Friday Reflections

Several people “in the know” recently recommended a writing website – Two Writing Teachers  -  @2writingteachrs . Honestly it is taking me a little time to maneuver inside the website; if this website had not been so highly recommended, I would not have plowed my way through it. First of all, it’s not two writers – it started out as two writers in 2007, but when one of the original two writers left the blog – more and more were added – they are up to eight now.  You may want to open the “ABOUT” heading on their home page to read about these eight – their credentials are impressive. One way I will use to familiarize myself with the website, is to hone in on the postings of one of the eight bloggers. I plan to check out Elizabeth (Beth) Moore’s postings –since she’s done work with Lucy Calkins. Here’s an idea that might be useful to you for your writing workshops. Undoubtedly, some of you are familiar with the idea of Heart Maps as a way to build a writing life for your students.

Good morning or evening – Last week I wrote about Bazz – and realized just how deeply I am touched by her passion for Pershing.  Within the last few days I wrote about an issue I was having with one of my brothers – a sort of Ground Hog day occurrence that needed to  change.  Through a brief stint of writing, I was able to uncover some of the underlying issues and some possible solutions to moving forward. So I’m still pondering Lucy Calkin’s case for her underlying premise of the Writing Workshop, i.e., writing begins with lifework.  She quotes John Cheever – “When I begin to write, I found this was the best way to make sense of my life”.   The following questions arise out of this simple, profound statement: Is writing about one’s life, the first necessary step on the journey to becoming a writer? If I don’t write about my life, will I be less able to make sense out of it? Is providing students opportunities to write about their lives giving them a way to negotiate conflicts

Several weeks ago I suggested a possible writing assignment – “ have students interview each other and write a paragraph about the other classmate”.    I decided to do just that – the following paragraph is my first draft describing Bazz – along with thoughts about Bazz.   I certainly get what Calkins is saying about why we want our kids to write – to make meaning – to make sense of our life.  

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