An Elixir for Writers
—Nora Roberts
Giving space to talk is one of the secret weapons of teachers of writers. I used to believe that writers needed silence. The silence was loud in my classroom, and truth be told, it was uncomfortable. Writing was painful for everyone in those days.
I was worried that if I offered time to talk, students wouldn’t be on task, and time would be wasted. I worried about a lot of silly things when I first started teaching. So day after day, silence weighed heavy in our classroom, bogging down fingers and stunting the words moving to the page.
If kids aren’t writing, then it is difficult to teach writers. Something needed to be done to loosen the words on the page. There are a lot of gimmicks that promise to do this. They are tempting in their guarantees to get kids to write, and provide teachers with “stuff” for students to do. Yet I wasn’t convinced my students needed more busywork. They needed to write.
The more I investigated how writers work, the more I realized that most writers talk about writing. They might not verbalize every single plot twist, but most writers have a buddy or two with whom to talk about their ideas and figure out the snags.
In a prepackaged world it may feel counterintuitive to simply give space for students to talk as writers. You don’t need a fancy slide with bulleted questions or a cute worksheet to record questions and responses. All you need is a routine designed to get students talking as writers.
Talk is an elixir for writers. Having a few moments to chat lets the words slide onto the page more easily when students are given the time to write. It’s simple but true.
Shine on!
Ruth Ayres
Editor in Chief
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