Serendipity in Teaching.
Some things happen for a reason. This weekend when I was in Borders in Keene with MW and my son I happened across a book on writing called "Writing down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within" by Natalie Goldberg. Originally published in 1986 this is a new reprint in larger paperback. It is basically Zen and the art of writing, to paraphrase a great book from the 70's.
Well to get back focused, I had 2nd graders today and their half hour for "writing lab" as their teacher calls it was to finish writing a piece on Valentine's Day. Most had finished already so after forcing them to flesh it out more they needed something to write about. LUCKY FOR ME I had the book! I took writing exercise number 2, "I remember" and presto, insant assignment.
The basic message of the book by the way, which is a bit too sophisticated for 2nd graders, is to just WRITE... let anything that comes to mind come to paper. Practice makes perfect. Or so she says.
Today's writing assignment
Was to write about the quality of the light in the morning.
Since I didn't have a recommended notebook I did it on my PDA. She said to write anything, even if it was garbage... so here it is
"The light is blue-cold reflecting off of he bricks lending a silvery glow to their hair. It mixes with the flourescent flicker to fill in the colors of the spectrum."
eh...
Some things happen for a reason. This weekend when I was in Borders in Keene with MW and my son I happened across a book on writing called "Writing down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within" by Natalie Goldberg. Originally published in 1986 this is a new reprint in larger paperback. It is basically Zen and the art of writing, to paraphrase a great book from the 70's.
Well to get back focused, I had 2nd graders today and their half hour for "writing lab" as their teacher calls it was to finish writing a piece on Valentine's Day. Most had finished already so after forcing them to flesh it out more they needed something to write about. LUCKY FOR ME I had the book! I took writing exercise number 2, "I remember" and presto, insant assignment.
The basic message of the book by the way, which is a bit too sophisticated for 2nd graders, is to just WRITE... let anything that comes to mind come to paper. Practice makes perfect. Or so she says.
Today's writing assignment
Was to write about the quality of the light in the morning.
Since I didn't have a recommended notebook I did it on my PDA. She said to write anything, even if it was garbage... so here it is
"The light is blue-cold reflecting off of he bricks lending a silvery glow to their hair. It mixes with the flourescent flicker to fill in the colors of the spectrum."
eh...
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