Living Life Twice

Quite some   years back, I found myself talking to a group of enthusiastic Year one writers keen to commence their writing pieces. As they stood up from the carpet to return to their seats, I realized that the spark of imagination that would fire my own writing ideas, had suddenly evaporated.  The students all seemed fired up and ready to create the miracle of meaningful marks on paper There I   was the most experienced writer in the room,  completely blank, unable to conjure up a single thing to write about. I was trying to will my brain into action. A damp foggy mist had descended upon my writing mind. An unexpected intrusion on my normally rich inner world of ideas. A small boy stood beside me at this critical juncture and casually announced, 'I’m going to write about the first time I went fishing on Saturday with my Dad.' 'Oh thank you,' I said with an audible sigh of relief. The bemused child looked at me unsure as to what he had actually done. 'You have ju...

Writing Creates Its Own Magic I spend a lot of time thinking about writing. Almost as much time as I do actually composing thoughts and ideas.  As a student I was taught what to write, rather than how to write. The teacher frequently said -here is the genre, here is the topic, now show what you can do.  As a consequence I have always striven to teach in ways that demystify writing, trying to build understanding through modeled, guided and independent practice.  Much of my teaching life has focused on sharing the knowledge I have gathered from my sustained writing life. I am keen to share what writing has taught me with young writers and their teachers. If what I share helps to set inexperienced writers up to be successful, to view themselves as confident writers, then my mission has been successful. Writers share. They willingly unpack their understanding about writing in the hope a less experienced writer may benefit from knowing important aspects of the craft.  You...

  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...

  A recent question from a teacher prompted me to think more deeply about publishing student writing . She was searching for professional reading that dealt more deeply with the publishing phase of the writing process. My own search revealed that many of the available texts deal more comprehensively with the lead up (revision, editing) to publishing than publishing itself. It doesn’t seem to get the attention that it deserves. Publishing and all it entails is only lightly explored in many professional texts.  I have always believed that when the young writer reaches this important stage of the process, a wonderful opportunity exists for empowering the writer to make some really important decisions concerning the shape and form of the final product.  I had to go back to one of my earliest books on writing- ‘ Writing, Teachers and Children at Work ’, Donald Graves , to find any meaty detail surrounding this part of the process. Reading Graves’ words was like...

Curiosity Writers are well served by the presence of natural curiosity. Curiosity about a wide range of things. The great thing about curiosity is that once it takes hold, there is no cure. A curious writer is never in danger of becoming bored.  At least that's how it has always been for this curious learner... Curiosity frequently leads me to writing. It is a natural form of learning and helps us to become more attuned to observation. By becoming a collector of information-whether trivial or significant, I can apply the findings to my writing projects. Writing provides a powerful outlet for the learning and observation we have acquired. Writers learn to observe closely the world around them. They read books, watch news and current affairs programs, they do a lot of people watching and examine things within their daily lives. They also ask themselves lots of questions about the things they've seen. Furthermore, they jot down their observations and then use their notes to help t...

  Book Week 2021 I had so much fun this morning with on line reading of poems- older poems from my books and some freshly minted poems from my recent notebook gatherings. I shared them with two groups of impressionable 5-7 year old  readers & writers from Rowville PS. We explored poetry's vast terrain to show all the worlds in which ideas for writing await us... Not surprisingly,  I enjoyed presenting and sharing. I hope my enthusiastic reading and sharing delivers some writing energy and confidence. Some little spark of an idea to set these young poets going... Finger's crossed. It was fun for me to be able to share a little of my experience and hopefully my love of poetry was apparent to these curious learners. Here are two of the poems I shared. Hope you like them too. Feel free to share them with other curious learners and probationary poets.

It goes by several names. That brief few minutes at the end of the writing workshop. Sometimes it’s called ‘share time’. Some people refer to it as ‘share out’ or simply “share.” It’s that time at the conclusion of a lesson that all too often gets squeezed out, which is a tragedy, because it represents a critical stage in the lesson, -It’s the finale that’s provides closure to an effective lesson. It’s when the fat lady of writing sings. And the aria is in praise of the writing that has just taken place! Deny her time in the spotlight and you are diminishing the integrity of your writing program. We should never underestimate the intrinsic value of ‘sharing’ writing. It remains an incredibly valuable teaching and learning opportunity. It should be protected within the workshop structure, as one would protect anything of value. For the teacher, it provides an invaluable opportunity to provide feedback on elements of the lesson just concluded. Sometimes it’s a chance to c...

As I opened my suitcase of surprises, the assembled students peered forward hoping to gain an advanced sighting of the contents. I had brought a collection of Writer’s Notebooks to share with them. During my previous visit I had informed them that I would bring some notebooks to share. They had gathered some artefacts and made some preliminary lists of things that they considered potential topics for their writing, but neither the teacher, nor the students had much previous experience with Writer’s Notebooks. They quickly formed into groups of three as I distributed the notebooks. ‘I want you to be readers and researchers. I want you to be text detectives and make a note of the different types of entries you see in my notebooks. Feel free to take as many ideas as you can carry away. Writers share.'  I wanted them to see the broad influences on my writing. I told them that there are many ways to use a writer’s notebook. I further explained that what they would be seeing is ...

It goes by several names. That brief few minutes at the end of the writing workshop. Sometimes it’s called ‘share time’. Some people refer to  it as ‘share out’ or simply 'share.' It’s that time at the conclusion of a lesson that all too often gets squeezed out, This is a tragedy given it represents a critical stage in the lesson. The integrity of the writing program is diminished if these important writing matters are not reviewed. We should never underestimate the intrinsic value of ‘sharing’ writing. It remains an incredibly valuable teaching and learning opportunity. It should be protected within the workshop structure, as one would protect anything of value. For the teacher, it provides an invaluable opportunity to provide feedback on elements of the lesson just concluded. It is also an opportunity to link that day's workshop to future action the writer might consider. Sometimes, it’s a chance to celebrate a discovery, a breakthrough, a special moment where th...

The Nurturing of Self Directed , Independent Writers As a classroom teacher, parent information evenings always meant the inevitable question arose, ‘What are your expectations for my son/daughter this year?’ It’s a great question to ask a teacher and I was prepared for it, having thought long and hard about how I would respond.  I always wanted my students to develop into independent, self-directed learners and I had a year to achieve my goal. With the support of parents and the co-operation of the students, it was a goal for all of us to pursue.  When attempting to foster self-directed learners, everything we do becomes important -what we do as educators; in every aspect of our teaching  Let’s consider what we do in the writing classroom. In an increasing number of classrooms teachers encourage student writers to choose their own topics and writing projects. They purposefully teach their students routines and procedures for conducting themselves independ...