Writing a Narrative and Writing Well

I started off this week’s readings with “Writing A Narrative” from the textbook Everyone’s An Author  by Andrea Lunsford, Michal Body, Lisa Ede, Beverley Moss, Carole Clark Papper, and Keith Walters. Immediately I could tell that I would like this passage, as it was an easy read that confirmed a lot of what I already knew about narrative writing, and inadvertently gave me vocabulary to use when teaching my students.

The text meshed academic descriptions of narrative writing with an actual narrative writing which I enjoyed thoroughly. The text also lists the steps to take when writing a narrative including: A clearly identified event, a clearly described setting, vivid descriptive details, a consistent point of view, and a clear point. The text also gave suggestions for what to think about when writing a narrative including: Think about your stance, think about your purpose, consider the larger context, and consider your medium. I thought the part about the medium was very interesting. I never gave much thought to how much font, or images, factor into making a narrative more effective. Sure with graphic novels I have, but I haven’t thought about adding images or design to the ideas I already have rolling about narratives I want to write. Annd yet, now that prospect excites me just as much!

The second text, by William Zinsser, was from his seminal book entitled On Writing Well and the section was titled “Writing About People”. The text begins by discussing the importance of interviewing and how it is so much more than facts. One part I found particularly interesting was when the speaker was discussing how they were given transcripts from the original five judges for Book of the Month club. The writer was doing a write up for the 40th anniversary of the organization and this was in 1966! I find this so fascinating because I am a member of Book of the Month club and would LOVE to be a guest judge at some point!

This text dealt with interviewing and the art of collecting non fiction narratives. It goes in detail discussing different variations of interview procedures and the benefits of them. For example, the benefits of a tape recorder and hearing dialect along with being able to replay the tape, versus handwritten notes where the speaker talks faster than you write and seeming to mess up speech. The author also discussed the importance of correct punctuation, especially where quotation marks are involved. I found this rather funny, as I teach my students the importance of grammatical errors!  

Whatever your way, the author reminds you to ask yourself the following question: What about your obligation to the person you interviewed? This made me think about the previous article and I reminded myself that when writing narrative writing, I must keep in mind the following question: What about your obligation to your audience? What is my purpose for writing and am I doing that justice?

The Activist Learner

First off, I was super excited by Stephanie’s choices for this week and the idea of reading about Social Justice writing. It’s something I absolutely want to try in my classroom because it is beyond important to turn our young students into activists, or to at least help them see themselves as ones. Unfortunately, I’ve been having difficulty locating the second article, but will continue my search!

The first article, titled “The Activist Learner” was written by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Whitney Douglas, and Sara W. Fry. After reading the first section of the article, I felt a little insulted. The way the authors presented service learning and engaging students just seemed like common sense to me, that it seemed a bit ridiculous they were writing about it. I wanted to scream “DUH” at the screen, in fact I might have. I was definitely shaking my head. But instead of holding onto that judgement, I reminded myself that the first section was the introduction, which functions as a broad overview and that may be why it was so self explanatory.  

However, I was disappointed. I felt that the article took eight pages to say that service learning is when students are engaged in meaningful learning and teachers are collaborative. The article expressed experimenting with new ideas and using your resources, such as coworkers to collaborate and learn from.  Wilhelm mentions that when initiating a new curriculum,  you are “doomed to some level of success” which I think is very poetic. It’s true that when you try something new you learn and grow and there are many challenges you face. He recommends service learning as a thinking and collaborating approach to bounce ideas off others. I couldn’t agree more. However, there are only so many hours in a day. I have worked in schools where the district fully supports separate common planning time, and schools were it does not seem to be valued. I agree with the theory proposed in this article, however, putting this into action is not solely reliant on willing teachers.

I also got to thinking about the idea of mentor teachers. I had two mentors in the time of my career, that lasted a total of one year. I have unofficial mentors, sure, but I love the idea of a continuous mentor. Why do mentors stop when you are no longer considered “novice”? If we work in a profession where the curriculum and standards are continuously coming through a revolving door, why aren’t we always considered novice, since we are responsible for learning the new material.  

HERE WE GO! FINALLY we are at the social issue/activist part of this essay. Samantha Archibald Mora, high school English, Spanish and ELL teacher created a service learning project called Breaking Social Barriers to help expose her ELL students to authentic native English speakers and for the US born students to engage in real opportunities to learn about the world from their peers. It warmed my heart to hear about such open minded students along with the thank you note from one of the ELL students, expressing her fear and overall positive outcome of her experience. As I was reading this, I wanted to hear more about what the specific projects where that Mora implemented in her classroom. I run a social issues book club, and I’m thinking that I could revise it for next year to deal with breaking down social barriers and how the novels do this.

Angela states, “Be practical and start small. Students have to write and read something. They may as well write or create something that’s usable to themselves and to someone else.”  This is the goal. Always. Let’s start small to help create individuals who question the world and open their eyes to seeing the world in a new way.

Introducing my Introduction!

Intro to MA Thesis