Living Life Twice

  Sentences can be mighty impactful when used effectively. Assisting student writers to incorporate a variety of sentence structures into their pieces instantly improves the quality of the writing they produce. Frequently inexperienced writers produce  short sharp repetitive structures as seen in the example that follows: I have a bike. It is red. I like to ride it. It is fun. My friend and I like to ride in the forest. It is really cool there. We have a good time. When it is time to go home I have to put my bike in the garage. That is where I keep it. The sentences lack variety. The structure of the sentences is similar in most sentences. The sentences lack energy or excitement. Here we are able to teach the strategy of sentence combining using – connectives  to make sentences flow. This improves the fluency of the piece for the reader. We can also teach the writer to use a variety of sentence beginnings .    With varied beginnings the writing is more i...

  A recent question from a teacher prompted me to think more deeply about publishing student writing . She was searching for professional reading that dealt more deeply with the publishing phase of the writing process. My own search revealed that many of the available texts deal more comprehensively with the lead up (revision, editing) to publishing than publishing itself. It doesn’t seem to get the attention that it deserves. Publishing and all it entails is only lightly explored in many professional texts.  I have always believed that when the young writer reaches this important stage of the process, a wonderful opportunity exists for empowering the writer to make some really important decisions concerning the shape and form of the final product.  I had to go back to one of my earliest books on writing- ‘ Writing, Teachers and Children at Work ’, Donald Graves , to find any meaty detail surrounding this part of the process. Reading Graves’ words was like...

A young writer makes plans for layout on post it notes  and publication using the draft of the text to inform  the necessary process . Recently I had the opportunity to work with two groups of keen young writers to assist them to identify and launch a personal writing project . in the process I have been sharing some of mine, both big and small.  I took the time to outline the process followed in each project. I outlined the time each project took and what I discovered in each writing journey. I encouraged these less experienced writers to ask questions in order to build their knowledge of what a personal writing project may require. I wanted to challenge the long held practice that the first logical action after identifying a writing project is to always immediately start drafting. For generations schools have reinforced this approach. It does the young writer a disservice. It does teachers and learning outcomes a disservice too.  I acknowledge, on occasions w...