Whenever I begin to teach the process of writing to my children I share this quote from Roald Dahl with them. As he is an author they know and love, I think it helps them to know that writing for everyone is a process, one that is struggled with even by the best of us. DAHL: It starts always with a tiny little seed of an idea, a little germ, and that even doesnt come very easily. You can be mooching around for a year or so before you get a good one. When I do get a good one, mind you, I quickly write it down so that I wont forget it because it disappears otherwise, rather like a dream. But when I get it, I dont dash up here and start to write it. Im very careful. I walk around it and look at it and sniff it and then see if I think it will go. Because once you start, youre embarked on a years work, and so its a big decision. I have no real idea of how the book is going to go when I start to write it.
-------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Joy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I agree with your observation that writing itself seems to clarify my > thinking, > both in online form and in a notebook, which I've also started doing since > about > February. Isn't it amazing that we are thinking alike! > > Setting a time each day for writing is actually a strategy suggested by Anne > Lamott in Bird by Bird. Seems it's part of living the writerly life! > > > > > > > > > > Joy/NC/4 > > How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content go > hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org > > > --- On Fri, 6/27/08, Palmer, Jennifer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > From: Palmer, Jennifer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [Understand] Understand Digest, responses to leslie and melissa > To: "Special Chat List for "To Understand: New Horizons in Reading > Comprehension"" <[email protected]> > Date: Friday, June 27, 2008, 3:10 PM > > Leslie > I have been keeping just such a "book" several months now...probably > since about December. Sometimes the pages are just bulleted ideas that come to > me. Other pages have quotes from something I have been reading and then my > reaction to that quote (two column chart). I actually have a few > sketches...mostly diagrams and a few email segments from this listserv that I > particularly wanted to refer back to frequently. I put one of those funky > multi-colored pens in my purse and sometimes if I reread my journal and have > some new thinking to add, I will just write it in a different color on the > same > page. > > I have found the act of writing, whether it is emails here on the list or > notes > to myself in my journal, really helps me to clarify my thinking, to make > connections between ideas, to keep focus on what is important to me. Sometimes > I don't like how messy some pages look, but I have given myself permission > to be messy. The only audience is me, after all! (Though I have shown my book > to my students at the end of the year and they have seen my write in it when > something occurs to me in class. I saw it as part of modeling the intellectual > life.) :-) > > I started journaling by setting a time of day to write...but the more I did > it, the more it has become a part of my day to day routine. I take it with me > everywhere, along with my planner and that way it gets used routinely. > Good luck... > Jenn > > Jennifer Palmer > Reading Specialist, National Board Certified Teacher > FLES- Lead the discovery, Live the learning, Love the adventure. > Reading furnishes the mind only with the materials of knowledge. It is > thinking > that makes what we read ours. -John Locke > > > > > > From: Leslie Wright > Sent: Fri 6/27/2008 2:57 PM > To: Special Chat List for To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension > Subject: Re: [Understand] Understand Digest, responses to leslie and melissa > > > Thanks for your response Bonita. > I'd love to get back together as the year goes along. I just picked up my > own blank idea book today and forced myself to write it it. I have so many > ideas but I struggle with validating myself by writing in the journal. I > need to give myself permission to write poorly, to jump from topic to topic, > and to just "not be profound." I'm going to use this book while > on vacation > next week and record ideas on various topics. I'm resisiting the need to > organize it and table-ize it in word. I'll keep you posted. > Leslie > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > [email protected] > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > [email protected] > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
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