“One of the most satisfying aspects of making is giving away what you have made. Wonderfully, most people still value gifts made by the giver more than gifts that were bought off the shelf.” Mark Hatch, The Maker Movement Manifesto: Rules for Innovation in the New World of Crafters, Hackers, and Tinkerers Mary Catalfamo attends Studio sessions with other teenagers her age. She’s a great writer, and she’s published many things that we can hold…
“Being creative, the act of creating and making, is actually what it means to be human. Secular philosophers like Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Carl Jung, and Abraham Maslow all came to the conclusion that creative acts are fundamental. Physical making is more personally fulfilling than virtual making. I think this has to do with its tangibility; you can touch it and sometimes smell and taste it. A great sentence or well-written blog is creative and…
Crafting quality writing curricula that provides writers just enough guidance to consistently propel them forward without threatening their autonomy is no simple task. Many teachers consider their vision, standards, the writing process, the elements of writer’s craft, and the production of specific forms as they chart a course for their year and aligned, multi-grade level maps for their buildings and districts. Day after day, year after year, these same teachers put their plans into motion,…
I’m the founder of the WNY Young Writer’s Studio, a community of writers and teachers of writing just outside of Buffalo, New York. Over the last seven years, I’ve watched children and adults make writing in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes. Studio was born from my desire to create a kind of lab classroom for those that I support as a literacy specialist. For the last eleven years, I’ve spent…
Here’s what I know: when many young writers face sit down to confront flat, empty screens and pages, they freeze. These are the writers who experience frustration and even defeat as they wade into procedures that often feel contrived using tools that are completely intangible. Over time, these tensions perpetuate a sort of quiet trauma as well: these children begin to believe that they can’t write, and then they stop trying. All of this has…
Celebration is a cornerstone of traditional writing workshop models. Here, writers share their work with eager audiences, typically in their local school communities. Exhibition differs celebration in important ways. Here, learners are encouraged to share works in process instead of completed products. Rather than rewarding writers for their work, we invite them to reflect aloud on their process, the challenges they faced and met, and how they would continue to improve the work, if given…
We spent part of last month’s Studio sessions talking about creative theft. Many agree that this is one of the most important skills that we can teach young writers. How do we do this, though? The tool below supports this simple approach: select multiple texts, study them with a very distinct lens, illuminate just this aspect of each text, and capture what you learn about craft. Then, use what you discover to inspire your own…
Austin Kleon’s books have had a huge influence on Studio writers of all ages…whether they know it or not. In Steal Like an Artist, he validates everything I’ve ever said to parents who worry when their kids begin writing fan fiction. “My daughter just ripped off J.K. Rowling,” a concerned mother will tell me, and I’ll find myself pulling on some version of Kleon’s words in response. Nothing is original, he reminds us. Everything is…
How often do you invite the writers you support to reflect, and for what purposes? In my experience, it’s common for teachers to place reflective work at the end of the process, when drafts are complete. It makes sense to ask writers to look back at their work and their processes in order to define critical learning moments and set new goals. This is a great way to help writers develop a relationship with reflection,…
On the first two Wednesdays of every month, I get to hang out with some of the friendliest and most talented writers in Buffalo. These meetings of our adult writing group at the WNY Young Writer’s Studio have become very important to me over the last two years. Writing can be a lonely endeavor, and a good peer review group is hard to find and sustain. I’m fortunate and so very grateful for the company,…