Penultimate Position

Last Thursday marked the penultimate class of my current session. I know that the girls loved my class, well, because they told me so. But also, I got adult validation as well. Their parents really seemed to like what I taught and the way in which I did it. I think the key to writing, for anyone, is positive validation. The caveat is, that one isn't going to improve their writing until they know what to fix to make it better. For me as the haphazard writer that I currently am, it means looking at work and thinking about what relationships stick out or resonate with the reader, and which do not. The problem is that most writers aren't objective about their work, because to them,  it is perfectly clear what they were trying to say. After all, they wrote it. As a writer, it is all too easy to get defensive when receiving critique. Writers, and artists in general, need to have a thick skin. The key is taking that crucial step back and looking at your own work as though you are reading it for the first time.

I think it is even harder when trying to convey these ideas to kids. Remember the childhood axiom "sticks and stones may break my bones. but words will never hurt me?" I can't tell you how many times I myself heard it as a kid. Unfortunately, while the sentiment is meant to empower, it doesn't. Words have incredible magic, and that magic can be quite dark. So in talking to my students, I find out that the phrases "Here's what's working" and "here's what's not" work just as well for them as they do for the adults in my two critique groups.  The structure of the class doesn't allow for as much critique as positive reinforcement, but that's to be expected in a class that lasts an hour. Kids are also more likely to  write if they are mostly encouraged. That was the case for me, anyway.

I also found that the kids got inspired to write more while I was reading to them from either my own work or a children's book of some kind. It was very gratifying that my own work had the kids on the edges of their seats. I frustrated one of them whenever I stopped reading to answer a question from one of the others. I found that while my literal reading skills are very good indeed, my kid reading skills are somewhere in the remedial range. I couldn't figure out if one of the students was having a good time in the class because well, she's rather like me, very quiet, very reserved, and holds her cards very close to the vest. It turns out that I needn't have worried. He parents contacted me and asked if I had plans for classes for returning students. So I put my thinking cap on. Their daughter made a comment that she has notebooks filled with new scenes for stories that have already been written. In the writing world we know this as fan fiction. So I offered a choice: we do a course called scene stealers. In that course we take popular children's stories and write all new scenes or we take a scene she's already written and devise an all new story around the scene. All the while building on the concepts that I taught in the Short Story class. So for instance we'd write a scene from a fairy tale focusing on character description. Or add a scene in Little Red Riding Hood that examines the relationship between Little Red Riding Hood and her grand mother, or the mother that is only briefly mentioned in the story.

Today and saturday mark the last classes of the current session. Today, we stand up and read our work to our families. It will be an eye opener for me as well. Now, I must dash off, and get the stories from the printer, as they have bound the stories for me, and go write. Because, well, that's how I have fun. Next up: At the last class ad what we found there.

Saturday Shenanigans

As you all may remember, (people living in DC are hardly likely to forget), it snowed last Thursday. Everything was shut down, including the Community Center where we run the workshop. The bus unfortunately, didn't run, so when I wrote that I was stranded in my last post that was the literal truth. I don't drive, and couldn't get around. There isn't anything remarkable about that, really, except that I live just off Connecticut Avenue, which is, 1) a major artery in and out of DC, and 2) a snow route. Thus it is unacceptable that the route was not sufficiently clean so buses could run. Upside: When my other work called me to come in I was able to say absolutely not. Anyhoo, I'll step down from my soap box now. I had to extend the workshops another week so that they could be made up.  Thursday's sessions extended by a week, but Friday's sessions were a bit more difficult.

My Friday student wasn't able to attend class three a couple of weeks ago. In order to make up the classes, I had to get a little bit creative. Collectively, and by that I mean parent and teacher, we decided that I would come to the house and teach the last two classes over two hours on Saturday  February 15th. It worked out surprisingly well. And we managed to finish the srory. I was a bit surprised because my student asked me if I'd be willing to type the story out for her. Because, "I can't really read grown up writing all that well." I hope that wasn't a comment on my penmanship, otherwise Aquinas Montessori, I think you better give my parents their money back. So, just as I agreed to hand write the story for her, I also agreed to type it out for her as well. I think you all will agree that I'd better not make a habit of either writing long hand or typing out the story. But just this once...what's the harm?

The story is an amazing tale of the power of the human spirit and the triumph of man against his greedier instincts. It's not really all that highbrow, but I'm the grown up and can attach a deeper meaning if I want to.  If my students give me their permission, maybe I'll post the stories to the blog. Right, next up, we are back in session with the thursdays, hijinks and hilarity abound in our next inkreadable installment. Stay tuned.

Snow Day

Whoever said that Friday the Thirteenth was bad luck got it wrong. By a day. It's Thursday and while I am writing from the coziness of my home, I'll have to venture out in a little while. We are snowed in in Washington, though those of you in snowier climes are probably laughing hysterically, we are not. Inkreadable Kids has been cancelled until Saturday, when the first of my make up classes will take place. The Thursday Classes will resume next week and extend this round of classes. My thursday class next session has no takers, so it's easy enough to extend. In other Inkreadable news, the website is up and running. Check out the fun at:

www.inkreadablekids.org

I'm quite pleased with the result.

I am off to work on my own writing. We will see you next week with another inkreadable installment.

Friday Fun

Although this will be a shorter post, I wanted to deliver on my promise of Tuesday, which was to regale you with Friday's high jinks. Rising action may have gotten a reality check from my Friday student.  Remember last week's "Stuck"? Well, it was a fluke apparently. This nine year old thinks faster than she can write. So being the super supportive person that I am, I offered to write for her. I assure you the ideas are all her own. I am just her personal dictation device, with the added benefit that I know how to spell. She sent me to Haiti on a ship with two sets of parents, two bffs (don't worry this abbreviation will get into the OED soon enough I am sure), and one cheerful captain, aka Emma the sidekick's grandpa. Then she sent the protagonist's Dad to work, the other parents to a hotel to get settled, and our dynamic duo to explore the island with Gramps. That took forty minutes of furious writing. The last 20 minutes were spent compiling ideas for finishing up the story. At the end of the hour, I also had to contend with a pretty serious hand cramp, and one parent that I had to assure that yes, it was all the daughter's ideas. Mom and daughter left happy because they've already asked me about future classes. They've also asked me to change the time they come to 4:15 pm and that actually works better for me as I can go have a bit of fun after. Well, that's all she wrote in this Inkreadable installment.

Writing Rainbow

Many of you will remember the Children's program Reading Rainbow, that starred Geordi La Forge, I mean, Lavar Burton. I beg your pardon, my inner geek had to come out. We had our own version of the show, that I like to call Writing Rainbow. Last Thursday's class was all about the rising action of a story. The events that get the reader to the main event. I talked about the definition of rising action and what it does, the theme, aka the deeper meaning to a story, got more detailed about the plot of a story, and introduced the idea of pacing. It ended up getting pretty interesting as my fourth student came to the second class.  She'd missed the first because she'd been ill. As I lead them through the concepts, I saw that the kids were starting to form connections. Our newest edition fit right in, and picked up the story in the middle very easily. I also tried something different for this go round. As they wrote, they asked me to read a story that I had checked out of the library. I originally intended to read the story and have them identify the parts. But they were so adamant that they wanted to get writing, that I just read it. Leaving the climax for the following week. Their own writing did not suffer in the least. In fact, it seemed that they became inspired to write faster and that the ideas flowed naturally. Hence the writing rainbow idea.

Like any good teacher, and I've known plenty, I decided to teach the third student the beginning of the story after the class ended. In my one on one with her, I was surprised to see the same traits that I had growing up. She's super smart, very funny, and very talented. And she's got a rather dark sense of the absurd. She is writing a story about a humble musician who takes three risks to go to a masquerade ball.  It's turning into quite an adventure and has subterfuge in it. It's very exciting. Next up: Friday fun!