Living Life Twice

  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...

  Some Writing Conversation Starters To Consider: Here are a collection of possible prompts to initiate a writing conversation. The questions we ask young writers should aim to evoke a response that sheds light on the writer's process and thinking. Hope they help you in your important work as teachers of writing and teachers of writers...   Tell me about a part of your writing that you really like   Can you tell where your writing could be improved?   What do you need help with? What do you need to work on to make it better?   What kind of revisions have you made?   Why did you write about this topic in this way (genre/style)?   Why is it important to you to write about this topic/subject?   What writing strategy did you use to lift the quality of your writing?   Tell me one you have learned about good writing that you will continue to use in your writin...

  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...

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...

Teaching Kids To Write: Some Beliefs Across more than 50 years as an educator and writer, I have been fortunate to gather much invaluable experience regarding the growth and development of curious, confident writers. May I be so bold as to share a few of my considered thoughts regarding these matters in this post... These things I hold to be true: • Writers need to know their stories. They might have to tell them many times or engage in a lot of thinking before they arrive at the writing. Pre-writing, and rehearsal are therefore critical to improved writing outcomes. •The teaching of writing needs to be seen through a child’s eyes. Are students writing about their view of the world? Can we help them to talk and write richly about their lives and those things that matter? •Writing children do should let us know what it is like to see the world through their eyes and their perspective. •We won’t get honest writing and true voice from writers who are denied CHOICE in both topic and genre....