Living Life Twice

Here are five of the most popular Living Life Twice posts for 2022. Thank you for your continuing support and interest in teaching writing and all it entails. Donald Graves Address 2022: Reflecting Upon the Writing Revolution and the need for Rejuvenation I felt greatly honoured presenting this year’s Donald Graves Address. Given the names of those who had previously presented here, I found myself in rare air and quite privileged to be called upon to celebrate the life work of Donald Graves. I remain indebted to ALEA/AATE for this incredible opportunity to share Donald's immense legacy with you. https://livinglifetwice-alwrite.blogspot.com/2022/07/donald-graves-address-alan-j-wright.html Writing Conversations to Launch At The Start Of The School Year Writing conversations to launch a school year.  In the early weeks of a new school year, we would hopefully expect to hear conversations around writing raising matters with student writers, similar in intent to the types of matte...

I have been rehearsing this all day...      In fact, I have been rehearsing this for a few days. The events of an approaching Christmas season no doubt have prompted my thoughts. I recalled a discussion I once had with a group of teachers during a workshop I was presenting. We were discussing the need for writers to rehearse their words before assigning them to the page and this prompted Dan, a young teacher to make a rather insightful comment without notice...        ‘I rehearse before I write on a greeting card.’      Everyone stopped to consider Dan’s words. He had reminded us of the conscious rehearsal frequently undertaken when we are faced with filling out cards on special occasions.      ‘I rehearse the words in my head to make sure they sound right.’ Dan further explained. Another teacher added, ‘ I actually practice what I want to write on the card, on another piece of paper, including, Dear Whoever.’   ...

As the Australian school year draws to a close, we reach a time where attention is given to student resources and supplies for the next academic year.  So, I find myself thinking about how schools might best go about supplying students with writer’s notebooks for 2023.  Allow me to be frank here -we're talking writer's notebooks, not a string of sausages. It's a decision requiring some consideration. Handing out a one size fits all notebook relegates this special writer's resource to little more than workbook status in the eyes of young writers. If kids come to view the writer's notebook in this way, it loses integrity. It loses its individuality. Those books may come to be viewed as a 'teacher thing.' The ownership eroded significantly. Such an outcome remains totally avoidable, but it does however require some pre planning on the part of those managing the acquisition of school resources. Demonstrating the integrity of this writing resource is ultra-import...

I find myself frequently informing inexperienced, student writers that I spend a lot of time thinking about writing in addition to all the actual writing I choose to do. I want them to know that part of my personal process as a writer is to engage in a lot of what we might refer to as -rehearsal. I do not wait until I'm actually writing to begin the necessary thinking that launches a writing piece.  I actually devote a sizable amount of time to collecting ideas, ephemera and artefacts to further enlighten me. Then there's the incalculable time devoted to considering, observing and rehearsing writing related matters. Matters, I believe might prove useful, when I return to my writing place.  For this reason, I find myself buoyed when a young writer enters a classroom and informs me they know what they intend to write about that day -before we even begin the writing workshop. They arrive with pre-determined writing intentions. This is clear evidence of rehearsal occurring beyond ...

Every piece of writing begins with some degree of pre-writing. There are many starting points to the writing process. Unconscious rehearsal may precede a writing project. The more we write, the broader the range of pre-writing options we tend to call upon when preparing to launch some writing. This ‘rehearsal becomes a conscious action.  Reading, talking with other writers, listing, webbing, sketching, planning, daydreaming, pondering, decision making- even some preparatory writing, may occur before we actually begin to compose (drafting) in greater detail.  Pre-writing can look different for each writer. Our pre-writing preferences shine through. Sometimes a number of pre-writing actions may be enacted conjointly depending on the needs of the writer at that time. What strategy to use may change with the writer’s choice of topic or genre. We should not adopt a one size fits all when implementing pre-writing strategies. It is valuable to consider your own pre-writing strategi...

An extensive national survey of ‘Writing Practices in Australian Primary Education, Years 1-6 ‘ conducted by Malpique, Valcan, Pasternak & Ledger, and published in May 2022, revealed, among other matters, the following information regarding writing’s links to the home environment and current teacher practices. ‘Results assessing reported teaching practices to extend writing to the home environment showed that the majority of teachers (64.8%) never asked students to write at home with the support of a parent/guardian.  The majority of teachers (77.4%) also reported that they asked parents/guardians to read/share their children’s written work as infrequently as once a year, or never. The majority of teachers (63.9%) reported never, or infrequently encouraged writing, as a home task.  Communicating with parents/guardians to discuss students’ writing performance and needs, was reported as an infrequent practice by the majority of participating teachers (71.9%). ‘ These p...

Renowned Australian author, Helen Garner uses the term ‘Notes: aimless' to denote the jotting down of thoughts in her writer’s notebook. These are the thoughts that sprout persistently in the inevitable cracks between writing projects. They appear sometimes as lists of scribbled possibilities. Sometimes the noted ideas are related, at other times they possess no obvious connection to one another - a smattering of brain activity is captured in hope and expectation.  I am aware of this phenomenon being present in my own writing process.   When rereading older notebook entries, I encounter such notations and find myself speculating over what may have provided the initial spark of motivation. I start to consider the thought that brought such words to the notebook page in the first place. Rereading them is now surrounded with an air of mystery, sometimes even strangeness. I think of these entries as random, but I don’t view them as being aimless. I refer to them as ‘random th...

Teaching writing frequently involves a balancing act between teaching the conventions of grammar and spelling and addressing aspects of craft and meaning. Unfortunately for young writers, many teachers devote disproportionate attention to perfecting the secretarial aspects of writing, much to the detriment of capturing ideas, attention to important details, a sense of audience, risk taking and voice - things that matter when writing.  When spelling correctly is an over-arching consideration, young writers avoid ambitious vocabulary choices. They write –safely. They write less, and they write tentatively for fear of getting it wrong. The writer, perceived as a 'good' speller, may in fact be a 'safe' speller, such is their fear of getting it wrong.  Grainger et al. (2005) claimed teachers frequently send children off to write with the songs of how to fulfil technical aspects of writing ringing in their ears and anything else is sadly swept aside. Any tune the text may p...

There is something quite magical in being able to spread the joy of reading great words and what possibilities they spark in the mind of the reader.  It all begins with selecting and sharing powerful texts and simply letting kids enjoy the wonderful words within.   Reading a text for enjoyment before you move to examining craft increases the likelihood of the text impacting on a student’s writing. When the student knows the text, it releases their cognitive energy more specifically to that aspect of the text under examination. Think of mentor texts as a term that essentially means –models, exemplars or examples. ‘Mentor texts’ is not something we do within a writing program for its own sake. It is not an entity in itself. It is an integral part of learning how to become a better writer.  It is an approach requiring an ability to read like a writer. This allows the reader to see the potential in a text to provide them with a writing model worth following or adopting. When ...

  Donald Graves Address Reflecting Upon the Writing Revolution and the need for Rejuvenation   I feel greatly honoured presenting this year’s Donald Graves Address. Given the names of those who have previously presented here, I find myself in rare air and quite privileged to be called upon to celebrate the life work of Donald Graves. I am indebted to ALEA/AATE for this incredible opportunity to share Donald's immense legacy with you. I realize I am part of a rapidly diminishing group of educators who actually lived and taught through the years of the writing revolution, Donald Graves set in motion. I was there when the research and writing he undertook, swept across the   writing world and into classrooms. It was a lived experience that began in the classroom and has continued to sustain me throughout my extensive academic   life. I   now stand in the ranks of the still committed, ancients. My passion for writing continues to shine brightly and I remain ev...