Living Life Twice- Most Popular Posts of 2023



Here are five of the most popular Living Life Twice posts for 2023. Thank you for your continuing support and interest in teaching writing and all it entails.

Writer's Notebooks -Some forward Planning Is Required

Ownership, integrity and engagement are all enhanced when the writer's notebook a young writer is holding, is one they have personally identified as meeting their individual needs as a writer. Young writers frequently share their preferences for particular notebooks when we are discussing this important matter.

https://livinglifetwice-alwrite.blogspot.com/2023/11/writers-notebook-some-forward-planning.html

Using Strategic Talk To Assist The Developing Writer

Talk has a great contribution to make during pre-writing. It can contribute to the sparking of potential writing idea. Equally, it can also assist the writer to clarify the direction they wish to take with their writing. It can used to reflect and review writing pieces already under construction. 

It is said, the more we articulate our intentions, the more likely we are to actually pursue them. So, providing opportunities for inexperienced writers to engage in this kind of targeted talk supports the gradual emergence of metacognitive writers

https://livinglifetwice-alwrite.blogspot.com/2023/08/using-strategic-talk-to-assist.html

Exploring Perosnal Writing Projects

It is important to note that a personal writing project does not equate to the allocation of ‘free writing time,’ where the writer is given a small portion of time to write ‘creatively,’ in the mistaken belief that this provides sufficient investment in supporting and engaging young writers. Such an approach pushes personal writing to the edges of the curriculum in terms of its importance. Such an approach is tokenistic, offering little sense of genuine agency for the developing writer.

https://livinglifetwice-alwrite.blogspot.com/2023/07/exploring-personal-writing-projects.html

Agency & Instruction -Essential For Young Writers

Agency produces great results. It's presence leads to the  successful producation of meaningful writing pieces. Writers with a strong sense of agency frequently exceed expectations, improve their academic outcomes and exhibit increased engagment and motivation for writing. They are writers who are more likely to persist. They are embued with 'stickability.' These writers tend to display greater satisfaction with their written efforts.

https://livinglifetwice-alwrite.blogspot.com/2023/03/agency-instruction-essential-for-young.html

Setting Up The Writer's Notebook

The notebook is a place for innovation, but it is also a place to apply knowledge and skills. This is where a teacher continues putting in consistent effort teaching, supporting, modelling, demonstrating, guiding, advising, alerting young writers to possibility. Teachers mindfully apply explicit demonstrations that shine a light on writing craft.

https://livinglifetwice-alwrite.blogspot.com/2023/01/setting-up-writers-notebook.html




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Writing Irresistible LEADS with Grade One Students

I have been reading Australian author, Kate Grenville’s book, ‘The Writing Book – A Practical Guide For Fiction Writers.’ Grenville writes about leads and reminds us that the beginning of a piece of writing needs to be irresistible . Further to this she reminds the reader that it doesn’t matter where you begin a piece of writing- just begin! Grenville quotes Ezra Pound who said, ‘It doesn’t matter which leg of the table you make first as long as it stands up in the end.’ The writer’s aim is to glue the reader to the page. Grenville also makes the observation that sometimes you need to write the whole story before returning to the start in order to write a great beginning or ‘lead’ for it. Recently I have been working with groups of Grade 1 writers alerting them to the various ways in which writers ‘lead’ the reader deeper into their stories. Initially we looked at their own writing samples and I asked students, what did they notice about the words being used in their story leads? Th
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Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

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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
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Writing Opposite Poems

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 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
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Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

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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
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Answering Questions Posed by Young POETS

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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
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