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exploring composing in the 21st century
First Words is a collection of childhood writings from contemporary authors. I chose to read this collection edited by Paul Mandelbaum for two reasons. First, it is very different from a book I would normally chose to read, given an option. My reading tend to be driven by an ongoing quest to make things better in my classroom. Secondly, because my kids are never far from my mind, I hoped to glean from what famous authors did as childhood writers. I thought I could share some of the stories I come across to make author’s more real to second graders.
I have found it difficult to make a connection to Mandelbaum’s work. I do not know the works of most of the authors he presents, and feel I am missing out on intriguing connections to their famous books– even though he points those connections out in the margins.
Wendy, First Words sounds like a great book. I look forward to hearing more about it. It is fascinating how we often look to successful authors to see how they write (or in this case, first wrote). Paris Reviews is another book like this in which writers reflect on the craft of writing. In this book what you find out is that writers engage in so many different kinds of processes. I wonder if you’ll the find the same to be true in your text.
I posted this also on my own blog…
While reading Boy Writers I find myself thinking about men writers. Fletcher describes a scene where a boy is called into school by his teacher. “Don’t do it” his friends cry. “She’ll make us write!”
When I was teaching in prison, I remember getting ready to produce a publication of student work, which required that students not only write but type. As we gathering in the resource room, where students were given access to laptops, one student turned to me and said, “I don’t type.” Rather than she’ll make you write, the message seemed to be, “He make us type.”
The student was being playful. I didn’t not ask him why he felt that way and instead just handed him the laptop. But as I think about it now, I wonder if there was the idea that only women type or perhaps the idea that artists don’t do the labor. They create and then pass their creations on to the production team.
Fletcher talks about boy writers and technology and notes that the technology of choice is instant messaging. He marvels at the amount of writing boys (and girls) do via instant messaging. While teachers might frown on the errors, Fletcher argues (and I agree) that there is enormous value here. Texting is perhaps like this too. Students use such technologies to record their thinking.
Fletcher includes this example of an IM conversation found by one mother of an eighth grader:
“So you broke up with me—who cares? All u do is make out with guys and then dump them. Congradulations
i hate u. u got little and iI I really hope you liked it because I arrantee that’s all you’re getting for the rest of your life!
Since I’m not the parent, I find this funny. I have a few more years before my 10 year old starts writing like this (I hope). Yet, as a teacher, there is a value in this type of writing. It teaches students to put their feelings in words at the very least….”
Anthony and I are reading books that overlap in significant ways.
Thomas Newkirk’s Misreading Masculinity and Ralph Fletcher’s Boy Writers.
Newkirk is a big influence on Fletcher. Along with Newkirk, he contends that we really don’t understand boys in the classroom. We often misinterpret their crude humor. After Columbine, we have gotten anxious.
When we discussed this issue with Wendy, we found ourselves agreeing with Newkirk and Fletcher on one hand while still thinking about what that means on a practice level. Wendy and I discussed how were not likely to buy our children a gun.
One fourth grader in Fletcher’s book writes a poem entitled, “When I Shot My Own 0.410.” It includes the lines, “The gun clicked. My hands were really sweaty. / I was sort of nervous / The gun could go off.” Another boys says, “I love violence.” Fletcher suggests that this is a stage, one that kids will pass through. And, yet, I think how for me, someone who does not work much with young children, this type of talk feels scary.
In the end, I’m mindful of Fletcher’s (and Newkirk’s) warning, yet I remain uneasy.
Immersed in Misreading Masculinity, this article seemed timely:
http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/473#home
I’m glad the author didn’t list science fiction in the kinds of reading that boys like, but which is not “real reading.” I’m truly finding the Newkirk book much more eye-opening than the Fletcher book, which I’m kind of seeing as Newkirk “light” at this point. Both books would make an excellent book club at the District level. Maybe I’ll propose one.