Claiming Your Own Author Identity As A Writing Teacher


 Childhood provides a rich source of writing inspiration into which every writer may easily delve. For those teachers unaccustomed to writing, for and with their students, it is a great place to begin exploring a treasury of written words.

As a starting point for writing I encourage inexperienced adult writers to recall aspects of their childhood as a great starting point to begin writing. Writing, that can later be shared. 

The range of childhood experiences is enormous –ranging from disappointment to elation! The full gamut of human emotions condensed into those special, vividly etched years. 

While the world may have changed significantly since your own particular childhood, certain universal elements remain unchanged -matters such as, doubt, fear, discovery, curiosity, and the twin imposters of triumph and defeat, to name but a few. This is where a universal connection can be made.

Childhood is a time in our lives when experiences feel quite intensified. We often retain vivid recall of these past events. Sharing these experiences help to humanize you, the adult, in the eyes of impressionable, curious learners.

Starting in this place will assist you to connect strongly with the lives of the students you teach. It will enable you, the teacher writer, to convey the importance of capturing those small, yet significant moments in our lives, at the same time employing your senses to enliven the writing.

Should you choose to take up this challenge try to avoid the overlay of adult perspective in the early throes of your memoir piece.

Considering the age of the audience, it might be more valuable to write from the inner child persona and place yourself in the time the event actually took place.


To further help you, I suggest you consider the following:

• Your size in relation in relation to the world surrounding you at the time the event took place.

• Your knowledge or lack of it regarding the world and how it operates.

• Your feeling towards the various protagonists –parents, siblings, friends, perceived enemies and the rest.

• Your level of power in relation to the events that took place

• The discrepancy between what you think happened and the reality of the situation.

You may choose to write a follow up paragraph from your grown up self and briefly outline any effect the experience may have had on you.- any lingering reminders, or the lessons learnt.

Remember, it’s just one way in to the writing that your students are grappling with each and every day. Think of it as Velcro, connecting you to the work of these developing writers.




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