It's Here!!
Celebrating Writers: From Possibilities Through Publication by Ruth Ayers with Christi Overman
Ruth's writing (on her blog and in her books) have been a huge inspiration to me over the last few years. It is a hard time to stay grounded in teaching--to continue to keep our classrooms joyful places for children. It is easy to lose energy and to fall back on practices that don't match what we know about children or about learning. But Ruth's work always gives me the confidence and energy I need to stick with what I know is right. She understands children and writing and teachers and she celebrates every piece of the learning process, especially the messy ones! I've come to count on Ruth's blog,
Ruth Ayres Writes for a daily does of sanity, groundedness, and celebration.
Last month, we were lucky enough to hear Ruth Ayres speak all day at our annual Literacy Connection event. She spoke on the topic of Celebrating Writers and it was just the energy boost I needed!
Since then (and before), I have been anxiously awaiting this new book,
Celebrating Writers: From Possibilities Through Publication. I was thrilled when Stenhouse sent me an advanced copy of the book and invited A Year of Reading to be part of this book celebration blog tour! The new book is already an important one for me as Ruth and Christi are brilliant at weaving celebration into all that they do with young learners.
You can follow the Celebrating Writers! Blog Tour all week:
Nov. 11: A Year of Reading
Be sure to stop by each blog and leave a comment or ask a question for a chance to win a free book.
To kick off the blog tour, A Year of Reading interviewed Ruth about her newest book!
What is the biggest
thing you want people to come away from when reading your new book?
I’d
like them to see the beauty in the mess of student writing. I get so much
energy from being around young writers because they are passionate and
interested in their writing. Too often, in the name of standards and
conventions and teaching we squelch their energy. I hope this book helps us
celebrate the imperfections of young writers and gives us more energy for
teaching writers and students more energy to be writers.
What one change
can teachers make that will move toward more purposeful celebrations?
Look
for the thing a student is almost doing
as a writer and acknowledge it. For example, you might say to a first grade
writer, “I see you know periods go at the end of something. Instead of putting
one at the end of every line, let’s put them at the end of sentences.” Then
teach into the error from this stance of celebration.
You take the
theme of celebrating into all areas of your life. Did that life stance begin
from writing celebrations or did the way you live your life help you think
differently about writing celebrations?
Yes.
Can I answer with yes? It’s both. At
first I thought writing celebrations were fluff. Then as I began being a writer
myself, I realized celebration is fuel to keep me going. The more I started
thinking about it in terms of teaching writers, the more I realized it could be
applied in all areas of my life. At the time of writing this book, we were
adjusting to life with our daughters who we adopted as older children in 2008.
Then in January 2013 we adopted our son who was 7 at the time. In the midst of
writing about celebrating writers, I was experiencing how celebration could
fuel me in other hard parts of life besides writing.
Tell us about a
few of your favorite writing celebrations in schools you work in.
My
very favorite celebration is the moment in a conference when a student has more
energy for writing because he has talked with me than before we talked.
As
far as formal celebrations, I’m a sucker for poetry jams. I love to dress like
a beatnik, sip smoothies, and weave words with young poets.
You are a strong advocate for teachers
finding time to do their own writing. How does your work with celebrations fit
into adult writing outside of the classroom?
Thank you. I do hope teachers find time
to put some words on the page. I think when teachers are writers themselves
they realize the importance of genuine celebration. It doesn’t need to be
grandiose and it doesn’t have to include forced feedback, rather celebration is
the natural outcome of being in a writing community. When we are writers working alongside other
writers, we understand how celebration is fuel and we are positioned to make it
an integral part of our writing workshops.
Tell us about a few
of your favorite personal writing celebrations.
I
finished a manuscript of a young adult fiction story a few years ago. I doubt
it will ever see book form on shelves but just the fact that I finished is big
to me.
Whenever
someone tells me they started writing or started a blog or started a notebook
because of me, that’s the ultimate writing celebration.
Recently
I wrote a blog post (http://www.ruthayreswrites.com/2013/10/when-you-want-to-quit.html)
that triggered a lot of response. In addition to comments, people sent me
direct messages on Twitter and Facebook, emails, texts messages, and even a
letter in the mail, telling me their stories that my post made them remember. I
was touched by the way my words impacted others.
These
are the celebrations that fuel me.
RuthAyresWrites has just started a Saturday tradition inviting people to share weekly
celebrations. You’ve had a huge response almost immediately. Why do
you think so many people jumped in right away?
I’ve
been asking myself the same thing! I think we are overwhelmed by our daily
grind. When we take the time to look for celebrations, we are able to see
growth and purpose in our work. I’m inspired each Saturday by all of the
powerful teaching and learning happening across the globe. Unless we document
it, it is too easy to overlook.
What’s next for you
as a writer?
I just started a
new writing project on different topics than I’ve written before – faith and
adoption. Interestingly enough, I think Celebrating
Writers was much of the collection phase in my writing process for this new
project. The message of this next book is: Life is for celebration not
survival. I’m planning to weave stories of our adoptions with truths of life
about living celebration.
