A place for those who find and create meaning through words
My student teacher asked how often he should use a particular formative assessment. “Using any formative assessment activity frequently will make it boring, and students will hate it,” I responded. “They won’t be invested in the assessment. The results will not be meaningful.” Variety and activity are keys to keeping students’ attentions and to make... Continue Reading →
The Scourged Back, an 1863 photo of an escaped African American slave, his back covered by a thatch of thick scars, touches students more deeply and reveals more about this period of our nation's history than could any third-person text. My student teacher and I posted The Scourged Back, period illustrations of slave-catchers, sepia photos... Continue Reading →
My introduction to McCarthy’s work did not go well. Misunderstanding his style and my ignorance of literary fiction caused me to consider The Road a book to finish simply because I had begun it. Run-on sentence structures and the lack of dialogue punctuation switched-on the teacher portions of my brain, and each unconventional writing feature... Continue Reading →
Tim O’Brien weaves a collection of character-driven vignettes related thematically by the Vietnam War yet more powerfully through characters’ sentimental items, emotional baggage, and trauma. These “things” help create powerful character profiles evolving into stories within themselves, and the connections between stories at first seem rigid and chronological until O’Brien ties suddenly several story threads... Continue Reading →
Sometimes you are at just the right spot, at the right time, and with the right light to capture an image with enough detail, character, and emotion to inspire your writing. I hope these photos and their brief descriptions help to spark your creativity and can serve as writing exercises or seeds for much greater... Continue Reading →
Sometimes you are at just the right spot, at the right time, and with the right light to capture an image with enough detail, character, and emotion to inspire your writing. I hope these photos and their brief descriptions help to spark your creativity and can serve as writing exercises or seeds for much greater... Continue Reading →
Success as a writer, even if defined as simply "getting my words out there," often requires a business mindset and strategy. A Word document entitled “Published Works” consisting of nothing more than contact information began my slow acceptance of a business mentality 10 years ago. “Published Works” remained blank for what seemed an eternity, but,... Continue Reading →
I drove three hours recently to crab in the Chesapeake Bay, was rained upon, caught one crab, and drove three hours home. This time could have been spent cranking out a couple thousand words or conducting a short story overhaul, but the experiences of being in the marsh, in the rain, tasting a hint of... Continue Reading →
The vision of a lone writer, pen poised over fine vellum in a room of dark wood and poring over prose in seclusion has faded into legend. If this romanticized view of writing had persisted into our generation, our profession would have died. An overarching theme of The 2012 Philadelphia Writer’s Conference encouraged writers to... Continue Reading →
david cooper writing 
You must be logged in to post a comment.