Critical Considerations For Writing Teachers

The childhood of my youth appears to have gone the way of tape recorders, cassette players, CD's and the like. At the very least such items are on an endangered list. When sharing childhood experiences with today’s generation of students, I realize that our respective childhood experiences are world's apart.

 My generation grew up in small houses with big backyards. The focus of our daily existence was the world outdoors. We had extraordinary freedom to explore our immediate world. The children I now work with, (and I’m talking in general terms here) live in bigger houses, with small backyards and the focus of their lives is frequently indoors. The growth of digital technology in its myriad forms calls after them like a siren. It urges them to remain under cover. X box, computer games, and a multitude of screens win out over an outdoor lifestyle. The digital revolution has swept over our lives like a metaphorical tsunami.

Related image

 Freedom appears to have diminished. It now extends to the front gate for many of these children. The world is perceived as a potentially more dangerous place. Anxious parents control so much of the time children spend beyond school.  Too many parents are fearful of their children becoming bored. They morph into entertainment directors. Boredom is not a bad thing. It can lead to inventiveness and new possibilities. If boredom is the problem, overcoming it presents an opportunity in developing problem solving skills. 

 Many children’s lives are timetabled, leaving little time to explore, create and generally discover the wider wonders of the world. Kids living this kind of life are the lucky ones.

 While debriefing with teachers, I notice a recurring theme. Teachers frequently lament a general lack of world knowledge among their students. They feel that they now are doing a lot more compensatory teaching. Trying to encourage greater student awareness of the world around them is consuming more teaching time. Encouraging sensory awareness, noticing small natural wonders, celebrating simple pleasures have assumed a greater importance. Rejuvenating the sensory perceptions of students has become something that requires greater, sustained attention. 
Image result for curious children

 An experienced teacher told me that she believes her childhood was closer to the adventures of Tom Sawyer. Whereas the childhoods of too many of today's children lack that essential element of genuine adventure. Maybe she's right. Coddled, constrained and covered in anti bacterial makes it difficult to live childhood as it was intended.

 Ben, a teacher I worked with a few years back told me about the time ants invaded his classroom. He decided to investigate the matter more fully and took his class on a mission of discovery to find where the ants were actually coming from. They tracked them down to a tree outside the classroom where the ants were found in mass profusion at the higher reaches of the tree. They watched the ants and discussed the possible reasons as to why they were there and in the classroom. They drew the ants and some even decided to write about the ants. One student drew a picture of the tree with a huge ant ‘castle’ in it. Ben and his students had shared a teachable moment. It was an invaluable chance to wonder and speculate and be curious. Ben was surprised that many of his students brought little prior knowledge to the experience. 
Image result for curious child


 It is evident that rich conversations in the home have been replaced by watching and viewing. We have a visual generation, but verbally they are often undernourished. This points to the increasing importance of conducting quality conversations in the classroom. Talk is a critical pre writing requisite. When kids have the opportunity to articulate their writing intentions; to discuss and clarify ideas, they generally produce more effective writing pieces.

 Learning floats on a sea of talk. Day by day our teaching can move young readers and writers to a more informed place if we mindfully work towards building not just word knowledge, but equally, world knowledge. Effective writers need to be keen observers of their world. Alerting young learners to possibility will drive more conscious observation of their immediate world. Bring the outside in and take the opportunity to move beyond the classroom when you and your students can. Harvest ideas with conscious enthusiasm. Let's initiate a fascinating and compelling alternative world to that offered by screens.
Image result for curious children

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not every thing has a
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers to gain i
Read more

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intention of drawing t
Read more

Answering Questions Posed by Young POETS

Image
UPDATED, May 2020 As a frequent visitor to schools I have the great pleasure of working with groups of young, enthusiastic poets and their teachers. When I arrive in a classroom, young poets are often pre-loaded with questions, and most keen to have them answered.  I try to answer as many as I can, but we frequently run out of time, and the poetry caravan moves on to the next classroom. So I am here to answer some of those questions -right here, right now. So here goes: When you were little did you love writing? The short answer is yes. I have always enjoyed words and language. I can't recall a time when I wasn't doing some kind of writing. When did you write your first poetry book? I have had poems published over the years, but it wasn't until 2014 that I had an entire book of poems (an anthology) published. When I looked back through all my notebooks I realized I had hundreds of poems from which to choose. So, 'Searching For Hen's Teeth-Poetry From The
Read more

Slice Of Life Story-The Trials Of A Left Handed Writer

Image
Amazingly I learnt to write using my left hand. An achievement against the prevailing beliefs of the day. My very first teacher saw it as her mission in life to ‘fix’ the poor, wretched little boy suffering from what she clearly diagnosed as left handed disease. She must have thought, 'This child must be re formatted! If he remains left handed he will be forever condemned to writing in a scrawl that no one will be able to read. Ugly hand, ugly hand.' ...They tried to say it couldn't be done, it mustn't be done. They took the pencil out of my left hand and placed it in my right hand. It felt unnatural. It felt weird. It was not right. More to the point it was not left. I was not about to conform. At least they didn't try tying my hand behind my back. Watch me I said. I may be an oddball, left handed scribbler but I am a determined oddball. I mean how boring would the world be if everyone wrote with their right hand? So I dug my toes in –and my hands to
Read more