Story Time

Me and my wife, or is that my wife and I... Anyway we went out on a date (this was before the gallbladder incident)... (yeah I know, stop the presses) anyway, we conned, actually got a very nice person that my wife works with to watch the kids for us. And we went out to Port Royal, and ate some Dockside. The place is... quaint. I mean the tables and chairs were lacking, but the good food more than makes up for it, plus they serve Drifter, which is one of my favorite beers, so there you go, also they are right along the water.

But that isn't what I'm here to talk about... it is nice, and there are a few other places available in Port Royal, if you feel you are in the mood for something other than seafood. But anyway, the wife and I start talking... as we are want to do, especially when there are no kids to try and drive my or her attention away. So we talked, it was like it was years ago, before the kids came into our lives. It was nice.

She was telling me about writer's workshop, and how she gets kids to write... because to write you must read. And that is the ultimate goal, to get kids to read. So, she says it's like this. It all takes place in about 30 -45 minutes. The teacher teaches a short lesson for about 10 minutes and then sets the kids free to write. Imagine that, they learn to write...by writing! During that time she flutters around the room like a socialite listening to kids talk about what they need help with or a part they just finished that they're proud of...etc. Then at the end she opens it up for 5 minutes worth of sharing something they've written. She spends a lot of focus on treating them like and calling them "authors" and the work or craft of writing. The beauty of it is this...there's no "Tell me what you did last summer..." or "Once upon a time a little bear went for a walk and then..." kind of stupid prompts that make it easy for the teacher and only limit and frustrate the writer. How would you like to be the kid who did NOTHING last summer or the 10 year old boy who doesn't care about the freakin' bear?? Instead the kids are encouraged to think for themselves, about themselves and about the world around them....and write.