Trusting in My Mentor Texts

I’ve taught writing to third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders now for thirty-six years. I also am lucky enough to work as Co Director for the Indiana University Southeast Writing Project  and spend time with writers that are between 25- 60 years old. It is striking how similar the two groups are in terms of their reluctance to write and writing fears. Luck Calkins, in her book, The Art of Teaching Writing , 1994, pg 153 tells a story I’d like to share:

Yesterday, I brought my four-year-old son to his swimming class, and for the first time I stayed to watch. Evan can’t swim; I knew that so I wondered what would happen. I figured he would hold onto the pool’s edge and kick a little bit. Instead, his teacher dove into the pool and surfaced near the edge where Evan and his friends stood. Then she looked up at my skinny little waif of a son and said,” Okay, Evan, jump. Jump, Evan.” Evan stood, with his toes curled over the edge for a moment, looking down into the deep water. “Jump,” she said, and he did, surfacing a moment later. He looked for her but she was out of reach. “Turn on your back, Evan,” she said. “Turn…,” and he did.

Lucy shares this story with her young writers. Then she continues with the lesson by explaining how the writers in the writing class can support one another.

You and I , as writers, need to have writing teachers that go into the deep waters and who say,” Lucy, jump. Jump!” In the books we are reading we have those teachers. Let’s all of us find, in the books we’re reading, a section we love. Let’s let the author of that section be our writing teacher, calling us to plunge in to do something deeper that we’ve ever done before.

I’m not alone in my classroom. I do not have to know all there is to know about writing to be comfortable. I sit with my walls covered with nearly two thousand trade books that I lean on to show us the way writers can write a lead, create a character, lure a reader into the story and to create tension. These books are my friends. They teach my writes all the possibilities. The call out,” Jump,to each of us.” And we Have-a-go at the new thing we have found.

So, I will stay in the deep in of the pool. I will call out to my writing friends,” Jump, Sandy…jump Elaine,” and I will watch them grow as writers.