The International Literacy Association (ILA) released their book choice list for 2018, during a literacy session at their 2018 annual conference in Austin, Texas. The session featured Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King, which was a 2017 ILA book choice. Mr. Zentner discussed how he wrote The Serpent King. It was interesting to hear how he developed the theme, the characters, the plot, and actually wrote the book. He stressed that the process of writing the book took several months. He also stressed the need for boredom or time to think. He shared that much of the book was written in his head during the pre-writing process before actually committing words to paper. Mr. Zentner came up with the theme by meshing a couple of songs that he had written while playing in a band. He allowed the characters to come alive in his head, their personality, their actions, and their verbiage. He typed the words that flowed like a river on his cell phone in just 25 days. Much of the typing took place during his lunch break and on the subway to and from work. The writing process for him seemed like a hobby or a stress release from his intense position as a prosecuting attorney. He has written two other books, Goodbye Days (2017) and Rayne Delilah Midnite Matinee (2019).
This session reminded me that as educators we should consider the following when developing writing lessons:
- the importance of the pre-writing process or the foundation of the written passage
- writing is a higher cognitive processing skill that needs time to process or blend and bake
- importance of background knowledge or student’s natural environment
- the skills needed for each genre of writing, which may be different
- writing takes time; the time needed may be different for each student
- the first draft usually needs editing
- students need time to free write or practice getting words on the paper without the fear of being wrong
- students may need to learn how to develop a topic
- what are the requirements of this writing assignment
- who is my target audience
- collaboration may strengthen the writing process
- the importance of time spent reading
ILA’s book choices for 2018 can be found at https://www.literacyworldwide.org/
Membership is not required to access the booklist.
