Living Life Twice

Every writer has special sources for the ideas that spark their writing. In reality, ideas are waiting all around us. Those inspirational sparks are many and varied. They are hiding in plain sight, awaiting discovery. They saturate the world in which we operate daily. The writer must develop the skill of recognizing an idea’s potential and then shaping it to their particular vision. The challenge in the classroom is how to assist those beginning to discover writing, how best to harness ideas and express them in a multitude of ways. The inexperienced writer needs support in becoming a keen observer, an enthusiastic collector and an active listener in order to better capture these writing ideas. Stories begin to loom large in the lives of young writers. It is therefore important to nurture this growing sense of story while simultaneously creating opportunities for them to create their very own -real, imagined or blended. Storytelling Before the invention of the printing press, books were...

For the last two weeks I have been working with schools in Australia’s Northern Territory. I have had the pleasure of meeting enthusiastic young writers and their equally enthusiastic teachers.  From Darwin I have been able to visit schools close to the city such as Wagaman Primary School where I worked to 23 teachers from a collection of schools. Pre-briefing sessions were followed by classroom demonstrations and then debriefings. A day of rich writing conversations. Young writers and teachers examined my writer's notebooks and were encouraged to carry away as many ideas as their minds could carry. More scenes from Wagaman Primary School of young writers and teachers exploring notebooks. Writers share. When it comes to writer's notebooks in the classroom, teachers and kids need to reach an agreed understanding - the notebook requires regular feeding in order to remain healthy. The writer must collect a large quantity of material and it needs to be varied in natu...

I continue to field questions concerning the structure, or architecture of the writer’s workshop. Graduate teachers, teachers from other jurisdictions, teachers returning from leave all seeking to know and understand the basics of structure around the workshop. So, let’s revisit this critical consideration: Component Purpose What Happens? Connection/tuning in/ To help students make connections to previous work and to activate their prior knowledge.   Talk about how this topic fits with the class’ previous learning and how it connects with the student’s as both readers and writers   (Remember yesterday when we were discussing...?’) Teaching/ Mini Lesson To clearly or explicitly show students how to do something we’d like them to practice as writers. To explicitly and mindfully communicate the focus of the lesson Demonstrate, explain to students a strategy to try. Retelling or rolepl...

The most effective way to teach writing is to be a writer yourself. That way you can better appreciate the challenges and the joys of the craft. As a writing partner, you place yourself in a position of increased credibility. You present yourself as a model of a living, breathing writer. Writers need to be brave, and your decision to become a writing partner, identifies you as a genuine risk taker.  As a writer, you surely deserve a place to record your reactions to the daily events in the world that surrounds you. Developing your own writer’s notebook is the ideal way to demonstrate your commitment to a writing kind of life.  In this special book of your own choosing you are able to show your students how you react to the world; record your thoughts, your wonderings and harvest your ideas.  There might also be lists (names, places), anecdotes and words. Phrases and short descriptions of people, places and events may also be used to trigger a memory for more in dep...

I was recently approached to comment as a critical friend about how a school was using the writer's notebook to develop the writing of students. They had experienced some confusion around how this valuable resource should be viewed. One view was described as follows: 'Students use their writer’s notebook to create any writing piece they want, in any style, for any purpose, however they wish, whenever they wish, at all times? (E.g. Everyone in the class is writing completely different things, depending entirely on their own desires.)' While this position most accurately aligns to the vision of authentic writing approaches, it doesn’t quite cover what actually needs to be taking place in the classroom and beyond. It would be erroneous to think the role of the most experienced writer in the classroom is supplanted by this pedagogical stance. It is critically important for teacher- writers to play an active role in the writing lives of students. We most certainly w...