I started writing a book about teaching writing in 1988. I came up with a title for it in about 1993, but it’s had a great many subtitles since then. The title was, and is, Learning to Write / Writing to Learn. Some of the taglines have been “New Models for Excellence” … “A Brain-Compatible Curriculum in a Standards-Based Classroom” … “Stories, Structures, and Strategies” … and several others.
When I recently became familiar with the national Common Core Writing Standards I decided upon both a sub-title and a Table of Contents that might actually stick. A possible Introduction and the new Table of Contents are posted here: About L2W/W2L
I’m not sure if the attached piece will really turn out to be Chapter One. It might show up in the Chapter about “Voice,” but it’s probably the main reason I want to write this book.
CLICK HERE: Paul C. and the Nutty Poet
I just became aware of a VERY good reason to post my writing somewhere on-line …. in a blog or in the Cloud. I sat down to think about Chapter 2 … and thought it would be a good idea to read Chapter 1 … and it was GONE – completely gone! My computer contracted a very aggressive “ransom ware” virus about a month ago and it ate everything since my last back-up which was April 3. This document was one of the casualties and I just now realized that!
I copied this PDF and pasted it into another Word document. I’m going to have to completely reformat it since only the text came through. That’s going to be tricky with the poems … but at least it’s not gone forever.
Remember that I keep the Word documents for all of your writing in a special file so if this ever happens to you I can send that back … 🙂
What a great story! Well told.
Thanks, Berma! You know I can never stop tinkering with anything … so I’ve spent this morning working on (read – playing with!) all of this and have come up with a new Table of Contents. I’ve written a little new text … but have mostly copied and pasted stuff that I’ve written before. I posted the new Table of Contents in the “ABOUT” page on Learning to Write / Writing to Learn: bette.edublogs.org
Bette, I absolutely loved this! You kept me waiting, anxiously, at the gate, waiting for the poem, but they were well worth that little bit of time. Terrific, and in my opinion, could easily be the first chapter. As a violin teacher, I have found that it’s not good enough to tell a student what to do, they want you to show them – not as a master, showing off, but as the student that we all remain even when we have gained some skills. The trick is to use our talents.
THANK YOU!!! This sort of feedback is what keeps me inspired to keep going! I’ve decided that it will be the first chapter. I’ll add something about what I learned from the experience to segue into Chapter 2 which is called “Motivation – Why Write?”
Wow … I have to tell you this, Shirley! I had a little epiphany yesterday while thinking about the poem …. One of the reasons why I’ve never shown anyone that poem is that it always felt like something was wrong. One of the words always “looked back at me and laughed”!! The word was “PUT.” It just never felt right.
I was driving to Palm Springs and started trying out different words that might work. The word “LAY” came to mind … and it seemed to work. Like a word was a THING that I could lay down …. as it “Lay it down over there.” I was afraid I’d forget it so I actually called my husband and asked him to write it down.
This morning I changed the line and noticed something. With the word “LAY” instead of “PUT” … EVERY verb in the poem starts with an “L”! Except “chain” – and that one is in a question … and stands out even more.
I’m writing that because I want to remember – and might be able to use the experience somewhere in the book. It has something to do with how the brain continues to process and work on a problem even when we’re not conscious of that going on. Actually, ESPECIALLY when we’re not conscious of that going on!
Keep going…what was your next inspiration?
LOL! Inspiration is coming so fast I can hardly keep up! :-)!