Author's Chair

Author’s Chair is another feature of writing process that was very popular at our writing camp. Again, this is one activity that did not find favour in our Singaporean classrooms because of the lack of time and the large class size. Another possible reason is that the culture for such an activity is missing.

But I am again surprised at how the students at the camp adopted this activity and took to it like ducks to water. On the first day, we had to ask a few children to share their writing but on the second day, students were signing up on the board to read their pieces. On the third day, there was a scramble to take up the six slots offered for Author’s Chair. Regretfully, we did not have time for Author’s Chair on the fourth day, although the older children did get to share their writing with their parents on the last day.  The primary children published their pieces instead.

What is Author’s Chair?

Author’s Chair is the final step in the writing process where writers who have completed their writing or are happy with their pieces are invited to share their writing by reading it aloud.  It is an opportunity to receive feedback from peers and for peers to respond to what has been written. A special chair is usually set aside for this occasion. We used a tall chair, placed in the centre of the classroom.

Author’s Chair helps child writers to develop the concept of authorship and to affirm their writing and their ideas.  It also encourages collaborative learning and sharing. Author’s Chair is a motivating activity for students, as I can well testify, and it encourages students to want to write more and to write for a real audience.  Peers who are listening learn to listen attentively and to show their appreciation for their friend’s writing. Although we did not ask our students to give feedback, this step can well be added to the routine once students are used to the activity and feel a sense of belonging to the community.  We encouraged all our students to show their appreciation for the sharing by clapping.

I am convinced that Author’s Chair is one activity that will fit well into our STELLAR classrooms. After all, the best time to begin such an activity is when students are young and not too self conscious. Yet, I must emphasise that a safe classroom culture is significant so that potential writers are not discouraged by the reaction of their peers.  I was very gratified by the positive response students gave to Author’s Chair and once again, it showed me that most students (and not just the bright ones or the good writers) are keen to share their work and interested in their peers’ reactions to their work.

A final thought for those of you thinking of doing this in class. You may not want your students to share the complete story. Reading a short extract, their favourite line or lines, or what they think is most interesting will be adequate. This will also help you to include more students in the activity. Like all activities, don’t let it drag on and on. Always stop early to keep them hungry for more the next time!

My Writing Process or 8 tips for getting the writing done

It’s a great relief to be almost done with the books. I mean the textbooks and the supplementary materials that I’ve been working on for P3 pupils. I did enjoy doing them although there were tedious moments of reading and rereading the manuscripts. And it didn’t help that everything had a short deadline. But they’re done and now I am free, hurray, until we get started on the P4 books.

In the meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about this blog. I have many things to write about but I don’t always have the time. And sometimes when I have the time, I prefer to read a book. Writing is hard; reading is more fun and easier. But I don’t hate writing. I used to when I was younger, but after years of slogging at it, writing comes easier to me now. I also write to earn an income so I often have to write stuff that I won’t write under normal circumstances. But when I have to do that, I try to find the enthusiasm for it too and when I do, I feel good about the writing.

So after doing the books, I wrote a draft piece on writing for students. I did that in a weekend, and it was a satisfactory draft, considering that it’s about a dull subject like sentence structure. But since the beginning of the month, I’ve been working on a piece for a conference in early November. I’ve been invited by IDAC (International Development in Asia) a regional literacy organisation to be one of the plenary speakers at their conference in Manila on the theme Educating Teachers of Literacy.

I must admit that I have not written a long paper for a while. The longest piece I’ve written, in recent memory, is less than 2000 words, compared to the five to seven thousand word pieces I used to churn out in my other life. Writing a couple of thousand words isn’t that hard if I knew how I want to angle my paper. Unfortunately, that’s the hard part.

I began, like always, by looking up material that I might want to use or that’s related to my topic. So, I dragged out all my older publications, googled and checked out recent material on the topic. I had no intention of writing a serious research piece. Plenary presentations can be very boring for participants (I have been to many of these) and I thought something personal and a little light-hearted but with a couple of solid ideas should be good. Well, that’s easier said than done really. I finally wrote three versions, and versions 1 and 2 are completely different from the final version. I guess this is because I began with an idea in my head and I wanted to make the idea work and it wouldn’t. I tried two versions but I must add that within the two versions are numerous revisions. When the second version did not happen, I put the whole thing aside for a week and spent time with my sister who was visiting from KL. We cooked, shopped and chatted and I did nothing related to the paper for a whole week.

After she left, I began work on the student piece on writing. But on Saturday evening, I had dinner with my husband and over a Peranakan buffet, I told him about my paper and what I wanted to say. And suddenly, it’s all there. On Monday morning, I wrote 5 pages of my third version and there it was! Something like a plenary was finally shaping up. I put that aside for another week. You would have guessed by now that I have given myself a lot of time to work on this paper. I thought about bits of it on and off while doing my other chores, and on Saturday, hurriedly jotted down two points which came to me in a flash while brushing my teeth, and rushed out to town for an errand.

On Sunday, I printed out a draft but got distracted by a book I had begun reading, and decided to finish reading that first instead of working on the paper and that led me to today, Monday.

I have just looked through the paper and added the two points to it as well as a bit of a conclusion. That came up to 3544 words. Now, I will put it aside for another day or so before looking through it for a final print out for next week. But that’s not the end, of course. I will still be tinkering with it and working on bits here and there till the moment I stand in front of the podium and start talking about it. This time, I’m not even doing a final copy with references and all because I am not looking to publish it, well, not immediately anyway. It will take me another day or more if I have to put in the references as well. Regretfully, the piece is not as light hearted as I wanted to make it (can literacy be light hearted anyway?) but I guess I’ll try to present it in a light hearted manner. More importantly, it has something significant to say and the several solid ideas I needed.

Why am I writing this in my blog? Well, many of my friends write or are published writers. We often talk about writing and while I do believe there’s good writing and not so good writing, I also have a lot of respect for people who actually sit down and get it done. I am one of those who have not got down to writing many stories that I’d like recorded. In my mind especially are two great stories about my childhood with my siblings which I have entitled, Mushrooms soaked in virgin’s urine and Three blind mice. Then there are all those stories about my parents. I believe that my time has not come for doing this. I am too busy with other work and other writing at this point in my life. And I’m still looking for the best way to tell the stories.

But I know it can be done. So I am sharing here my tips for getting the writing done, and I don’t care what writing it is.

8 tips for getting your writing going

1. Begin by doing some research and thinking. You have to do this or else you won’t have anything to say. I reread my previous related papers. I read other books and journals to check on what has been written about the topic. I go online to search for resources. I make copious notes, usually on the back of used envelopes (Don’t follow this example of mine!)

2. I make an outline. I begin by writing something like, In this paper, I want to …. And I write down what I want to achieve in the paper. It helps me narrow the focus.

3. Talk to a lay person about it. I talk to my husband who is not in education. I run the arguments pass him and I ask if they make sense to him. I talk to as many people as I could about the paper and ask them for their feedback. Talking about the ideas help me understand what I am trying to do. They also make me obliged to finish the paper as people will ask about it!
4. When I have read enough, and this is a tricky concept, I start writing. What is enough? Some people I know never get started because they claim they have not read enough. Enough for me is when I have some idea of what I want to say and of what other people have said about the topic. I then get started on writing. I don’t want to delay the writing because writing helps concretise the ideas in my mind and help me sort out my own thinking too.

5. When I run into trouble with the writing, I stop and give myself a break. If not, I’ll carry on regardless of the quality of the writing. Sometimes, I make myself write 1000 words before I stop. And if I don’t like what I’ve written, I begin a new paragraph and start again.

6. Always have time to put the writing aside. I often give myself at least 4 weeks (without much work in between, let me add) to write a big paper. And I put aside a whole morning or afternoon every time I sit down to write. Don’t write when you have to rush off here and there for errands or other tasks.

7. Reread and revise. Don’t hesitate to throw away chunks of stuff that do not meet your needs. I sometimes save stuff that I can’t bear to delete but I’ll put that in a separate file. I have sometimes opened that file and rescued little bits for other papers. I don’t always aim for several thousand words. Instead, I aim to fulfil my objectives and I check these against my writing all the time.

8. When all is done, check your references thoroughly. If the paper is to be published, check the format that the paper needs and consult your publishing manual for the necessary style. Get a friend to read your paper and proof read it. Mistakes are unavoidable and the spell check will not pick up every mistake.

There you are. A lucky 8 points. These are my ways of getting started and may not be everybody’s way.

If you have a good idea about writing to share with others, let us know. As my yoga teacher often says, “If you know something and don’t share it, that’s a crime.” Another variation of this is, “If you have the knowledge and don’t use it, that’s a crime”. She’s talking about yoga of course but I think it applies to many aspects of life too. Billy Graham put it well when he said:

We are not cisterns made for hoarding, we are channels made for sharing.

Write on, everyone!