Speaking of English 680 I read a really great book recently for this class called From Readers to Writers: The Pains and Pleasures of Writing, edited by M. Jerry Weiss. I will share some thoughts about what I really liked and what I plan to utilize from this text.
First off, this book interviewed over fifteen authors of children's books and asked them questions about their writing processes... this structure made it really quick and fun to read, it was like listening to a conversation in my head... which I do all the time =)
Here are some points that I hit on in my review:
- Sue Alexander is the first author mentioned in the book. Alexander discusses her writing experience and comments that “there’s a great deal of craft involved.” To follow this question Weiss asks “How did you learn [this craft]?” and Alexander responds, “Trial and error” (5).
-Weiss asks the question to Judy Blume that sums up the entire book: “What advice would you give to someone who would like to be a writer” (12)? She responds with the most honest answer: “I don’t think anyone can teach you to write. You write out of yourself. You write out of your own needs - write of what you know and what you care about” (12).
-Many authors are asked how they create such real characters in their books, and every author says they literally live inside the character’s heads. They feel what they feel and imagine they were going through the same experience. Sue Alexander explains this process about one of her characters: “Goblin talks to me in my head for a long time before I write anything down” (9). I, as a writer, have never experienced this, I just write. I thought only crazy people heard voices inside their heads, but as an author, I guess you really do need to hear and feel the emotions of the characters for them to be honest.
-Grammar, spelling, and punctuation should not be the main
focus, “you can do that later,” says Julia Cunningham (25). The main focus
should be the emotions that come through in your writing, which should come
naturally, it cannot be forced. Too often do teachers try to force students to
write perfect English, when in many books we ask students to read, perfect
English is absent… it can be a stream of consciousness, or written in dialect,
or dialogue, which is most definitely not grammatically correct.
*I think all teachers should read this book and share some of these experiences with their students... I really think it is interesting what Blume has to say (and she was one of my favorite authors as a child): you cannot teach writing, they just need to write.
*So, for my class I have not been grading for punctuation and grammar, I have just told them what I enjoyed and they keep pumping out some awesome work! This is super effective, everyone should try it... and it is nice not to have your paper all marked up with things you need to fix. I just give them a sticker for working and that way I can keep track of participation really easily, too, and everyone loves stickers! =)
Bibliography:
Weiss, Jerry ed. From Readers to Writers: the Pleasure and
Pains of Writing. Delaware: International
Reading Association, 1978. Print.
I found your author's comments very interesting. I hear voices all the time but not in the way they mean :) I have always struggling with writing because I feel like it always turns out just like my thinking, very jumbled and incoherent at times, sometimes even things only I can possibly understand. I think that is why I really only prefer to write in journals, then no one else has to read or try to comprehend my ideas.
ReplyDeleteOn the idea of teaching writing in a way that has to be perfect, I find that too many times in reality teachers grade for content and not grammar or punctuation. I think there needs to be a balance but I find that a lot of our students can not write correctly even when we are grading grammar and punctuation. I am not sure what the exact solution is, probably somewhere in the middle.