Living Life Twice

  Young writers are inexperienced at writing memoir, but there are some significant actions teachers can take to significantly support and enhance the writing they produce… Memoir is detection, the sifting through a million lived moments in order to identify the most memorable ones.  The memoir writer rebuilds a part of their life, piece by piece to share with a reader.  The spark for the memoir might come from the colour of a favourite pencil, the secrets held safely by an old teddy. A first pet.  It might involve adventures in your neighbourhood, the sounds, shapes and smells of your first house, that special tree, your first disappointment, an incident, an accident. A place that holds a story. Just as home is the place we know best, our families are at the centre of the stories we often hold dear. Some of the experiences the writer is having right now may remain with them forever as memories. The challenge for the writer is to capture them in their writing…  ...

The writer sits down to face the blank page, only to be greeted by the dazzling whiteness of the paper. The pen is tightly gripped as the writer stares at the empty page. There is hope that time will deliver the wondrous words desperately sought. The empty lines beckon inviting the young writer’s words. The challenge remains- How to begin? If you have experienced this feeling, you will have greater empathy for your students and those feelings that sometimes overwhelm them as beginning writers. They often have a broad idea regarding their writing, but have little idea where, or how, to begin. They want to produce something that effectively conveys a message but remain unsure of how to begin the process. 'I know what I want to write about, but I don't know how to start.' We need to recognize that it is at this point we can provide meaningful support to allay such writing anxieties. Teaching students how to think of something to write, provides a way forward. This p...

  By the time students reach Grade three they have been exposed to, continually reminded and alerted to the importance of using ending punctuation at the conclusion of sentences. However, if we look at the writing samples they produce early in the school year, we notice how intermittently such marks appear in their work. Punctuation often appears by chance rather than conscious effort. If we want developing writers to exhibit consistency in the use of punctuation, we need to teach them to value its use in their writing. The best case scenario is to have young writers using punctuation with thoughtful intent. How do we achieve this? Let’s start by initiating a close study of how such ending punctuation can be used to make writing more interesting for the reader.  The message needs to be- This punctuation helps to convey the writer’s voice!  Remind them to link their reading of their writing to an emotion - anger, happiness, frustration etc. The me...

 Teaching   Writing Under The Influence As teachers of writing we frequently gravitate to the words of authors we admire. We then take their observations about the writing process and apply them to our own writing situations. However, when we find ourselves reading published works- novels, picture books, news articles, or poems, the process that has delivered remains largely hidden. We may find ourselves speculating about what action has taken place in order for these profound words to appear before our eyes. We may even begin to search for answers. It is important to empower ourselves in order to be able to empower our student writers.  Our own understandings must grow in order to develop strategies we can teach our students. This offers an exciting prospect for our teaching. When we operate in this space, our teaching is full of possibility. The writing actions of authors we hold in high regard begin to inform our teaching.  We start to consider the impact a partic...

This is a journey that begins with selecting and sharing powerful texts and simply letting kids enjoy them. It is a journey of discovery. It involves sharing texts with learners. Texts we know and trust. Texts written in such compelling ways that they can assist us to more effectively teach the craft of writing. They become mentoring texts.  Think of mentor texts as a term that essentially means – models, exemplars or examples . ‘Mentor texts’ is not something we do within a writing program for its own sake. It is not an entity in itself. It is an integral part of learning how to become a better writer. It requires the ability to read like a writer in order to be able to see the potential in a text to provide a model worth following or adopting. Our starting point as teacher/writers is to share the joy of reading great words and the possibilities they might potentially spark in the mind of the reader. Reading a text initially for enjoyment, before you move to examining craft, incr...

  Writer Joan Didion said our (writer’s) notebooks give us away. We are revealed by the contents. Our notebooks are a place to initially collect and then take those collected items and use them to spark further writing. As Ralph Fletcher , writer and educator reminds us, we use our notebooks to breathe in (collect) and breathe out (generate). With such thoughts ringing in my ears, I envisage notebooks brimming with words and ideas across a range of subjects and genres. The notebook is a place to experiment, take risks, make important discoveries or excavate memories and ideas from deep within. It can be a place to play with words. Writing becomes a pleasure. So why is it that in many classrooms when students take out their notebooks the pages reveal a picture far removed from the images I have just outlined?   Why does one get the impression that the notebook in these school settings is only realizing a small part of its potential? Why is the critical ingredi...

Here are five of the most popular Living Life Twice posts for 2022. Thank you for your continuing support and interest in teaching writing and all it entails. Donald Graves Address 2022: Reflecting Upon the Writing Revolution and the need for Rejuvenation I felt greatly honoured presenting this year’s Donald Graves Address. Given the names of those who had previously presented here, I found myself in rare air and quite privileged to be called upon to celebrate the life work of Donald Graves. I remain indebted to ALEA/AATE for this incredible opportunity to share Donald's immense legacy with you. https://livinglifetwice-alwrite.blogspot.com/2022/07/donald-graves-address-alan-j-wright.html Writing Conversations to Launch At The Start Of The School Year Writing conversations to launch a school year.  In the early weeks of a new school year, we would hopefully expect to hear conversations around writing raising matters with student writers, similar in intent to the types of matte...

There is something quite magical in being able to spread the joy of reading great words and what possibilities they spark in the mind of the reader.  It all begins with selecting and sharing powerful texts and simply letting kids enjoy the wonderful words within.   Reading a text for enjoyment before you move to examining craft increases the likelihood of the text impacting on a student’s writing. When the student knows the text, it releases their cognitive energy more specifically to that aspect of the text under examination. Think of mentor texts as a term that essentially means –models, exemplars or examples. ‘Mentor texts’ is not something we do within a writing program for its own sake. It is not an entity in itself. It is an integral part of learning how to become a better writer.  It is an approach requiring an ability to read like a writer. This allows the reader to see the potential in a text to provide them with a writing model worth following or adopting. When ...

  Here are some matters that have arisen from my ongoing work with the presentation of 'The Young Writer's Program.'  This initiative is a joint collaboration between PETAA (Primary English Teacher's Association of Australia) and the Victorian State Government.  The program aims to support young writers (Primary and Secondary) who have demonstrated aptitude and/or interest in writing. The program also aims to assist teachers to more adequately engage writers in the classroom writing program.  The matters identified might form the focus of further conversations or investigation within a school writing program. They may inform planning.  Hopefully, they will shine a light on writing actions that might serve to push writing development to the next exciting level.  I present these observations in no particular order. They are laid out for your consideration. I have been documenting my observations across several presentations of this excellent program.  If...