What is "place"?
A physical location?
"Are you in the right place?
An emotional achievement?
"I'm not in a good place today."
A position?
"I came in first place!"
The act of putting something into position?
"Will you place the plates on the table?"
"place" is all these things, and more.
I have never been one to refer to myself as a "writer", let a alone a "good and active writer". When invited to start a writer's notebook, I was nervous. I ask my students to keep a writing journal, but why must I? I have never enjoyed writing. Sometimes it's even hard for me just to journal my thoughts down when I really want to get my swirling thoughts out of my head and onto paper. How in the world will I be able to keep up with a writer's notebook? And then it dawns on me. What kind of teacher am I to ask my students to write in their journals three times a week, when I don't. I encourage them often that we write to improve our skills, to explore our imagination, to build our writing stamina, and to dump thoughts onto paper. Yet, I don't practice the very thing I teach. I feel guilty asking this of my students, when I myself don't want to do the very same thing for a class of my own. How can I make writing more enjoyable; for me and my students?
Chapter 2 of Mentor Texts (Dorfman & Cappeli, 2017) got me excited to write. The authors talk about how varying books can be read across the curriculum to launch writing. One of my favorites was the use of books like Imogene's Antlers by David Small or The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt to think up our own "What if" story. These ideas make me WANT to pick up my pen and write what I'm thinking about, it would do the same to students. Inspire them to think deeply and critically about a text then take that information in their own direction of writing.
Another one of my favorite ideas in this chapter was "An Outdoor Writer's Cafe" on page 34 (Dorfman & Cappeli, 2017). This writing exercise focused on the senses. Students were asked to focus on what they see, smell, hear, taste, and feel. The author opened this with reading Right Outside My Window by Mary Ann Hoberman to get students thinking about what they could notice outside the windows of their classroom. (See my draft to the left.) The students and teacher spent time outside jotting down notes and observations from four different vantage points. Revealing different aspects of ~place~ and how complex and beautiful it is when you pause to take in the details. What interested me most is that the students wrote about different things, from varying perspectives. It amazes me just how insightful and creative students can be in their writing when given a leg to stand on. This lesson taught me that there isn't a right or wrong way to write, which I often feel is the case. Write in complete sentences, poem, or notes. Write from your own perspective or the perspective of an inanimate object. Share about your writing or don't.
Currently in my third-grade class we are working on developing personal narratives. These do not make students excited. They want to write about dragons, fairies, and made-up stories. I started this unit by doing my favorite thing and reading a mentor text, Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (right), and discussing the traits of narrative writing. We then began brainstorming memories that we could possibly write about. The push-back I got from this seemed quite honestly ridiculous, until I myself couldn't think of any memories from my 23 years of living to write about. I dug through a book in my classroom: The Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo (2017). I flipped to "Goal 3: Generating and Collecting Ideas" for help. The first strategy, "3.1: Important People," sounded like the perfect exercise to jump-start our personal narratives. We worked independently to come up with a list of important people in our lives and memories we associate with each person. This made the task of "brainstorm all memories from your entire life" a whole lot easier and less daunting. In Mentor Texts (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017) a very similar strategy was discussed. The authors here mentioned The Memory String by Eve Bunting to encourage students to find an important person and string together memories they have associated with this person. These lists could be turned into poems themselves or referred back to later to dig deeper into an individual narrative.
In Layla's Happiness (Tallie & Corrin, 2019), Layla's state of happiness has just as much to do with where she is as who she is with and what she is doing. It's a piece of writing I often forget the impact of. Setting. Place. Some of the places Layla associates with happiness are the night sky, nature, imaginative play, dining table, South Carolina, community garden, farmer's market, and sea. On the right is a student sample of what makes her happy and a list of things that make me happy in my notebook. See the draft of my "Where I'm From" poem on my About Me page to see some more about what makes me happy.
Author
Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie
Documentary about Ekere Tallie's work by Tami Ravid: "I Leave My Colors Everywhere"
Layla's Happiness
Awards
*2020 Ezra Jack Keats Honor for writing
*2020 Ezra Jack Keats Award for illustration
*A Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of 2020
Illustrator
Ashleigh Corrin
Instagram: @ashleigh_corrin
Pattern Art "America in Color" by Ashleigh Corrin
References
Dorfman, L. R., & Cappelli, R. (2017). Chapter 2: Digging for Treasure: Discovering Personal Stories by Connecting with Literature. In Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, K-6 (2nd ed., pp. 21-49). Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Rosenthal, A. K. (2020). Unit 2: Social Studies. In Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal (pp. 61-129). Penguin Random House.
Serravallo, J. (2017). The Writing Strategies Book: Your Everything Guide to Developing Skilled Writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Tallie, M. E., & Corrin, A. (2019). Layla's Happiness. Brooklyn, NY: Enchanted Lion Books.
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