Reading Like a Writer

" An absolutely necessary addition to the personal library of anyone who is a writer or dreams of writing, but it's also a terrific choice for anyone that loves to read." -National Public Radio

I have started, stopped, revisited and now continued with this book since last summer. As I read this book I think of so many of you that would love it. She opens the book by posing the questions "Can creative writing be taught?","Can the love of language be taught?", "Can a gift for storytelling be taught?" She would say no.

As a teacher herself she doesn't feel creativity can be transported from teacher to student. She then begins to reveal to all of us her ongoing process of becoming a writer and invites readers to notice great writers that have continued to provide models of inspiration in her own process. Often as readers we are engrossed in the story line and the action with the characters and don't think to take apart the paragraphs, sentences, and words and look at it for the writing. Studying some of her examples has made a difference as I have tried reading like a writer. It may be a second reading of a part of a book. It may be revisiting paragraphs that stayed in your mind long after you put a book down.

She then introduces things that can be learned and that is where I am at. I look forward to reading the rest of the book. She has a list at the end called "Books to Be Read Immediately". Since I haven't read many of the books on the list I have obviously not been reading as a writer! Some of the titles included are Middlemarch by George Elliot, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, and The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

" On a very basic level, I can't figure out why people would want to write unless they like to read. I mean, what would be the point? For the incredibly glamorous fast track lifestyle? I don't think so." - Francine Prose

Creating A Community: Leave No Writer Behind

Every day I read good writing. I read it as my students imprint their thoughts to paper. I read it on blogs that fill me with appreciation, laughter, amazement, and curiosity every day. I read it in literature, magazines, and online.

Recently I asked my students to reflect on their writing. On an exam I asked the question," What made your writing better first semester?" For my newest students in sixth grade I smiled at their answers like " I write more, and more, and more", "I don't complain so much about doing writing," and "I use bigger, stronger words." Part of creating writers ( or better writers) is to help them view themselves as writers. Even more important is to create a writing community.

Blog sites like Sunday Scribblings create that community each week as bloggers from all over the world respond to the same prompt. Building a blogroll from my own personal blog has helped me build a writing community among other very talented writers. When I have worked with adult writers at our annual writing retreat building that community is as important. I strive to create that same environment in my classroom. It isn't always easy. Young adult writers can be hurt easily. They can also be shy to share their words. After working with my sixth graders ninety days in class I am beginning to see them shed some of their insecurities. It has taken lots of baby steps.

I nuture these writers by providing time, practice, feedback, and celebration. In the busyness of preparing students for state testing, making sure we make Adequate Yearly Progress and Leave No Child Behind teachers have to carve out time for the process of writing. In my experience with students I have learned to move out of the way and give them time and practice. I am there to provide feedback along with their fellow students and families. The icing on the cake is to celebrate their wondrous words by having an author chair, read-arounds, or provide places for them to publish. I look forward to continuing with this community of writers as we move into second semester.

In closing I think one student really figured out how to be successful in my class.
" I think the best thing I can do is write about things my teacher enjoys like dogs, flowers, and things that make her laugh. It is called buttering up the teacher!"
I call it embracing individuality and leaving no writer behind!

Things

Things

The hen flings a single pebble aside
with her yellow, reptilian foot.
Never in eternity the same sound-
a small stone falling on a red leaf.

The juncture of twig and branch,
scarred with lichen, is a gate
we might enter, singing.

The mouse pulls batting
from a hundred-year-old quilt.
She chewed a hole in a blue star
to get it, and now she thrives...
Now is her time to thrive.

Things: simple lasting, then
failing to last: water, a blue heron's
eye, and the light passing
between them: into light all things
must fall, glad at last to have fallen.

-Jane Kenyon
from Otherwise, New and Selected Poems

Everyone Needs a Spot: Makeover Project #3

Just as we are completing the third makeover project around our house I finally see the sun peeking out from behind a gray cloud cover that has been hovering for many day. Now we can stop and I won't have to beat the winter blues. JEJ breathed a sigh of relief!
The front bedroom/guest room/computer room/home office now became the study. I was amazed how much I could pull into this room to make it coordinate. JEJ added the new paint, but with the exception of the candles on the wall and the striped Kleenex box, everything else was somewhere in the house before. Again, a makeover that didn't cost much.I love my writing table in front of the window and will enjoy watch spring burst forth in a few months.
There is something about having things organized on shelves... even if it doesn't last.
This beautiful print " Dancer of the Coeur d' Alenes " by Carrie Stuart Parks needed a better place to hang. Her watercolor was to commemorate the Historic Skills Fair at the Cataldo Mission in 1990. Our families have been connected for over fifty years and Carrie was raised and still lives close to the Mission. I love to have this reminder of family and historic connection hanging in this room.

I still want to use the east wall to display some of my own photos. I think I will go to the study and sit. The redone bathroom was a great sitting room, but the chair will be more comfortable here!
The colors in this room are from the Ace Colors of Your Life. The combination is Siesta ( walls), Northern Exposure , and Pink Lady ( which was the color that was "to pop"... my it does pop!). Of course, Kit always makes himself at home and looks like he belongs there. JEJ did all the hard work on this project.. I just rearranged and accessorized. Thanks JEJ!
Click any pictures to enlarge and see the details!

Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

This is a photo image JEJ captured from the deck a couple of weeks ago when we had a sunrise. I am holding on to hope we will see another one this winter. sigh.

Hope is The Thing With Feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.


- Emily Dickinson

Beating the Winter Blues: Makeover Project #2

“I can't think of any sorrow in the world that a hot bath wouldn't help, just a little bit.”-Susan Glasee

When I moved into this house, the main bathroom was designed with beautiful wood around the tub, low light, and high white walls. The whole room was pretty simple. It worked for me though. Somewhere in the scheme of makeover projects during the last week, it came up to redo the bathroom. I am so glad we took on the bathroom. It is hard to see much with this picture, but there was a lot of blank wall space.
After much consideration, the colors of platinum gray, a lovely blue called Blue Waltz, and navy all combined into a bathroom makeover. The beautiful painting by a local high school artist that was a gift worked well with the color scheme as wall decor.

Last night I had a new room that I just wanted to sit in for the sake of sitting. I don't think I have ever used the bathroom just for a sitting room! Perhaps when the whole project is done I can soak in the tub and take it all in!