Capture, inspire, teach,..."

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, but teach a man to fish…” This 2000 year old parable is at the heart of Hale’s focus on improving the writer, not the writing.  Her mini-lessons are designed to teach incremental writing skills and techniques that make children active participants in their own learning. Text is used as a means of modeling the tools of writing, while "try-its" are opportunities to actively engage children in the use of these tools.  "Turn and talk" helps develop a community of learners. Together, the participation in "try-its" and "turn and talk" are powerful motivators for active listening and learning. This motivation is reinforced during the process of conferring with writers. I am once again reminded of our visit to Ms. Seabrook’s class. Both she and Hale support the idea of an early acclimation period for boosting effective and efficient use of instruction time.  Seabrook uses her first week to explain rules and procedures.  This orientation period establishes a positive tone and helps students understand expectations without the pressure or distraction of instruction. Hale, likewise uses her initial conference as an opportunity to present writing as a positive experience. Defining her writer’s strengths during research serves several purposes, first it helps to identify potential “next steps”, next it engenders the desire for ownership, and finally it instills self-confidence and inspires risk taking. It seems that both educators also share a common goal, to develop the scholar within each and every student.

--It is difficult to overestimate the power of positive affirmation. One positive reinforcer can have more impact on memory and behavior than ten negative reinforcers.

Elements in Design

After reading about the crafting of original writing, it is takes serious effort to put the practice of sentence analysis on hold. For me, mechanically grammatical writing which combines creative originality has been like the famous line drawing which allow for two interpretations. The first is of a contoured vase; both the left and right profiles are perfect mirror images. A second interpretation is of two identical profiles facing one another.  It is nearly impossible to conceive of both aspects simultaneously.  

I have never taken voice lessons, but I love to sing. Likewise, I must confess while I am one who cannot “…rely solely on [my] own history of writing instruction.” I do enjoy writing.  Hale’s strategies for crafting sentences and creating a voice are broken down into “small skills” These include easy to understand, bite-sized examples. Though I have heard of the “show, not tell” method of writing, Crafting Writers demonstrates the richness of this method with before and after comparisons. The incorporation of the senses clearly brings life to a story. Variations of words find a continuum of word choice and the subtleties they convey.  Single words can trigger a host of images and memories. These strategies have the power to illicit emotions and draw in the reader.

Hale provides instruction for developing the aesthetics of writing on par with what Strunk and White’s Elements of Style does for the mechanics of writing. Her straightforward examples make me want to look back at some things I have had to write in the past and for which II would like to give another look. Writing is often work, but it should also be fun.

Look for the trees!

In developmental psychology there is ample evidence to support the effectiveness of positive reinforcement over punishers in the area of motivation.  In “Every Mark on the Page” Cusumano (2008) is not arguing that parents and community members view writing in a positive light merely for the sake of improving children’s self-esteem. Her goal is dispel erroneous beliefs and expectations regarding beginning writer’s efforts. She points out that the tendency is to remark on what is missing rather than recognizing what has been achieved. . I see a strong parallel within the dynamic of second language acquisition. It is widely accepted that hyper-awareness of pronunciation, gender agreement and tenses by second language learners and over-correction by their teachers has a stifling effect on creativity, experimentation and the development of convesation skills.  The process of unencumbered, non-analytical, free flow of ideas is critical in developing fluency beyond simple imitation and translation. Likewise, Cusumano warns “…too much intervention interferes with the risk taking necessary for young children to grow as writers.”

There are other factors for beginning writers that are often over looked or little considered. The attributing of meaning to words based upon symbolic representations is entirely arbitrary and is dependent on agreements of convention. There is nothing intuitive about the written symbols we use what they are meant to represent. Also, while most of us accept that the fine-motor skills and eye-hand coordination of five and six year old children is underdeveloped, we still expect spaces between words, letters to be forward-facing, upside-right and of consistent size. I challenge anyone to meet these demands using your non-dominant hand. Then try to copy one single sentence (from right to left) using a new alphabet.  অতারতারা বারো জাত এহানর মানুয়ে ঠা or 喺三義鄉有龍騰斷橋.

Literary Dig

A local arts festival serves several functions and appeals to a wide cross-section of the community from infants, toddler and teens to parents and grandparents. As I made my way through the crowds I was reminded of the informal atmosphere one finds at a Renaissance fair or farmer’s market. There were many people milling about, most of whom had no seeming purpose or direction. Like a Renaissance fair there seemed to be a theme. Many were wearing casual, loose-fitting, colorful clothing. Another commonality included performance art such as juggling, singing and playing of non-electronic instruments. While much of this holds true for the farmers market, the patrons seem to be on a mission. Most signage in conversation is business-like and designed to aid in sales transactions. To be sure business was transacted at the arts festival. However, printed materials that I observed involved artistic performance, process, style, craftsmanship, etc. Also, once immersed in conversation topics often deviated from business to social contexts. I also observed this type of interaction among people filing past each other and coming to a stop upon finding a familiar face. In fact, one of my classmates realized that these types of impromptu gatherings were occurring at street intersections at some distance from the commotion at the individual booths.




At each booth I visited I found vocabulary both written and spoken unique to a particular style or process used to create a work of art or perform a craft. Some of these include Kiln-fired, lamp-worked, fritted, annealed, magnesium carbonate reticulated glaze for glass and pottery work. Bloomington chamber Singer’s booth included box office, oratory and hymnody. Others included, Astrograph, a process or shooting celestial bodies such as the Orion, Horse head, Cone and Rosette nebulas using an ultra-sensitive digital sensor which allows a hydrogen filter to block all visible light except for ionized hydrogen emissions. Interestingly, as Kristen K. observed in our group meeting, written literacy and specific terminology were unnecessary.

This was not so much an art’s fair as a social affair with opportunities to see and be seen, to talk, share and listen with others.

Talking Back

As a disciple of multi-culturism and multi-literacy, I found Witte’s article on two-way journaling via blogs refreshing. My early experience with reading and writing were quite different. My parents enrolled me into a children’s book club. I was to read a book a week and write a formulated report within strict, narrow set of guidelines. I found the books moralistic, obvious and thus boring. I saw reading and writing as a chore to be completed rather than something to enjoy. No one took the time to explore my interests and it was nearly two decades before I became aware of the joy and value of the written word.


As a future teacher and a current student, I appreciate the value of recognizing where children’s strengths and interests lie as a means to stimulating and developing learning writing skills. Witte’s Talkback project achieves to goals at once. Children’s written communication skills are being developed in an area of existing interest, (Online communication) albeit primarily social, and they are developing technological literacy.



As psychologist and philosopher Dr. Leo Bascalia suggests, “…each of us must follow our bliss.” As an educator it is essential that I be tuned into children’s individual strengths, abilities and interests that I might be able to help them discover their bliss.

Technologically Challenged

Though I do e-mail daily and follow some political and spiritual blogs, I rarely respond to them online. I'm more old-school, preferring to communicate in real-time, with a real person. I bought my first computer 15 years ago for a business and taught myself how to use Word, Excel and Access after months of trial and error. (I do not recommend this method.) I was even able to produce a web page after many frustrating hours I have a love hate relationship with technology. I love what it can help me do, but hate when it does not work as I expect. I’m the guy with a VHS player that perpetually flashes “12:00” At times I feel like I have a white-knuckle grip on the back rail of the technology bandwagon, face down, with feet dragging in the dirt.




I recognize that it is to my benefit to stretch my boundaries and learn new things. Also, I must keep in mind that each successive generation of children is becoming more and more tech savvy. My experience has been that I can learn much from children, but I expect to know at least as much as they do when it comes to technology and considerably more about the tools of teaching, technological or otherwise.