The Northern Nevada Writing Project

The entire reason that I wanted to be a part of the writing project this summer was an epiphany I had. 

When I started college I had a hard time adjusting to scientific writing.  I had always been considered a good writer in high school.  It was really depressing for me, then, when I started college and all of the things that made me a good writer were now considered my “faults”: rich descriptions, deep vocabulary, and well-structured paragraphs (according in my high school teachers).

I desperately believed that I was meant to be a scientist, so I buckled down like a good little girl and proceeded to forget everything I had previously learned about writing and began following the scientific standard: concise, brief, no adjectives that can’t be quantified. 

When I became a teacher, I decided that I would be doing my students a favor if I taught them about writing the way I had learned it in college.  I didn’t want any of them to receive the same rude awakening that I had when I showed up in college.  So, I set out to create a procedure for writing scientifically. 

However, I found myself in middle school and in an effort to meet my student’s developmental level, I started creating projects that demonstrated creative writing techniques.  I of course never wanted to be really teaching them writing…but I really wanted to let my students incorporate something I knew they were good at with their scientific knowledge. 

Here’s the epiphany: why does science writing have to be boring? 

I have never gotten very involved with the writing process, however.  So, the book I looked at had several ideas for incorporating writing and reading into everyday science pedagogical methods.  Several of the techniques that I use already.  However, Lesley Wing Jan also promoted the idea of writing narratives of what students learn as they follow procedures of a lab.  Huh, what a concept.  She actually wrote, “Expressive and descriptive language must not be sacrificed for more precise scientific language”.  Her classes are younger than mine, but her idea is that students make connections to develop the concrete knowledge through the process of the narrative.  I’m feeling a little trepidatious about the whole thing, but I think I can do it…

So, my questions are: do I need to teach the narrative exactly like my Language Arts teacher does or can I develop my own technique?  Can I forgo my scientific lab reports for narratives as  part of data collection or should it be separate?  As a scientist, I like things to be pretty uniform…usually for each lab I do a write-up with data collection.  But could I start doing narratives instead in some instances or with demonstrations? 

Hey NNWP peeps- it’s Caroline!  So, I have a hunch that many of you have heard of both the author and this book, but for me, it was a first, and a great hands-on book that I can implement in the classroom daily.  Goldberg went on a spiritual journey to “unleash the writer within,” practicing Zen and what she calls, “writing as a spiritual practice.:  It’s almost like a cleansing of all the words inside of her, but she breaks down this vast idea into small chapters of advice for the struggling writer.  What I most enjoyed about this book is that throughout, she takes a rather humble tone and doesn’t dare to write a how-to book, but rather puts herself out there as a vulnerable writer who doesn’t have all the answers- she’s real, not lofty, and I liked that- her witty sense of humor is worth it as well.

  So, I decided immediately to write down specific chapters, which seriously are most of them, and use them immediately in my newly developed “Sacred Writing Time” in the classroom.  I found myself writing down all kinds of ideas and quotes, but the main one I want to instill is that we need to listen first, and then write- meaning, “the deeper you can listen, the better you can write.”  Ain’t that the truth?  Not only do I think this will help us become better writers, but also find our inner peace (clearly the Zen factor is working with this woman- probably why I was drawn to her book).

Another favorite chapter called “Syntax” involves taking a “boring” piece of writing, pulling out 3-4 sentences, arbitrarily adding punctuation (E.E. Cummings) and not trying to make sense of it, but reading it aloud as though it were saying something.  She writes that we think in sentences and the way we think is the way we see; therefore, releasing the syntax order, we release energy and are able to see the world from a new perspective- the poem examples in the chapter rock, especially the story behind the authors!

    Seriously, an easy, but very in-depth and fulfilling read.  I plan to use all of the book in my sacred writing time, but of course, time constraints are a big concern.  If I only see students 50 minutes a day, plus 30 minutes once a week, how can I build consistent quality writing time into my lessons?  I am struggling.  The books we read this summer often talked about a need for at least 20-30 minutes daily, or else it wasn’t worth it- what do you think and what are your experiences?

     I sign off with a favorite Goldberg (my new BFF) quote: “Though death is howling at our backs and life is roaring at our faces, we can just begin to write, simply begin to write what we have to say.”

Welcome!  This is the Blog of the Northern Nevada Writing Project’s Summer Institute.

Here, fellows will be able to talk among other fellows about their classrooms, demonstration lessons, and the books and articles they are reading.