Anyone else feel a little intimidated about writing about writing knowing that everyone who reads your post has just read ninety-three pages about how to write well? There are so many fine points to comment on from this week’s reading that I’m struggling to decide which ones to write about. The whole process of writing is such an art, with each piece representing the unique voice of its author. The first six chapters of “Crafting Writers” really opened my eyes to the analysis of what makes each voice unique and how to inspire young writers to find their own voice.
Elizabeth Hale has compiled a great collection of examples for us to draw from and to share with our future students. While I feel that I’m capable of recognizing writing that I find enjoyable, I’ve never actually analyzed what it is about the writing that really captures my attention. Ms. Hale’s process of gathering craft has helped clarify how to identify those specifics that will encourage students to expand their writing capabilities. I especially appreciate that she includes the reasoning behind each craft because I’m as a bad as any kid when it comes needing some good rationale to convince me that something’s worth doing! Reading the examples with the “why’s” clearly shows the various nuances that different writing crafts can add to a story.
I also like that Ms. Hale encourages us not only to help our students find their own writing voice but also for us to find our own teaching voice. By identifying crafts and developing our own craft names, we get to take ownership of that craft, hopefully in a way that will resonate with our students. It seems like too often in life we’re trying to find the “correct” way to do something, but Ms. Hale is showing us that, when it comes to writing, it’s not necessary to “show the student a better way to compose, just a different way, so that he or she now has more choices as a writer.”
As I said earlier, there are so many wonderful ideas contained in what I just finished reading- ensuring that children are using words that they can identify with, introducing the creative writing process one (or two) crafts at a time, building upon each student’s individual abilities, supplying multiple examples that are meaningful to the students, using sentence lengths to add variety, etc. I feel I could write endlessly about this topic but must move onto completing my reading for math. Somehow, I doubt that I will find it to be quite as inspiring . . .
I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt a little weird writing a blog post after I'd just read about good writing.
ReplyDeleteI also felt the same way about teaching different ways rather than the "right" way. It's liberating, since I clearly don't know what the right way would be.
I wish I would have added how much I loved the WHY that Hale gave in my own blog! Aside from the idea of naming (which gives both the teacher and the student ownership of the craft), the tables of specific crafts and the WHY's were unbelievable helpful. Honestly, they helped me look back at my writing over the years and see in my mind instances where I may have used one or another.
ReplyDeleteAs for the "right" way, I think its a bit like the "right" answer - there isn't one in the end. I find much of our reading in all classes is attempting to instill in us this philosophy. And maybe as students ourselves, we should start thinking that way - no "right" answer per se. Patti's right - it is liberating!
I really like how you talked about not "correcting" a student's writing but rather showing them a "different" way to give them more options in their writing.
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