intervening years. He shared his experience of how writing ideas came calling; remarking that ideas revolve around in his head, like clothes in a tumble dryer. They mingle with other ideas. When they’re ready, the ideas get taken out- fresh, and ready to use. It was a great analogy for the rehearsal writers experience.  

 So, I ruminate. I rehearse. I ponder possibilities and this propels me into the writes of the day. I think about the writing idea that provokes me and ask,  -How do other writers choose to write about this topic/ issue? Do I want to follow their lead, or do I want to write about this in another way, another form?

Essentially, it's issue before genre; topic before form. I have a raft of choices about what to write and how to write it. I may choose a particular shape and form for this writing piece, or I may compose a hybrid text that crosses several genres. Ah, the power of choice! The question for me as a writer is, - what’s appropriate for this piece of writing? What do I want to achieve?  And, who will be reading this? (audience considerations)

I understand how important it is to share these thoughts with student writers. They deserve the same level of choice when it comes to their writing. I want them to know what it feels like to think about their writing intentions and then feel empowered to act upon their options as writers.  Choice empowers the writer.

When we share the many truths of our writing lives with students we create a lasting effect on their writing lives.  We encourage the growth of the metacognitive writer.

My Teacher Has A Writer's Notebook Too!

As another school year commences here in Australia an increasing number of teachers are taking up the challenge of maintaining their own Writer’s Notebook Those who are just beginning to develop their writing lives often request examples of the types of entries one might gather when starting out. Entries, that will serve as examples to share with their students. Entries that will show students how their teacher interacts with the world.  

 If you are experiencing trouble launching into your own  writing, maybe these ideas might prompt your thinking. They may spark a connection to a topic/idea you feel strongly about; -enough to get the pen moving across the page...

 

I also hope we begin to see the whole class topic, 'My Holidays' disappear as a starting point for writing! It saddens me when this happens. It sets the bar of expectation so low for your teaching, and denies what we know about effective writing instruction.

 

Much better that classrooms hum with rich conversation about what is important to write about for each individual writer. Time invested in pre writing activities such as -drawing, discussing, brainstorming, listing, planning and reading enables student writers to gather the necessary ingredients to write about what matters to them. These are the necessary preliminaries!

 

 The student writer receives a clear message from the teacher -I trust you to come up with ideas! I'm not going to tell you what to write, but I am going to do everything in my power to support you to find out what it is you want to say as a writer! I want you to find your true voice as a writer.

 

All the time this pre-writing is going on, the teacher is  simultaneously sharing examples of their writing, guiding writers to find a focus for writing, asking lots of questions and establishing a conscious sense of community.  Ideas begin to float on a sea of talk.

 

So, I urge you to dive straight in and start filling the pages of your own notebook with words, drawing, maps, photographs, quotes and the like.  Your own writing is such a powerful model for your students. I urge you to take the risk...

 

To further support you, I offer up these possibilities:

Write about the first book you remember reading

Create a Life Map to show events in your life so far
Write an entry about one of the items on your Life Map.
Write an entry over any topic of your choosing. Write about your personal opinion
Write a response to a book you are currently reading
Write about the meaning behind a treasured object - what memories do you associate with that object?
Create a plan for a memoir piece
Write a memoir including all the sensory details and what you discovered about yourself from that slice of life experience
Make a list of your personal choosing. E.g. Things that take too much time
Write to influence - Choose an issue that is important to you, and write an opinion piece
Respond to an issue in the news
Write a short narrative about being sick as a child
Write about a place you would go right now and why
Write about something that was no fun at all
Make a list of things you still wish to do
Write about a time when you knew you were in trouble
How did you spend your pocket money?
Write about an embarrassing moment
Write about your relationship with weekends
Write a list about things you don’t need
Write about noise
Write about silence
Write about pretending

Write about disappointment

Write about joy

Make a list of settings you have been in during the holidays

Make a list of questions you wished you had asked
Write about your feet
Write about your treasures

Write about something that has changed

Write about something you consider to be fake

Write about something you wish you could still do
Write and DRAW about a place that is important to you
Create a map of a place you recall from your childhood

A single entry will start you on your way...