Living Life Twice

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...

Here's a way to encourage the growth of metacognitive writers and support young writers to pay greater attention to the wondrous words of fellow writers. Ask your curious and keen young learners to gather some of their favourite books, then choose a page number. Turn to that page in each book and read until your eyes settle on words you wish you had written. Copy that extract with full attribution into your notebook.It is most important to acknowledge the source of the words chosen. This can be hand written or typed. I chose to type my chosen extracts, sometimes though I hand write them. When you finish compiling your entries, talk to a fellow writer and explain your choices. Envisage yourself writing in that style. Don't forget to try it first before you invite your young writers to try it for themselves. It's a wonderful opportunity to model how practice reading like a writer. This strategy differs from 'Words I Wish I Had Written' which involves writing random e...

  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...

  Literacy experts Sharon and Phil Callen from Cue Learning joined me recently to talk about ways to bring poetry to life in the classroom. Here for your listening enjoyment is the link to that learning conversation: Poetry Podcast  - Embracing Poetry As Reader And Writer. EPISODE NOTES In the ongoing discussion about the importance of poetry for literacy, this episode draws on the important insights and practical tips from highly experienced education expert Alan Wright. Alan is an education consultant and author who has worked extensively in the United States and Australia, promoting best practice in primary and secondary schools and at a systems level. While based in New York (2001-2006) Alan worked across primary, middle and high schools supporting teachers, school districts, regions and school leadership teams, effecting improved learning outcomes for students in literacy. This consultancy work took him into more than 100 schools, predominantly in the urban schools of t...

  In this collection of stories, writers talk about the authors they revered as children; the stories and poems that  shaped their own work. A teacher I was working with as a literacy consultant, once boldly announced, ‘ I don’t want my students to know anything about my life. I am just here to teach.’  The comment disturbed me on a number of levels. It represented no sense of the need to bond with students. I had the impression the teacher was simply a forlorn imitation of a living, breathing teacher. When we make the effort to bond with students, we consciously humanize ourselves. We connect with our students more effectively when we provide insights as to how we operate as lifelong learners. In order to do this, we need to give something of ourselves and that requires an emotional commitment, not just the rolling out of curriculum. It continues to surprise me how many of my colleagues conduct secret reading and writing lives. Literate lives hidden from their students a...

In these times of social solitude, I  have been consciously delving back into books previously read. Pulling titles from the shelves and rediscovering treasure among the pages. It is proving a rich and rewarding experience. Stimulating thought, arousing curiosity and prompting action. Yesterday, it was Robert McFarlane’s ‘ Landmarks ’ published in 2016. A celebration of landscapes and language. McFarlane writes with fierce enthusiasm for the wonderful words residing in the natural world. He cites a 2012 national report concerning ‘Natural Childhood’ conducted in the UK concerning the lives of children between 1970 and 2010. The report noted that the area children were permitted to play unsupervised shrank by 90 % across that period. A dramatic downturn in free range play in untamed or wild places. Across successive generations the roaming radius of children has collapsed to mean just the house, the garden if one exists and the pavement in front of the house. Increasing...