Living Life Twice

Unpacking a heavy sentence! Have you ever noticed how sometimes when you read, you come to a sentence that makes you keen to know more? Some sentences have a lot of ideas packed inside them. They prompt the asking of questions. You just know that if you were able to open them up like a suitcase there would be more interesting things to discover. If we can identify those sentences heavy with hidden ideas, we provide ourselves with opportunities to unpack them and share such magic with our readers. Student writers frequently write sentences begging to be unpacked. All too often, their readers are left hanging because the writer fails to unpack the loaded words. The curious reader is left unfulfilled.  Experienced writers undertake such craft moves regularly. Here are some heavy sentences written by Morris Gleitzmann. Notice the way Morris follows up and unpacks them in the sentences that follow. ‘I wake up. My neck is stiff and my eyes hurt in the sunlight...

Today I give you fish. More particularly, a fish on a plate. In this little presentation, I combined my poem about a fish on a plate with a picture of an empty plate. So, the fish on the plate poem is hereby presented on a plate! Watch out for bones...

I have just finished presenting a series of workshops dealing with persuasive writing for all schools in Melbourne ’s Western Region.   National testing in writing in May will expect Australian students in Grades 3,5,7 and 9 to respond to a prompt using persuasive strategies and structures in their responses. It is important not to descend into the dark recesses of ‘test prep’ behaviours. I’m not an advocate for standardised testing. The validity of such assessments remains highly questionable and culturally biased. Such assessments tend to produce teaching that looks a lot like testing itself.     Standardised tests are however like global warming; they present as an inconvenient truth with strong political imperatives. For this reason I want students to feel comfortable about writing when placed in a testing situation. We must explain to students that this type of writing (test writing) is totally artificial and totally different from writing as we know. In o...

I know this is some time off, but it presents a wonderful opportunity for young writers and not so young writers to meet authors and illustrators up close and personal. So I invite those of you in proximity to spread the word... Children's Book Festival: Family day Venue: State Library of Victoria   Sunday 3 April 2011, 10:00am - 4:00pm Cost     Free Bring the kids for this special celebration of children’s books, with readings, puppet shows, music and magic! Featuring everyone's favourite authors and illustrators, including Terry Denton, Bob Graham, Leigh Hobbs, Judy Horacek, Elise Hurst and Sally Rippin. The Children's Book Festival, presented by the Wheeler Centre and the State Library, is a first for Melbourne 's City of Literature ! This free family day, held on the front forecourt and lawns, will be followed by two days of programs for primary school groups. This event is presented with support from the Children’s Book Council of Australia, Helen McPherson Sm...

Anchor charts are important tools for students to use during Writers' Workshop and aid them in remembering procedures, craft strategies,ideas and expectations. When teachers co create such charts with their students, the students frequently develop a sense of ownership because the recorded information reflects their ideas, their language. Once constructed, charts can be copied in a smaller format for students to place inside their writer’s notebook or writing folder as a further point of reference. Charts should be added to over time. This reinforces the fact that knowledge grows across time and space as we investigate and discover. Anchor charts should be removed when no longer needed. They could stored as flip charts. Anchor charts need to be posted in the classroom where they are easily accessible to students in order to serve as a resource for their writing. Teachers who develop anchor charts with their students and refer back to said charts frequently throughout writer's ...