Lainie Levin

Steering My Craft: Long Sentences

This blog post is part of an effort to refine my own work as a writer, and to strengthen my practice as a writing teacher. For each exercise, I’ll provide the directions, my effort, and a short reflection. The Assignment: Craft a passage (up to 350 words) within a single sentence. Punctuation and complex clauses are welcome! SheContinue reading “Steering My Craft: Long Sentences”

Steering My Craft: Short Sentences

This blog post is part of an effort to refine my own work as a writer, and to strengthen my practice as a writing teacher. For each exercise, I’ll provide the directions, my effort, and a short reflection. The Assignment: Craft a paragraph using short sentences (maximum 7 words each). No sentence fragments are allowed! FIRST ATTEMPTAmong itContinue reading “Steering My Craft: Short Sentences”

Steering My Craft: Am I Saramago

This blog post is part of an effort to refine my own work as a writer, and to strengthen my practice as a writing teacher. For each exercise, I’ll provide the directions, my effort, and a short reflection. The Assignment: Craft a passage using NO punctuation. Gulp. Here was my go: He tied his shoes yes allContinue reading “Steering My Craft: Am I Saramago”

Steering My Craft: Sound of Words Part 2

This blog post is part of an effort to refine my own work as a writer. For each exercise, I’ll provide the directions, my effort, and a short reflection. The Assignment: Write a(nother) passage that wants to be read aloud, this one dealing with a particular action, feeling, or emotion. Here’s where I landed: Yes.Please.Thank you.Tight words,Continue reading “Steering My Craft: Sound of Words Part 2”

Steering My Craft: Exercise 1-The Sound of Words

This blog post is part of an effort to refine my own work as a writer. For each exercise, I’ll provide the directions, my effort, and a short reflection. The Assignment: To craft a short passage that asks to be read aloud. The object is to have fun playing with words and their sounds. Here’sContinue reading “Steering My Craft: Exercise 1-The Sound of Words”

Steering my Craft: Ground Rules

I’m excited to spend time working on my own writing over the next several weeks in the hope of becoming a stronger writer. But I won’t lie. The task is daunting, and I’ll have to face my demons. Perfectionism: I get so caught up in my ideal vision that I either won’t begin, or I’llContinue reading “Steering my Craft: Ground Rules”

Steering My Craft

I’ve long had a resistance to writing fiction. I’m not quite sure what it is, but perhaps it’s because it’s like art in many ways. I might see a horse in my head, but I can’t get myself to produce what I see. Similarly, I can’t get myself to create fiction that matches the movieContinue reading “Steering My Craft”

Summer Dreams

This post is in response to a bookcampPD challenge, asking teachers to think about what they dream about for the summer. Here was my submission. I can’t wait to see what my online colleagues have to say as well! …and you…? I’d love to know what you dream of doing this summer. Leave a commentContinue reading “Summer Dreams”

When Poems Find Me

Sometimes a poem strikes me, and I’m able to write it in the moment. I get an idea for an image, a phrase or a metaphor, and I just can’t help myself. Other poems are more coy. They want me to write them, but maybe I have too much to say and don’t know howContinue reading “When Poems Find Me”

Troubleshooting: Questions Edition

It started out easy enough. My second graders were sharing the questions they had written with one another, and to promote supportive listening I had the kids nominate strong questions for a light-hearted “awards” ceremony. Our “Questies” consisted of 3 categories:*Questions we’re most curious to find the answer to*Big questions, that nobody really has theContinue reading “Troubleshooting: Questions Edition”