WRITING, REDEFINED BY SHAWNA COPPOLA
I have been a Shawna Coppola fan for a while now. I found her on twitter a few years ago. Her tweets about teaching writing have really made me reflect on my own notions and biases of what “counts” as writing. I’ve also enjoyed reading her zines and seeing her watercolour paintings on Facebook. Also, her dog is adorable.
Her new book is Writing, Redefined: Broadening Our Ideas of What It Means to Compose (Stenhouse Publishers, 2020).
I feel all writing teachers should read this book!
Shawna brilliantly, and with a great deal of humour, shows us how our print-heavy writing workshop is damaging to our students’ writing lives and identities. She argues that we are missing out on some pretty amazing writing opportunities when we only “allow” pencil and paper as tools in our writer’s workshop.
Shawna explains why other modes and forms of composition (visual, aural, etc.) should be part of our writer’s workshop. She equips us with the language to explain why we are teaching those forms and modes (to folks who might look at us quizzically) and the confidence that we are still teaching to the writing standards if we incorporate zines, podcasts, videos, picture books, infographics, etc. In Chapter 2, she lays out the “elements of inquiry” that we can use to introduce different forms and modes (no matter the age of the group).
“Writing, Redefined: Broadening Our Ideas of What It Means to Compose” by Shawna Coppola is a book that our students need us to read.
Learn more about Shawna Coppola here.