Living Life Twice

I recently had the pleasure of conducting a workshop on Wordplay and its important role in growing writers. Here are some of the messages I was able to share with participants. Trust they add to your thinking around the teaching of writing... Wordplay is such an omnipotent thing. It is unavoidable. Conversation, songs, TV shows advertisements, literature , greeting cards, brochures magazines and newspapers all employ word play abundantly. Everywhere we go, it leaps out at us. In many schools however the study of words, has over time, been shrunken down to mean little more than reading and vocabulary knowledge. And yet, I still recall my teachers encouraging me to play with malapropisms, oxymorons, listen for tautology and wonder at the mystery of invented words in Lewis Carroll's poem 'Jabberwocky.' I recall the fun we had creating rhyming couplets and discovering palindromic words. At home, my father regularly engaged me in wordplay and riddles. There were a...

It remains ever important to continue to build a knowledge base around your pedagogy. For those charged with the responsibility to teach writing it is important to seek out books deepen understanding. Books that provoke thought about the most effective ways to go about the role of being a writing teacher and a teacher who writes. Investing in one's professional self, ensures a better outcome for student learners. After more than four decades in education I continue to feed my need to know.  Teachers tell me how each summer they put aside time to read at least one professional book. It's a choice, but it's also a statement of intent. You only do it when you are ready to receive. The fog of the classroom has cleared and your vision for what's possible improves. Teachers also ask, what should I be reading ? So, to assist in that direction I will share with you some books I have found invaluable in recent times. Books that were both affirming and thought provoking. Bo...

The world is what you make it. So is Twitter. I am a willing participant in the world of twitter. I use it to be informed and to share information. I have shaped the feed I receive to include those voices that will grow my understanding of life and learning -well mostly. I use it as a conduit for thinking. The reading I do informs my writing. It is a place I go to to gather a little treasure among the trite and the tasteless. A boy once asked his father, 'What is Twitter? The father responded, 'Well you know how annoying it is when the neighbour's dog starts barking in the morning, well Twitter's like that, except it goes all day and all night.'  Some educators I meet perceive Twitter in this way and as a result have no part of it. Others dabble occasionally. There are also many who, like me, have jumped right in. I  see Twitter as a tool for learning, a resource for reading and learning. Opportunities exist for information sharing invaluable to my literate...

The Wonder of Mentor Texts When we practice the art of reading like writers, a world of possibilities opens up. Mentor texts and their particular magic begin to reveal themselves to us. We are no longer alone in our teaching of writing. We are lifted up by the writers we know and trust. They become our unwitting collaborators. How great is that? A mentor text is any piece of writing that can be used to teach a writer about some aspect of writer’s craft. A small extract may well be sufficient to qualify as a piece of mentor text. Think of those favourite books you have read many times, those books you know like a friend. Think of those books you find yourself easily quoting.  For me, the best mentor texts are those that can be used time and again throughout the year to demonstrate many different characteristics of writing. It is easy to teach aspects of writing using texts where a comfortable familiarity exists.  Some of my most trusted mentor texts ar...

Going to The Special Place As I walked towards the entrance to the supermarket today, a woman was leaving accompanied by her young son. She was held down by numerous shopping bags and he was blithely skipping a few steps ahead of his bag toting mother. With renewed effort she caught up to the boy and leaning into his ear announced, ‘When we get home we can go to the special place and together let’s build another dinosaur just like we did last time.’ The small boy said nothing. He did however give his mother a knowing smile… A brief exchange between a parent and a child. An appointment made for some genuine quality time between them. A compelling reason to hasten home. As I entered the supermarket to begin the mundane task of hunting and gathering up and down the aisles for a list of items for dinner that evening, I was warmed by the memory of that brief eavesdropping moment. The words are etched in my mind. Every time I overhear such interactions I recall...

Seeing the potential a particular text has to offer one’s teaching of writing is a critical skill to develop. When we practice the art of reading like writers, a world of possibilities opens up. Mentor texts and their particular magic begin to reveal themselves to us. We are no longer alone in our teaching of writing. We are lifted up by the writers we know and trust. How great is that? What are Mentor Texts? A mentor text is any piece of writing that can be used to teach a writer about some aspect of writer’s craft. A small extract may well be sufficient to qualify as a piece of mentor text. Think of those favourite books you have read many times, those books you know like a friend. Think of those books you find yourself easily quoting. The best mentor texts are those that can be used numerous times throughout the school year to demonstrate many different characteristics of a text. It is easy to teach aspects of writing using texts where an easy familiarity exists. W...

I had a doctor’s appointment today. I have developed my own personal plan for visiting the doctor. I always take my own book to read. The selection of magazines in medical waiting rooms has little appeal to this pernickety reader. Annie Dillard’s words resonate in my head each time I enter the waiting zone- ‘Be careful what you read, for that is what you’ll write.’ With those critical words ringing in my ears, I avoid the trash mags, Field and Gun, 50 Ways With Avocado, Health Warning magazines, and those dog eared out of date travel magazines.  When my doctor greets me, the question often gets asked, ‘What are you reading?’ and the conversation between two readers flows naturally from that point. People in a waiting room often sit in what the late Warren Zevon referred to as, ‘splendid isolation.’ We are seemingly like silos, content to sit in silence until  we hear our name called. I am part of that silent majority. Book in hand, I quietly took a seat. As I sat re...

Some weeks  in my writing life result in a large number of notebook entries. Entries varied and holding great personal satisfaction for me as writer, as a collector.  This last week has provided quite a harvest of potential writing ideas. I began the week writing about a brief encounter. I had been talking to teachers about assisting students to write about small moments and found myself thinking about a personal experience. An experience from my teenage years. ‘Sometimes you find yourself in the right place at the right time. I recall standing beside a creek not far from my childhood home. The forest around me was briefly quiet allowing the flow of the creek to be clearly heard. It flowed by, murmuring a soft flub-flub as it cornered the bank. Suddenly a mid –sized fish, a trout, I suspect, broke the surface of the stream, heaving its body upwards as if shot from a cannon. It disappeared with a watery slap of bubbles and foam. The surface of the water quickly...