Pam Allyn - Your Childs Writing Life: How to Inspire Confidence, Creativity, and Skill at Every Age

Table of Contents

TO PATTY VITALE-REILLY

Friend, colleague, fellow journeyer in this blessed universe of children and words.

Thank you for your sure and steady companionship, support and love.

And for saying yes to the first idea while stirring your sauce.

The idea came out great, if I do say so. And the sauce...

well, we know how that comes out.

Perfect, every time.

Thank you

To Jen Estrada, for your miraculous and beautiful spirit and your dedication to this work we do together.To Flynn Berry, for your glorious contributions and generous heart. To Megan Newman, who guides the Avery family with wisdom and vision. To Lucia Watson, editor, graceful and kind, championing the hearts stories. To the Penguin family of William Shinker, Lisa Johnson, Anne Kosmoski, Adenike Olanrewaju and Miriam Rich for bountiful support. To Lisa DiMona, agent and friend, eternal sunshine of a brilliant mind. To Jill Daniel, Don Hoffman and Ellen Fredericks, for your soaring capacity to make things happen. To Caroline Grant at literarymama .com for nurturing my epilogue. To the LitLife and LitWorld Teams, extraordinary colleagues and friends, advocates of children; with a special thanks to the magnificent Dorothy Lee for making LitWorld soar. To Cheri Mosley, for exquisite order that brings peace to my world. To Elizabeth Fernandez, Jeannie Blaustein, Lauren Blum, Sue Meigs, Joy Solomon and Lois Bridges, for your precious selves and for your commitment to the worlds children and faith in the work we do. To my beloved parents, Anne and Bill Krupman, for soul-filled inspiration, and to Aunt Alice and Uncle Bruce, Aunt Rita, Uncle Ed, Aunt Evy, Uncle Larry and White Owl Clayman, who prove that cheering on the child writer makes all the difference. To Cindy and Lou Allyn, for all seasons in harmony on the pond. To Katie, for wisdom you share well beyond your years and for your exquisitely luminous spirit. To Charlotte, for your magnificent insights and your deeply passionate spirit. (Dearly beloved daughters, you inspire every page, every breath I take.) To Jim, for every blessed moment I get to be with you. Love always and forever.

One evening, after thinking it over for some time, Harold decided to go for a walk in the moonlight.

CROCKETT JOHNSON, Harold and the Purple Crayon

Just make a mark and see where it takes you.

PETER H. REYNOLDS, The Dot

All serious daring starts from within.

EUDORA WELTY, One Writers Beginnings

INTRODUCTION

One of the students in my elementary school writing workshop, Marisol, had spent her young life in foster homesso many that no one could remember exactly when her birthday was. All the kids wrote stories of their greatest wish. Marisols was to have a birthday party for the first time. She described it in her writers notebook down to the last detail. The size and color of the big pink cake. The type of Spanish music that would be playing. The dress she would wear. After she read her story aloud, the students grew quiet. A few were crying. They were ten years old. Later they came to me. Mrs. Allyn, could we make Marisol a birthday party? they asked.

And so they did. They brought every detail of Marisols wish to life. The glorious dress, made by two of the students grandmothers. The presents. The music. And the perfect cake, like those baked by a thousand mothers, with the words For Marisol, for all the birthdays you never had.

I felt the thousand tears of those mothers mixed into the sweet taste of that dulce de leche cake. I will never forget the taste of that cake. It was the sweetest taste on earth. Marisol wrote her story, the story of her life but also the story of what her hopedfor life could be, and that story changed not just her but everyone around her.

As a literacy educator, I have taught writing workshops to children from the age of two years up to twenty-one. No matter the age, people are fascinated, preoccupied, consumed, fearful, enchanted and delighted by the power of the written word. But children especially love, love the power of words and stories. And they are, so naturally, living a writers life. A life of observation, of wondering, of memory and imagination. A life where by writing down something, you can make it happen. Like Marisol.

I came to a kindergarten class once to teach a poetry writing workshop. Jonny with the bright blue eyes stood up at the end of that day and recited his poem: Sun! he said proudly. And then looked around, expectantly, while we all smiled back at him. Clearly he had more to say. He drew a deep breath. Sun! he said again. We nodded in full support. His bright eyes seemed to glow even brighter, impossibly blue. Sun! he shouted with emphasis, and this time he lifted his arms all the way up. He leaned forward and whispered, I know thats a poem because poems repeat words.

Seeing children discover and love words, as Jonny did, fills me with joy and hope for their future. I was part of the school reform movement in New York City in the 1990s when the idea that students should explore their own ideas in writing, to think about who they are and what they have to say, was revolutionary. At first many teachers resisted the idea of teaching creative writing to their students. Its a waste of time, theyd say. We need to focus on more rigorous study. Many of these teachers had had their own negative experiences with writing, which they were passing on to their students. So often still we dont even begin to teach writing until the fifth grade. What low expectations we have for our students! Kindergartners can write much more than we think they can. But why start so early and give it the kind of emphasis I share here? There are three compelling, research-based reasons.