The Art of Teaching Writing

I recently read several pages on the writing process from the beginning of Lucy Calkin’s book The Art of Teaching Writing.  I found the pages to be inspirational and rock solid. 

 Lots of “aha” moments in these few pages from Calkins.  Aha – “Writing allows us to hold our life in our hands and make something of it”. Aha – the richness of a piece of writing comes from “lingering with a bit of life and layering it with meaning”.   Aha – “writing …is not a process of recording details but one of making significance of them. 

Calkins makes these aha statements real with several examples.  She shares the writing of fifteen year Jose and his response to a mother rabbit giving birth to her babies – and of Jose’s initial response to the birth and then another entry about the birth after he lingered with the event and layered more meaning on the experience. Calkins also tells a touching story about how her young son Miles replaces his tattered favorite baby blanket with one of her  old T-shirts. Calkins takes this moment in her head and heart and “declares it a treasure”.  She explains that often writing begins with something that has not yet found significance, but by exploring an experience further we uncover its deeper meaning.

I remember one piece of writing from my school years that fit Calkin’s description. The assignment was about writing about an experience that taught an important lesson.  I wrote about how I had said something very cruel to my friend and knew that I was wrong.  Writing about the experience was invaluable.  It helped me realize the impact of my words as well as helped me forgive myself and look at the person I wanted to be. 

I also wrote a best man’s speech for my older brother’s wedding that had to go through several revisions. I had to continually  I looked back on crazy moments and dug into those moments to uncover how my brother’s reactions and actions helped describe how fun it was and what a privilege it is to be his  his younger brother.  

But I would have to say that I didn’t have a steady diet of writing.  I wish I had teachers who followed some of Calkin’s guidelines.    Just like anything else, to get good at something, we need to do it and do it often.