Living Life Twice

  ‘Giving young writers genuine choice is the best way I know to create an environment where they can flourish.’  Ralph Fletcher  Some suggestions for teachers of writing to consider in regard to using writer's notebooks in the classroom writing program. • Choice of notebook is the first opportunity to practice choice. Allow each writer to choose a notebook that meets their needs. • Allow notebooks to move between school and home to create a bridge between the two locations. Encourage writing in multiple locations, at different times. • Not everything written in a notebook has to be published or fully drafted. Not everything is significant.  • Respect the integrity of the notebook by not writing in them. Don’t try to control the notebook, otherwise it may well become just another ‘workbook’ in the eyes of the young writer. Its integrity will fade away. It is not assessed or scrutinized. It is nourished and supported as a writer’s resource. • At all times th...

I regularly indulge in a bit of wordplay in my  Writer's Notebook... I believe it is vitally important our interactions with words retain a genuine sense of playfulness. We must encourage this same playfulness among the young writers we trying to grow . There is no better way than through our own wordplay efforts. Show your impressionable students that you know how to be both joyful and creative around language. Fellow writer and educator, the renowned, Ralph Fletcher in his book, Pyrotechnics On The Page had this to say regarding wordplay- 'Skilled writers often deliberately play with language along the way. such play is not subordinate to meaning. In fact this language play is often what the writing is about.' Here are a few examples from various notebooks. Joining words and endings to create sentences Comedian and logophile Rich Hall alerted me to Sniglets Lists of possible inclusions for a poem about strange dining delights Collage poetry challenges you to create mean...

Each time I visit a school as part of a Meet The Author Day and talk to groups of young writers about the writing life I am passionately pursuing, certain questions arise during the course of a session: Where do you get your ideas? What inspired you to write poetry? Do you have a favourite poem? Do you prefer rhyming verse or free verse? How long have you been writing poetry? How did you get your poetry book published? How long does it take to write a book? All these questions are valid. All of them quite normal. But one Grade 6 boy’s question set me to thinking more deeply about my response. He raised his hand and asked, ‘Do you like sport? I have been asked this question  many times before. In fact, it has been raised with me on numerous occasions and it is always posed by boys. I suspect that in the minds of many boys, poetry and sports are viewed as mutually exclusive pursuits. Poetry is seemingly passive and sport,  an active pursuit preferred by the maj...

The childhood of my youth appears to have gone the way of tape recorders, cassette players, CD's and the like. At the very least such items are on an endangered list. When sharing childhood experiences with today’s generation of students, I realize that our respective childhood experiences are world's apart. My generation grew up in small houses with big backyards. The focus of our daily existence was the world outdoors. We had extraordinary freedom to explore our immediate world. The children I now work with, (and I’m talking in general terms here) live in bigger houses, with small backyards and the focus of their lives is frequently indoors. The growth of digital technology in its myriad forms calls after them like a siren. It urges them to remain under cover. X box, computer games, and a multitude of screens win out over an outdoor lifestyle. The digital revolution has swept over our lives like a metaphorical tsunami. Freedom appears to have diminished. It ...