Writer's Notebooks for Kids

I put together a little guide to the writer's notebook for kids. I wanted to send off a few bits and pieces for my nieces and nephews to work on during the school holidays but thought an instruction sheet might be handy to help them out. My niece and nephew and their friend had a great time decorating their notebooks and hopefully they have some fun collecting ideas.

I included a range of bits and pieces to inspire - stickers, post it notes, scrapbooking cards, a paper doily, anything I could find in my journaling supplies! I am excited to see what they create. 

A Portrait in Words

I recently came across Maxine Beneba Clarke's 'The Saturday Portraits' at the bookstore and jumped at the chance to read the portraits collected in the book. I found them to be brilliant and knew (teacher's intuition) many of them would be interesting to students in the English classroom. They take about 10-15 minutes to read through which is the perfect length.

Our Stage 4 and Stage 5 English classes have been working on short writing tasks throughout the term and I thought this would be a great one to finish on because it involves writing about someone the students know. I am excited to see what they put together.

I introduced written portraits by asking students what a painted portrait entails - the purpose, what they look like, and what an artist might capture. I then explained what we would be creating - a portrait in words - I had several confused responses - 'we have to make our writing in the shape of a face?' and 'we have to draw, with words?' I knew then we needed to read a portrait immediately.

Before we read I asked students to highlight all the way the subject of the portrait was described - their voice, appea

rance, their work, and mannerisms.

In the time following, we spent some time preparing for students to interview someone. We collected details about the person the students wanted to interview, reflected on what happens in a good interview, what active listening looks like, and how to record answers (workbook with handwritten responses preferred, but recording using a smart device could work, with permission of the subject!). I found a list of general interview questions on the internet that we used for inspiration and I asked students to pick up to 7-10 and then to come up with another five questions specific to the person they wanted to interview. Students had two weeks to interview their subject. During this time we read several portraits in class and then came up with a list of written portrait features before beginning a WOP (Writing Off the Page) in order to prepare for writing the portrait. 

Writing a Portrait Resource

What makes a portrait a portrait?:

• Description 
• Interview surroundings
• Appearance
• hair
• skin
• facial features
• clothes
• mannerisms
• voice
• How the interviewee engages with the world
• social media
• work
• study
• friendships
• family
• Pithy title - short, catchy, captures the personality of the subject and maybe even the 'so what' of the interview
• Dialogue
• include quotes from the interview/comments from others about the subject
• So what? What is the point?
• capture personality and WHO the interviewee is
• to entertain

I added some prompt questions to the board to help students begin their WOP - I have been working to ensure students aren't faced with a blank page when they begin writing. 

• WOP Inspiration
• Background
• What other people say about the subject
• 'So what?' - what are you trying to capture about the subject?
• Description - appearance of subject and interview location

The structure of a portrait is next on the agenda - where will the writing start? 

Begin your portrait with a:

Title (You may write this at the end!)

Introduction

- Description of the subject - their appearance OR

- A quote from the subject

- Try to get to the 'So what?' - what is it you are 'painting' in your portrait?

Paragraph 1.

- Continue by adding some of the subject's life story

- Include details of where the interview took place

- Include some dialogue from the interview

Paragraph 2.

- Present some information about who the subject is - what kind of person are they?

- Add some description of the subject - more of their appearance (what does this show about the person?)

Paragraph 3.

- Do you know anything of the work/hopes and dreams/hobbies of the subject? Include them here.

- Add some more description of the subject - what are their mannerisms? What does their voice sound like?

Conclusion 

- Wrap up the portrait

- Is there a funny anecdote (little personal story) you could finish on?

- The conclusion is the last thing the audience reads - it is important so needs to be just as thoughtful and interesting as the rest of your writing.

Hopefully I will be reading portraits by tomorrow afternoon!

A Writerly Life - A Publishing Idea 4/4

I attended a teacher writer's retreat at the Q Station in Manly some time ago and as a way to publish writing from the event we were asked to put together some pages for a zine. These are the two pages I created with my photograph, illustrations, and four short poems.

I love the concept of zines and have purchased many from the Sticky Institute (currently running a 'Quarantine Zine Club' while Covid 19 restrictions are in place) and I treasure them. Zines remind me of my high school art teacher's worksheets - images cut and pasted, titles printed from Word, bubble writing, handwritten notes. There is something about the handwriting that I especially love. Maybe I should dig out some of the worksheets I created in my first few years of teaching and turn them into a zine...

A zine can be as simple or complex as the maker wishes. It provides an opportunity for a piece of writing to have some finality and seek an audience. The Sticky Institute accepts zines and will sell them on your behalf if you would like to take that route or perhaps you could leave a copy on a train seat or at a bus stop with a pebble on top.

Here is a great guide on creating a zine from The Creative Independent and a guide from Vice. If you would like to embark on zines in the classroom there is a peer reviewed article available via JSTOR - Zines in the Classroom: Reading Culture.

Writing, planning, reading websites I love...

Just a few websites about writing, planning, reading and I have thrown in a few shopping sites as well.

Meet Me at Mike's
This site has it all - beautiful imagery, support with blogging, great recommendations, recipes, and what feels like advice from a friend.

Planning Mindfully
Tips and tricks when trialling a new organisational system. It is nice to think about being as organised as the author.

The Tot
Lots of articles about parenting babies and toddlers. I found this site after a friend sent me the 10 best books for 1-year-olds article when I asked her about early literacy.

Teachers as Writers
Many short and practical articles about writing and the craft of writing.

Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA)
PETAA has a range of resources available for members under the title 'PETAA Papers' - they are very useful and written by reputable authors. I have found a lot of the Professional Learning on offer to be beneficial to the high school classroom, as well.

NSW Teachers' Association Centre for Professional Learning
The Journal of Professional Learning (JPL) has a heap of articles on every topic related to teaching imaginable. Definitely worth a look.

Multimodal Me
I took lead from the author of this page to create a writing teacher group. The resources from her sessions are filed here.

The National Writing Project 
The NWP website has a plethora of resources to support writing instruction. I have linked to the 'Teaching Writing' resources.

Writers Digest
WD has a heap of resources, books, articles. Some of these would be terrific in the classroom.

Print Friendly
I tweet this website regularly. It is a brilliant way to capture a website which in teaching, sometimes you need to do. I also use it when saving craft or cooking instructions! To print or save a website simply paste the URL into the search bar, the website will load, you can delete extra spaces and large images if not required and proceed to print or PDF a document that is much shorter. Save paper and space on your hard drive or cloud!

Booko
Getting a price range on books can be time consuming so pop the title into Booko and it will do a price comparison (with postage!) so you can see how many books you can buy with your monthly book budget. I like that there is free shipping through Booko with Booktopia, too. I have found a few times that there is a cheaper edition available so it does pay to do a quick double check if you have been directed to Booktopia, or Book Depository.

Doops Designs
The fabric designs are striking and the garment design is simple and pared back to allow the prints to shine. I have one dress so far. I will be purchasing more.

The Writing Teacher – Maintaining a Writing Life

When consciously thinking of our health and possibly how much exercise we are getting we often think of incidental exercise - parking the car a little further from the office or grocery store, walking to the local shops instead of driving, digging out the bike from the garage... when thinking about creative pursuits though, it is evident that many do not have the same strategies for 'incidental writing,' or 'incidental art.' 

I have given some time to thinking about how I can be more tactical in ensuring I spend some time on creative pursuits that bring joy into my life.

1. Paper

Take a journal with you to jot down ideas. An A6 journal will fit into your pocket and so will a little pencil or pen. If you use a paper diary or organiser for work or life perhaps you could pop a few blank pages into the back and these will serve as your 'on the go' place to record ideas.

2. Notes (now, I mean, electronic Notes... don't you love how we name electronic things after their analogue variety?)

If you use Apple devices it is possible to set up a Notes page in your iPhone and attach it to cloud storage and this is when things get a lot easier. Linked Notes accounts allow almost instantaneous syncing between iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, etc. so regardless of what you are doing you can write down a quick note or continue to work on a piece you started at an earlier time. Your limerick will be across all devices before you have even had a chance to finish editing!

3. Shower Notes 

In a media rich world, quiet time to reflect is hard to come by. Many creatives state openly that inspiration comes to them whilst showering but it is not great for your notebook or smart phone to be smashing out ideas whilst dripping wet. My partner bought me Aqua Notes a few years ago and they wait patiently in the shower cubicle until genius strikes. Also handy for grocery lists.

4. Writing Goals

I set a personal challenge this year to write a poem a day (I am having varying degrees of success with this commitment). I figure that even if they are short or remain perpetually in draft form (very draughty draft form) it is still work that I would not have if I didn't set myself a challenge and hey, you can't edit a blank page.

5. Don't Make it into Work

I often set projects that soon become another thing on my to do list and instead of being a source of joy they become work. If time limits, word counts, and other such restrictions make your creative pursuits into work, leave them!

6. Morning Pages

Angela Cameron’s The Artist’s Way is a very well-known text that provides a range of ideas and provocations to nurture and revitalise your creative approach. One of these is Morning Pages – three A4 pages of writing first thing in the morning. I got my husband onto this bandwagon as well and each morning for several months we made cereal and began writing. After about 25 minutes our pages were done, we would file them in an envelope and continue getting ready for work. I attribute the ability to move through some very difficult situations in my life to the catharsis of Cameron’s Morning Pages. I need to tweak my morning routine somewhat to get them back into my life. 

SaveSave