Living Life Twice

  One of the great challenges we face as teachers of writing is learning to observe student writing with a view that encompasses instruction. The trick is to look closely at the writing of an individual to notice what that writer needs and at the same time consider other students who may also be faced with the same direct need in the development of their writing. Patterns of need frequently emerge as you confer with your students. When this happens you may find that you need to develop a teaching focus for the whole class, or a small group. It will not surprise you to learn that this is the perpetual challenge of the Writer’s workshop. Once your students are writing regularly and displaying some stamina for the task, you may find yourself asking the questions – What happens now? What should I do to most effectively move their writing forward? What do I say to them when I join them for a writing conference? It is easy to look at a student’s writing and immediately jump on the mechan...

There is a saying, ' no struggle, no story,' so the characters that present in stories need a measure of conflict and tension to hold the reader's interest. As young writers grow in confidence and experience, this is a critical understanding they must develop. It can contribute greatly to the quality of the plot lines of the stories they write. A little bit of adversity, or experiencing a problem is important for our characters. It's good for them to wrestle with a conundrum... When characters encounter a problem or have to overcomes a hurdle, it increases their appeal to the reader. They become more relatable. More human. More fallable or imperfect. So when the writer creates a conflict for a character to grapple with, the writing is enhanced. The writer can make that conflict happen within a character- doubt, fear, shyness. It can also be between characters- disagreement, feud, need for revenge, a perceived slight.  Sometimes the story may involve a series of...

  When I ask young writers what they understand by the term 'add details' they frequently respond with, 'We have to add more describing words.' Some actually tell me that it means they need to add some adjectives. Such misconceptions sell the role of 'detail' so short.  As a consequence, this becomes the only strategy these developing writers have to address the important issue of detail. The result is often a piece of writing drowning in flowery, somewhat clunky adjectives.  A kind of adjective pile up.  Adjectives are like fat. We need to learn to consume them sparingly! I   recall how my teachers frequently glided by as we were engaged in writing and following a cursory glance at our assembled words uttered the phrase - ‘ You need to add more detail.’  These words were delivered while waving a floppy finger above the page. They would then move onto the next writer before there was any chance to ask a follow up question. We were left to p...

The Full Story About Narratives Before young writers can begin to develop a more distinctive storyteller’s voice, we must assist them to understand that writing becomes more personal when the topic or focus of their writing is limited to a specific moment in time. The closer they can get to a small moment, the more the writing comes to life for the reader. Then, if they can link more than one of these special moments along a timeline, a sense of storytelling emerges for the reader.  Writers are essentially story tellers. They frequently tell their stories many times over before they are transformed into words. We must allow the inexperienced writers in our care to practice the art of telling their stories to different audiences. Doing this establish the story more fully in the mind of the writer. This is particularly important with our youngest writers.  If your students are writing focused and clear narratives but you are not gaining a sense of the storytell...

One of the great challenges we face as teachers of writing is learning to observe student writing with a view that encompasses instruction. The trick is to look closely at the writing of an individual to notice what that writer needs and at the same time consider other students who may be faced with the same direct need in the development of their writing.  Patterns of need frequently emerge as you confer with your students. When this happens you may find that you need to develop a teaching focus for the whole class, or a small group. It will not surprise you to learn that this is the perpetual challenge of the Writer’s workshop. Once your students are writing regularly and displaying increased stamina and engagement, you may find yourself asking questions – What happens now? What should I do to most effectively move their writing forward? What do I say to them when I join them for a writing conference? It is easy to look at a student’s writing and immediately jump o...

I recall how my teachers often glided by as we were engaged in writing and following a cursory glance at our assembled words frequently uttered the phrase, - ‘ You need more detail’   while waving a finger above the page. They would then move on again seemingly before we had a chance ask a follow up question. We were left to ponder the deeper meaning of ‘details’ and what exactly this meant for our writing. They didn’t hang around long enough to go into detail about details… For me this has always been a sticking point. Telling a young writer to add more detail without explaining what this actually means for the writing is about as useful as a paper vase. So, the question arises, - What do we mean by detail? Well, we need to unpack the idea of detail so the writer can see exactly what is meant. Too often this translates to throwing a host of adjectives into the mix to make the writing more ‘descriptive.’   Teachers sometimes tell stud...

In recent days two male friends have suffered heart attacks. One has had a reprieve and is now confronting the challenge of revamping his lifestyle. He is staring down his own mortality and is aware he is no longer draped in the ragged cape of infallibility. My other friend had no such opportunity; his vital spark was sadly extinguished in an instant; the way the wind snuffs out a candle flame. He died playing tennis, something he loved to do. We spoke only last weekend at our favourite coffee haunt, Via Boffe and discussed the need to catch up and share a meal and a glass of wine, sooner rather than later… Both my friends had a genetic predisposition towards heart disease. Both had warning signals along the way and made changes. Those changes weren’t enough to spare them it seems. We are all born with a set number of days to spend on this earth. The lifestyle choices we embrace and our particular genetic make up, determine in most instances, how it all turns out. These soberi...

Returning to a class of third graders after an absence of two weeks, I began by asking them if they were able to remember what we had focused on during our previous session together. They thought for a moment and then began to recall some of the writing ideas we had previously examined. I was most impressed when they mentioned that we had been looking at the ways in which writers gather ideas. It was then a student seated at the back of the group raised his hand enthusiastically looked me directly in the eye and told me, “ We did lots of brain-draining.” “Close,” I said. “I think you mean brainstorming, although sometimes it does feel a little draining.” Ah yes, from the innocent we often get refreshing honesty and accuracy. Now that their prior knowledge had been activated, it was time to move into the new workshop. This time we were looking at the craft strategy of ‘inside/outside’ (physical world/emotional world) The teachers and I had noticed that much of their writing of personal...

One of the great challenges we face as teachers of writing is learning to observe student writing with a view that encompasses instruction. The trick is to look closely at the writing of an individual to notice what that writer needs and at the same time consider other students who may also be faced with the same direct need in the development of their writing. Patterns of need frequently emerge as you confer with your students. When this happens you may find that you need to develop a teaching focus for the whole class, or a small group. It will not surprise you to learn that this is the perpetual challenge of the Writer’s workshop. Once your students are writing regularly and displaying some stamina for the task, you may find yourself asking the questions – What happens now? What should I do to most effectively move their writing forward? What do I say to them when I join them for a writing conference? It is easy to look at a student’s writing and immediately jump on the mechanical a...