Category Archives: writing

Old School Writing Reading List

Education, reading, writing

Tuesday is Twitterverse day and today I met William Chamberlain (@wmchamberlain) who tweeted about speed writing as a way to build creativity with his 6th grade students. I was suddenly back in my own language arts classroom in the late 80s and early 90s where I did similar kinds of activities as I tried to encourage the students to see themselves as writers. I decided to put together an old school reading list for the current generation. I know, in education, we are often encouraged to use more “up-to-date” sources but sometimes authority from the past can be a guide. Here are a few books that guided my practice all those years ago:

In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning by Nancie Atwell: I read the original from 1987 and this book became the centerpiece of my middle school language arts curriculum. With a friendly, encouraging voice, she guided me through the radical act of putting the basal reader on the shelf and pulling out the battered paperbacks. Of putting aside the neat worksheets on sentence writing and letting the kids just write, sometimes even about anything they wanted. The updated version includes lessons learned from Atwell’s years as a teacher. It’s nice to know that she learned along with the rest of us: “I know my students and I will continue to learn and be changed. I am resigned—happily—to be always beginning for the rest of my life as a teacher.”

Writing: Teachers and Students at Work by Donald Graves: This wonderful book about reading and writing and teachers and students now has a 20th anniversary edition. Graves passed away two years ago but his ideas about how we can encourage reading and writing as lifelong skills live on in his work and the thousands of teachers like me who were inspired to open our classrooms to his enthusiasm. When I read the book, I pictured him hunkered down in a little chair, face close to an earnest young writer, discussing the work at hand. He made me want to talk to kids more and learn about their thinking.

The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy McCormick Calkins: Another classic for the writing teacher. I think I gravitated to the focus on the “art” of writing in response to a more grammar-centered curriculum followed by some of my colleagues. Just as with Atwell and Graves, I found in Calkins a kindred spirit who saw the potential for making students more confident in themselves as human beings who could use language to express their greatest dreams and deepest concerns.

Writing Without Teachers by Peter Elbow: A manifesto for getting writing out of the hands of teachers altogether. Elbow advocates free writing as a major tool for heating up the creative juices and argues for writing groups where members share and critique work together. The original was published in 1978 and it seems to have the aura of that time: people breaking out of expected roles and looking for ways to express themselves more freely. This isn’t necessarily about teaching but his ideas can be beneficial for anyone who wants to include more writing in their lives.

It is a testament to the longevity of these writers that their books have come out in updated editions. With the exception of Donald Graves, the others are alive and well and still writing and thinking and sharing. I’m sorry that none of them seem to be blogging but in my search, I did discover that not everyone loves the idea of reading and writing workshops.

Finally, you should definitely see what Mr. Chamberlain is doing with his students…as busy as he is, it is great that he takes the time to use the web to show his students and their work. Right now, he is looking for funding for an after school ukelele class.

 

Some National Novel Writing Month Fun

writing

I’m late on this: National Novel Writing Month started on Thursday. I actually started a novel! Skipped all the planning and character development and just dove into an opening scene. Now, I’ve been thinking about it for a day and a half and might just write a bit more. I’m not ready to share it publicly nor do I really have a serious plan to write 50,000 words during November.

I am something of a more cloistered fiction writer than Chris Baty and his friends when they held the first NaNoWriMo in 1999:

But fun? Fun was a revelation. Novel-writing, we had discovered, was just like watching TV. You get a bunch of friends together, load up on caffeine and junk food, and stare at a glowing screen for a couple hours. And a story spins itself out in front of you.

I think the scene—full of smack-talk and muffin crumbs on our keyboards—would have rightly horrified professional writers. We had taken the cloistered, agonized novel-writing process and transformed it into something that was half literary marathon and half block party.

We called it noveling. And after the noveling ended on August 1, my sense of what was possible for myself, and those around me, was forever changed. If my friends and I could write passable novels in a month, I knew, anyone could do it.

Noveling: it reminds me of one of my favorite Monty Python sketches: Novel Writing.  It’s Thomas Hardy writing Return of the Native in front of a live audience.

And the group approach was reminiscent of a Simpson’s episode called The Book Job where Homer and his friends write a piece of young adult literature with a little bit of culinary help from Neil Gaiman.

The event has grown into a month-long writing fest with events all over the world. There were numerous write ins in my area being held at Starbucks, Panera Bread, and public libraries.

Why not give it a try? It’s the perfect 30 Day Challenge.

A bit of contemporary literary fun for National Novel Writing Month.

 

On Writing

Education, writing

It is late. I am tired.  It has been a long but fun day of sharing and learning with educational leaders. But I made a commitment to blog every day and blog I will.  So, I’m going to write about writing.

As part of a recognition of National Day on Writing, on October 19, Steve J. Moore at Edutopia writes about why he writes with his students and the role writing plays in his own life:

Beginning to see myself as a writer, and coming to understand that this wasn’t some magical and unreachable status, was a crucial step on my journey in teaching. I encourage you to start writing for yourself and share what you do with your students. You won’t be disappointed.

Like many ideas, this idea is not new. As a young teacher, I read Nancie Atwell and was completely hooked on the idea of reading and writing workshops and loved spending time writing with my students. Ini 1985, Tom Gillespie suggested that writing himself makes him a better writing teacher:

Thus, as a writer paying attention to my own work, I learn to be more keenly attentive to my students’ work. My careful observation and listening to them is enriched by my careful observation and listening to myself as I write.

I don’t mind that a younger generation is adopting an old idea.  It’s a good one a worth refreshing in this era of online publishing.

And I was reminded of one of my favorite leadership writers: Warren Bennis.  In his classic, On Becoming a Leader, he describes the importance of writing to leaders:

Writing is the most profound way of codifying your thoughts, the best way of learning from yourself who you are and what you believe.

And here’s a short video interview of Bennis talking about writing his memoir.  He encourages others to do as, starting at an earlier age than he does.

Surfacing

blogging, writing, , ,

My last post was at the end of January, just about the time that I finished the data collection for my dissertation.  I spent the next five months analyzing and writing and successfully defended my study on June 3, 2009.  It took the rest of the summer to finish it and then I plunged back into work.  A combination of feeling pretty broke after not working for several months and a worry about being bored led me to take on several different projects, all of which seemed to have major deadlines in October and November so all those hours I freed up by finishing graduate school (I figure somewhere around 30 hours a week) were suddenly filled.  Any plans I had for posting some blog entries or even twittering were abandoned.

But now the work load has subsided a bit and I actually spent today reading and crocheting rather than working.  I got on my computer to check in to the online classes I’m teaching and to harvest a few crops in Farmville.  And, I had an urge to write, too. It’s funny…I was really worried about being able to find the time and energy to read once I finished my degree.  So many people had told me that they hadn’t been able to read for a long time after finishing their degrees.  And reading whatever I wanted was one of those things I kept promising myself that I was going to do when I was done.  So, I made an effort to read and even did some writing about my reading on my personal blog.

What I didn’t seem to be able to do is write professionally.  In fact, the last thing I wrote was a proposal for the American Educational Research Association conference.  I’m happy to say it was accepted.  I’ve been doing a lot of creating or what you might think of as 21st century writing: a website for a STEM project, the first in a video series called Math in Real Life and two episodes of a new podcast.  I’ve also been doing a lot of data work including Moodle administration, survey development, and a conference handout book.  And there’s been some flash programming for a kids’ website I’ve been working on with my husband. But, with the exception of some personal journaling and a few blog posts about books, I haven’t been writing, not even Twitter posts.  I should be working on an article about my study and I have passing thoughts about twitter posts and blog entries.  But I just can’t commit to the process.  (Just as an aside, this is my second stab at getting this blog post done.)

I’m not sure about the source of the block.  I do know that I find it difficult to write off the cuff they way I used to when I wrote blog entries.  They weren’t completely stream of conscious but I certainly didn’t draft them the way I did my dissertation.  The first three chapters of the study began as the proposal so they probably went through somewhere around 8 to 10 drafts and were written over the course of a year.  The last two chapters only went through two drafts and were written in about three months.  But that was three months of almost full time drafting, writing and revising.  It was intensive but also satisfying and productive.

But it seems to have ruined me for writing anything else. I want to edit every sentence, labor over every work, craft each paragraph.  I worry about having something important to say and whether I should be adding citations.  The freedom I used to feel as I wrote blog entries eludes me.

So, for tonight I’m going to stop and publish this…just get some words moving around.

Literacy in Context

21st Century Skills, literacy, reading, technical skills, technology, writing

There’s been an interesting back and forth in Twitter about 21st century literacy.  Tomorrow, it will spill over into an Elluminate session that I am sorry I will have to miss.  I’ve written about 21st century skills in the past, equating them with leadership skills and suggesting that Ben Franklin possessed most of the skills that we now label “21st century.” So, Ben Grey’s eloquent post about 21st century literacies resonated with me:

I believe this is where the whole notion is lost on me.  If we’re talking about literacy, let’s talk about literacy, as in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.  If we’re talking about other skills that people need to be successful in the modern era, then we’re probably talking about skills rather than literacies.  If we’re being specific about these skills applying uniquely to the 21st century, we should probably call them such.  Although, are there really any skills that are being called 21st Century Skills that are new in the 21st century?  Think about it.  The Partnership for 21st Century Skills believes demonstrating originality, communicating, being open and responsive, acting on creative ideas, utilizing time efficiently, accessing information, etc. are all 21st Century Skills.  I’d retort that in reality, these skills have always been in existence and of the utmost importance.  They don’t need to have the 21st Century moniker on them to make them significant.

In another post, he describes how his ideas about literacy relate to a tool like Voice Thread:

The real essence of using VoiceThread, however, is in engaging the true process of literacy.  First, I must either read or listen to the original idea being posted.  Once I’ve gathered meaning by doing so, I can formulate a response.  To respond, I will either speak or write my thoughts.  If I can’t do these core tenets of literacy effectively, VoiceThread will be useless to me.  It is the very act of engaging literacy that makes this process meaningful.

Certainly, Voice Thread relies on what some might consider “traditional” literacy skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.  But there is another component that puts pressure on that definition: the use of images.  These might be the static images we choose to illustrate blog entries or they might be compiled into slide shows and videos, integrated with audio and text. Both choosing the images and then being able to read them seems to demand adding “viewing” to the definition.  I didn’t really understand visual literacy until I began making movies.  Learning how to let images help carry some of the story was an important lesson for me.

Literacy also has to do with knowing how to use available tools effectively and efficiently.  Learning to write across technologies is something I’ve considered before. Dean Shareski provides a perfect example when he writes about his frustrations with trying to use Twitter for deep conversations:

Certainly a great link can be posted but the minute a tweet engages people in a meaningful way that requires any degree of unwrapping, my immediate thought is “get a room”.  Frustrations mount as complex ideas are squeezed into a simple text messaging tool.

He recommends that people move into new spaces that allow more in-depth reflection:

Many newcomers to social media are trying to cram all forms of thinking and sharing into a single space such as Facebook or Twitter. I don’t think that’s a good idea.  While I always encourage people to start somewhere, I don’t mean for them to stay in one space.  So if you’re new to social media you might want to think about adding another space to your identity.  Take the idea tossed around in twitter and take it deep in your own space. Even if you only decontruct it yourself or have a couple of comments I think you’ll find that a more satisfying experience that trying to follow short snippets of insight. Twitter is great but a steady diet of twitter is like only ordering appetizers. At some point, you’ll want a main course.

His metaphor prompted me to think of one of my own: for me, Twitter is like a cocktail party.  We’re all sort of generally chatting and then a serious conversation takes off in the corner and we can eavesdrop and even got involved.  It dies down and may or may not be preserved but each person can take their bits and pieces and do something with them.  For bloggers like Dean, it might be a blog post.  For someone else, it might be a conversation in the teachers’ lounge. But the point is that different communication media have different languages and purposes and being able to navigate them effectively should be part of the definition of literacy.

And, once again, I reach into history to think about two people who were quite literate: Abigail and John Adams.  Like Ben Franklin, they used the communication media of their time more effectively than most people and their letters are a pleasure to read.  (And thanks to the Massachusetts Historical Society, you can not only read them but also view the originals!)  They hashed over the most petty domestic problems in the midst of conversations about revolution.  Since they spent much time apart, those letters were an important place for them to build their relationship, with over 1100 letters exchanged.  The pace is glacial when compared to our instantaneous world.  Talk about slow blogging!

Adams thought about literacy in his own time.  In a letter written just days after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams reflected on how different types of writing require different styles of language:

It is worth the while of a Person, obliged to write as much as I do, to consider the Varieties of Style …. The Epistolary, is essentially different from the oratorical, and the Historical Style …. Oratory abounds with Figures. History is simple, but grave, majestic and formal. Letters, like Conversation, should be free, easy, and familiar.

Abigail seems to take him at his word and her reply shows the easy familiarity of a long-married couple as she chides him for not providing the personal details she longs to hear:

I received a Letter from you by wedensday Post 7 of July and tho I think it a choise one in the Litterary Way, containing many usefull hints and judicious observations which will greatly assist me in the future instruction of our Little ones, yet it Lacked some essential engrediants to make it compleat. Not one word respecting yourself, your Health or your present Situation. My anxiety for your welfare will never leave me but with my parting Breath, tis of more importance to me than all this World contains besides.

Amidst all the lofty thoughts and big ideas, there is the need for simple human connection. How are you doing, she asks?  Whether we’re writing 140 character haikus or multi-paragraph blog entries, we are connecting with others as we do so.  Literacy facilitates that connection and children must be given experiences with all the various communication media so they can make smart choices about how best to make connections.

But, as Ben suggests, there is a difference between being literate and having the skills to manipulate the media.  As part of his contribution to the conversation, Gary Stager provided a link to an article by Seymour Papert from 1993 in which Papert discusses the changes that will take place in the way we communicate.  Papert writes:

But looking forward, we can formulate new arguments beyond the imagination of 19th century thinkers, who could hardly have conjured images of media that would provide modes of accessing and manipulating knowledge radically different than those offered by the Rs. Nor could they have formulated what I see as the deep difference between education past and future: In the past, education adapted the mind to a very restricted set of available media; in the future, it will adapt media to serve the needs and tastes of each individual mind.

He’s right: Abigail and John wrote letters because that was very restricted available media to them.  We face a plethora of media available to us and yet, I’m always struck by the fact that even though I’m staring at a computer screen, I’m doing a lot of traditional reading and writing.  There is some listening and viewing but it’s mostly text-based communication.

So, reading and writing still form the foundation of what it means to be literate.  But technical skills seem to loom larger now since we have to put those basics to work in a complex media world.  We can’t forget that part of literacy is related to navigating that media.  If we too narrowly define literacy, it’s easier to justify the fact that some 50% of Americans don’t have sufficient broadband access to watch Barack Obama’s weekly addresses on YouTube.   As this article from Business Week reminds us, defining literacy is less important than ensuring that everyone has access to practice those literacy skills.   In order to ensure access, we need to make it clear that knowing how to read and write with contemporary communications media does rise to the level of a literacy.  You can apply whatever adjective you wish–media literacy, digital literacy, 21st century literacy–what matters is the understanding that such literacy is the right of every citizen.