Memoirs

Question: What is some advice on writing and promoting memoirs?

Answer/Quote:

> “Reach out to potential review markets or outlets that will help you promote your book.

> “Network to find experts willing to provide blurbs or a foreword for your book.

> “Include specific details (think numbers and statistics) as part of your marketing plan.

> “Submit excerpts from your book to magazines, newspapers or online publications.

> “Compare your book to similar ones and show how  yours will fill a hole in the market.”

Comment: I wish I had read this advice before publishing my memoir, Teaching English, How To….

Title: “How to Make Your Memoir A Stand Out.” M Allen and C O’Shea. The Writer (January 2012), 44-45.

Advice on Writing Nonfiction

Question: What is some good advice on writing?

Cory Doctorow: “Write every day. Write even when the mood is not right. Write when the book stinks and isn’t going anywhere. Stop in the middle of a sentence…to start the next day. Write even when the world is chaotic.”

Bill Wasik: “Outline.”

Barry Boyce: “Planning, planning, planning.”

Sylvia Boorstin: “Don’t write from beginning to end. Write in the order that particular parts take form.”

Mark Frauenfelder: “Write the book that you want to read.”

Joshua Wolf Shenk: “Get through a draft as quickly as possible. Break it into chunks. What’s the idea/argument in sentence or two?”

Seth Mnookin: Start each day with some discrete goal. You’re going to spend a lot of time in your head.”

Title: “Writing Your First Nonfiction Book.” Steve Silberman. The Writer (January 2012), 34-37.

Beyond a Single Textbook

Question: How can students move beyond the single textbook to explore the many other resources available to them?

Answer/Quote: “With the rise of the digital age, if there is one artifact of our classrooms that needs rethinking, it is the textbook. No longer can teachers rely on a single source of information to meet our curricular needs. With many states subscribing to adoption models, the textbooks stay around too long and their content is frequently outdated.”

Quote:” For this reason, strategy guides can be useful vehicles for bridging textbook content and the myriad of information available to us via digital sources. Strategy guides are not the study guides of yesterday—essentially a series of question students had to answer while reading a textbook chapter. With the increasing need to develop strategic readers and writers, strategy guides…take students outside of a chapter and into multiple sources of information, touring virtual worlds, blogging about issues and synthesizing information from websites, online encyclopedias and so forth.” P. 248.

Comment: Makes sense. RayS.

 Title: “Real-Time Teaching: Bridging Print Literacies and Digital Literacies Using Strategy Guides.” KD Wood. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (November 2011), 248-252.

Reading Profile

Question: How can teachers assess students’ attitudes toward reading?

Answer/Quote:

Part I:

> What are your earliest memories of reading?

> What was the last book you read? Was it for school or your own reading?

> How do you choose a book? (Circle as many as apply)

I want to learn something

I like the author

The picture on the cover

A friend recommended it

My teacher requires it

The description on the back cover

It’s short

I like the genre (romance, adventure, fantasy, nonfiction)

> What is the best book you ever read?

> Do you have a favorite author? If so, who?

> What would you like to learn more about?

> If you could be any character from any book, television show, or movie, who would you be? Why?

Part II: Complete each sentence—

> When I have time to read….

> To me, books….

> I like to read about….

> I’d rather read than….

> I’d read more if….

 
Comment: I think I might throw in a question about using E-readers, regular books, magazines, etc. RayS.

Title: “Making Magic with Young Adult Literature.” J Haskins. Teaching Young Adult Literature, Mark Roberts, Editor. English Journal (November 2011), 101-104.

College Writing

Question: How can high school teachers prepare students for the writing they will be required to do in college?

Answer: Students pick their expected college majors, identify the types of writing in their fields through questions to college teachers and course descriptions from college catalogs and on the Internet and analyze these types of writing. For example, type in “Writing for Physics” in Bing or Google and you will learn what types of writing assignments will be expected in the field of physics.

Comment: Interesting idea. Students will discover that the writing formats in their chosen fields has sometimes little in common with the writing they are taught in English. RayS.

Title: “They Can Get There from Here: Teaching for Transfer Through a ‘Writing about Writing’ Course.” J  Wells. English Journal (November 2011), 57-68.

A Challenging Question

Question: What is good writing?

That is the challenging question. Students ask parents, relatives, faculty and college teachers that question. The results?

Quote: “Students generally thought good writing was simply writing that had no grammatical errors. Many students added they felt they were not good writers because of the feedback on errors they had been given by their teachers over the years. Even though the interview activity led Reesha, a junior to exclaim, ‘Good writing is as controversial as the topic of boys!’ It also raised a number of great questions…. Why are ideas about good writing so different? Why do teachers assign types of writing they don’t like? How do you know when to write about for whom?” p. 58.

Comment: This question reminds me of another. I once asked a colleague why he did not teach writing. He said, “My students can’t even writ a good sentence.” What is a good sentence? RayS.

Title: “They Can Get There from Here: Teaching for Transfer Through a ‘Writing about Writing’ Course.” J  Wells. English Journal (November 2011), 57-68.

Exploring Content Area Writing

Question: How can English teachers and their students discover how texts in content areas other than English are written?

Answer: There’s a whole world of writing in subjects other than English. This author challenges students to explore that world of writing by analyzing the types of texts used in other subject areas. Students could be writing these types of texts ten years from now. Begin with textbooks. Also, check out the Internet. Type in to Bing or Google “Writing in Sociology.” You will be given information about the types of writing expected in the field of sociology. Example: “The Challenges of Writing in Sociology. What distinguishes Sociology papers from the papers you might write in other courses, including English?

“...www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/soc_sciences/...”·

Comment: Good idea. RayS.

Title: “Purpose Beyond This Years: Students Analyze Future Genres.” L Beckelhimer. English Journal (November 2011), 50-56.