Writer’s Notebook

Living the Writerly Life

Fri, 9 Jan 2009 06:23:43 -0500

“Stories happen to those who tell them.”
- Thucydides

The most important aspect of working with students on their writing is introducing them to what it is like to live a “writerly life”. Writers live life with their eyes and ears wide open, looking for just the right moment to capture and record. Living the writerly life involves, keeping your writer’s notebook close at hand and recognizing the significance of the small moments of everyday life. These moments become seed ideas, which can be nurtured and grown later in the writing process. Once a student becomes inspired and truly views herself or himself as a writer, they will forever see the world differently.

A photographer named Alicia Bock, recently wrote about he importance of having her camera with her all the time so that she can capture her everyday experiences. The same is true for writers and their notebooks.

What will you capture today?

Writing Transitions

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:36:04 -0400

This week we completed the revision phase of the of the writing process. We started out be looking at some sentences that were written without transition words. Next, they were given separate transition words and asked to find a way to incorporate them into the sentences so that they make sense (see photo above). They noticed that using different transition words changed the meaning of the sentences. When they were finished I asked them to look in their Word Study Journals for a “present”. Inside, was a list of transition words and phrases that they could use as a resource. We read the list together and they marked a few that they thought might work in their writing pieces.

Now they were ready to go back to their writing and add transitions to the areas they had identified with stars from the previous week. They realized that in some areas all they needed to add was a simple transition word and that in other places they needed to write a transition sentence. We worked together through this process and the feedback that the girls gave to each other was greatly appreciated and incorporated into each other’s writing.

The Importance of Engaging Beginnings

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:50:09 -0400

We started writer’s workshop by reviewing the writing process. Last week, we worked very hard on writing a first draft, based on all the entries that had been gathered in our writer’s notebooks. This week we moved into the part of the writing process that involves revision. We discussed the difference between revising and editing. Revision is when an author makes his or her writing better by utilizing a variety of crafting techniques. Editing is when an author proofreads his or her writing and checks for correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Next, we discussed the importance of having an engaging beginning. We read the touchstone text, Peter’s Chair, written by Ezra Jack Keats. We noticed that Ezra Jack Keats used an action by a character to capture the attention of her readers. After a discussion about this crafting technique, we set out to incorporate it into our own drafts. Both students re-wrote the beginning of their stories using the action of a character to make it more interesting. After sharing their newly re-written beginnings, I asked them to stretch themselves even further by writing another beginning using dialogue between characters. Both students rose to the occasion and wrote another great introduction.

We ended our time together by thinking ahead to the editing process and generating a list of items that will go on our “Author’s Checklist”. Here is the list we came up with:
• the story makes sense
• correct spelling
• appropriate punctuation at the end of sentences
• correct use of commas
• proper use of paragraphs
• proper use of quotation marks

Can you think of anything else that needs to be added to the list? If so, please leave a comment.