Living Life Twice

The effective use of mentor texts is something worth sharing. Exposing impressionable young writers to exemplars and allowing the words of a trusted author to influence the writing student writers produce, is important in our work as teachers of writing, and teachers of writers. My friend and colleague, Leanne Hunter currently teaches Grade 3 at Toorak College, Mount Eliza in my home state of Victoria. Leanne choose to read a personal favourite of mine, 'Pookie Aleera Is Not My Boyfriend,' by Steven Herrick to her eager young learners. In this verse novel, Award-winning author Steven Herrick presents a heart-warming tale about friendship, grief and the importance of baked goods. In a country town, in a school just like the schools you know, the kids in Class 6A tell their stories.  – it's honest, quirky, funny and frequently heartfelt. It is written from many characters' points of view - the cool kid, the funny kid, the bullied kid, the teacher, the school cle...

At the conclusion of each school year, I write, urging teachers to quarantine a little time for writing over the summer holiday period. As we rapidly approach the end of the 2018 academic year, my message remains unerringly simple.  If you are a teacher who writes, it is easier  to present as a writer who teaches.       In these final weeks of the school year numerous teachers have informed me (without prompting) they will be embracing the challenge of keeping their own writer’s notebooks in 2019. Well, that notebook will benefit from some early feeding and the summer presents as a potential feast… I am aware of the level of exhaustion that exists in schools at year’s end. The need to tie up a multitude of loose ends prior to school closing for the summer holidays is paramount.  The last week of school seems to take the longest time of all the many school weeks though. School becomes the epicentre of fatigue for both students and staff. ...

I feel a compelling need to revisit notions of what it means to use a writer’s notebook as a writing tool. Firstly, I understand, not every writer has a notebook in the traditional sense, but many do. I am one of the many. My relationship with writer’s notebooks winds all the way back to September, 1983. Across the intervening years, my notebooks have been various. I have an extensive collections of notebooks. Notebooks documenting my journey as a writer across more than three decades provide a rich paper trail from which I am able to mine some writing wisdom. Mu notebooks have evolved over time with respect to shape, form, and content. However, there are elements of that notebook/writer relationship which have remained consistently unchanged. Each notebook has been sturdy in its design. All my notebooks have had strong spines and hardy covers. Most have had ruled lines, but occasionally I have consciously chosen a new notebook with totally blank pages. I enjoy the variety such...

  When I ask young writers what they understand by the term 'add details' they frequently respond with, 'We have to add more describing words.' Some actually tell me that it means they need to add some adjectives. Such misconceptions sell the role of 'detail' so short.  As a consequence, this becomes the only strategy these developing writers have to address the important issue of detail. The result is often a piece of writing drowning in flowery, somewhat clunky adjectives.  A kind of adjective pile up.  Adjectives are like fat. We need to learn to consume them sparingly! I   recall how my teachers frequently glided by as we were engaged in writing and following a cursory glance at our assembled words uttered the phrase - ‘ You need to add more detail.’  These words were delivered while waving a floppy finger above the page. They would then move onto the next writer before there was any chance to ask a follow up question. We were left to p...