Write- It's Good For You!

When I read What You Know by Heart, by Katie Wood Ray, I began to see writing instruction a little differently. She says, "We write so that we know what to teach about how this writing work gets done. We write so that we know wht writers think about as they go through the process. We write so that our curriclum knowledge of the process of writing runs deep and true in our teaching. We write so that we can explain it all."

It makes perfect sense, doesn't it? When we think about our content, we usually don't teach what we don't know how to do well... We know how to work with numbers, we know how to read, and we've been doing so our whole lives. But have we really rolled up our sleeves and tried to work through this writing process for ourselves?

Writing is a craft; it's like ceramics, for example. How many ceramics teachers do you know who haven't ever fired a piece of their own, working from the first messy stages, all the way through the firing?

I'm excited to learn more about the craft of writing well. I have a feeling I'll learn more about myself along the way.