‘When someone reads you what they have written,’ wrote a seven year old, ‘they are giving you a present.’ Sharing one’s writing can be nerve-wracking but to have an audience, is, also, a gift to the writer. And so reading aloud is an exchange of gifts. The listener and reader receives the gift of words. The … Continue reading Thank you
Writers notice things. The more we write the more we are likely to take note of. Sometimes we should change our viewpoint. When I was at school in Chester, I learned the value to the historian of looking up. Above modern shop fronts you could – and still can – see evidence of the older … Continue reading Look up!
Jamb-friend: A jamb is a supporting timber, of course, which makes a jamb-friend an early 19th-century word for a friend with whom you could quite happily sit by a fireside talking and relaxing well into the early hours. In the UK we are nearing the time when we will be able to meet with others face … Continue reading Jamb-friends
Today is Mass Observation diary day in the UK. We are invited to write a diary for the day, looking back also over the last year, if we wish, and forward to the future. The collection of diary entries will reflect everyday life at this time as part of a national archive which began in the … Continue reading Diary Day
How do you feel about writing? When we are working with teachers, it is likely that they will begin by expressing their feelings about it -doubt, fear, lack of confidence; the sense that it is difficult; the sense that it is daunting, that they can’t write, that it is too exposing, that it is too … Continue reading To Write Is a Feeling
Metaphors are a powerful part of the ways in which we think. Metaphors provide us with a way of characterising the new and of reconstructing the familiar. Here is a way of thinking about metaphor and landscape. Start by thinking of a dog: make a list of things that a dog does, essentially a list … Continue reading Verb into metaphor
I have been thinking about how much teachers know, and in particular, how much teachers who write know. Teachers know more about who and what they teach than most commentators and critics could possibly imagine. And yet commentators and critics feel free to deride teachers and to complain about their many shortfalls. Some governments have … Continue reading Becoming Our Own Experts
You probably know the furniture game and it is fun to play. I have played it as a guessing game and as a way of thinking about an individual. Think of someone you know well and then think about them in terms of any number of things. Answer the question: ‘if they were a [insert … Continue reading The Furniture Game
One way of using the T-Cut book (28thApril 2021) might be to display your writing about where you live. You could write a surface description on the outer pages. These may already reveal how you feel about your place. Even so, you could write something more personal in the space within the folded doors, a … Continue reading Beneath the surface.
Here’s how to make a pleasing book with an inner section that you can use for illustration, or contrast, commentary or hidden thoughts. You will need a rectangular sheet of paper -A4 or US letter is fine. If you want to add hard covers, you will also need some thin card. Place the paper in … Continue reading T-Cut Book
Writing Box 