The Write Idea Podcast – I am so excited to introduce you to my new podcast for ELA teachers, Creative Writing teachers and writers (no matter your age)! This has been several months in the making. From concept to getting episode scripts researched, written and recorded. Then, I had to figure out how to publish these for you. And here they are – coming at you every Sunday.
What The Write Idea Podcast Will Feature
The Write Idea Podcast will feature the proven strategies and techniques that writers and teachers of writing need to succeed.
You’ve heard of the idiom – “can’t see the forest for the trees.” So many writers get lost in their own forest of words. That’s where strategy comes into play. You employ strategies to map your way through the forest your brain has conjured.
Although, the original meaning of strategy has to do with war and politics, the secondary definition of STRATEGY as defined by Merriam-Webster.com is “the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal.” It’s the PLAN. It’s the BIG PICTURE. Or another analogy is that a strategy is a way through the forest. Notice I said, “a way.” There are many strategies that can get you from one side of the forest to the other or from beginning to the end of any piece of writing.
To clarify, the strategies I illustrate will focus on those writerly moves you make when you are planning your writing or revising for structure. So, writing strategies are figuring out your topic, audience, purpose, mode, genre, form, etc.
Meanwhile, TECHNIQUE is defined by Merriam-Webster.com as “the manner in which technical details are treated (as by a writer) or “the method of accomplishing a desired aim.” So, I think of writing techniques as the WAY the you put the words together.
Your descriptions, metaphors, dialogue, internal monologue, and any other writerly moves or rhetorical devices you use – these all are part of technique and help you to develop your own personal style. To go back to our previous analogy, the technique is the myriad of flora and fauna you find within your forest.
Why I wanted to create The Write Idea
Although I love writing, I also love to talk. A LOT. In fact, my nickname as a child from my Grandpa Ralph Taylor was “Chatty Kathie.” EVERYONE in my family and most of my friends agree.
I am quite the chatter, but I’m also a pretty good listener. Over the past few months, I’ve listened to lots of podcasts on my commute to work. (I have an 80 minute round trip commute to my school.) I found that I really enjoy listening to how other people think about different ideas, and I knew I wanted to share on this platform space as well.
I knew that other teachers and possibly writers, too, may want to break away from their computers and keyboards, and yet still listen to something that may help them.
YOU – dear teacher and dear writer – are my reason why. I’ve wallowed in the mires of not being able to get my ideas to flow. I’ve struggled with how to help kids who really need help with their writing, wondering where to begin.
That’s what I’m here for – to help you with strategies and techniques to improve your writing. Let’s get those brain synapses firing like laser beams to your fingertips and electrifying your keyboard (and your future readers) with your words.
I was born to write, but I was also born to teach. I love helping writers. I’ve been doing it for so long, and I’ve wanted a platform to expand my reach to help more writers.
Please let me know how to improve The Write Idea
I want to bring the content that will help you as a teacher and/or writer. So, please comment in the post, email me, go to iTunes and rate and comment on the podcast. I can’t improve unless I know what you need.
Like I said, this podcast will be coming to you every Sunday, with an accompanying blog post article where I post my show notes and possibly some other helpful tidbits, too. When time permits, of course, because I am still a full-time Creative Writing teacher.
Show Notes for The Write Idea Podcast Episode 1: Welcome!
Welcome to the Write Idea, that’s the WRITE idea. My name is Kathie Harsch, I’m an English teacher, business owner of Teach2Write and a self-published author.
This is my first podcast episode, and I’m SO excited to be here…sharing writing ideas with you.
I’ll be coming to you every Sunday…. with writing strategies and techniques for all writers… as well as for teachers… who are looking for ways to help their students IMPROVE their writing skills.
Who is she? Why her?
So, I know what you’re thinking – who is this chick…and why does she think she can tell ME anything about writing? I’m so glad you’re here and if you’ve listened this far, you definitely deserve an answer to these important questions. I’m Kathleen Harsch, Kathie to most people. I’m the wife of Dan, for the past 24 years, he’s a nurse. I’m a mom of our 20 year old daughter and 17 year old son. We have 2 large dogs – Gus and Copper.
I’m an English Language Arts and Creative Writing teacher in Florida and have been for the past 24 years. I’m also a self-published author of teen fiction – I’ll tell you why I self-pubbed in another episode – and I enjoy ALL things writing, except that I’m not a fan of the 5 paragraph essay! More on that later…
Why does she think she can tell ME anything about writing?
Now, to answer your second question – yeah I’m a mind reader! – Why do I think I can tell you about writing?
I’m not only a teacher and writer, I also consider myself a researcher. Over the years, I’ve read books about the teaching of all types of writing – nonfiction, fiction and poetry. I will be sharing some of those books with you, too, but I put into practice what I discover. I’m always looking for ways to help my students become better writers.
I’m constantly trying to become both a better teacher and a better writer.
I want to share this information with YOU.
And…I’m thinking you feel the same way, too, OR… you wouldn’t still be listening right now. English teachers…I love you all. I know how hard you work…how many essays and stories you read, how many students you try to make an honest connection with.
After reading countless essays, paragraphs and other student writing, you might not have time to do a lot of the research I’ve been able to do. Or new teachers trying to figure out how to best help your students as you learn the craft of being an educator. It is a craft, and it does take time, so be patient with yourself.
So, YOU are my reason for doing this podcast…
I’ve helped thousands of students achieve their writing goals
Over the years, I’ve helped thousands of students achieve their writing goals. I want to tell you about a couple of them right now.
Kurt… that’s not his real name, of course…Kurt…was this really bright kid…Kurt was in my gifted ELA class. He was very articulate, but he really struggled with essay writing, especially the state writing test Florida used at that time. The essay students had to write was either persuasive or expository, and students were only tested in 4th, 8th and 11th grades for writing.
So, most teachers only focused on writing during the testing years, and focused on reading other years, since their evaluations and their test scores depended on the reading test exclusively. This lack of writing instruction, compounded by the test structure (students had NO reading materials to pull evidence from), so ALL the writing ideas had to come from their own imagination made these essays very difficult for students to write.
Students between 4th and 8th grades grow up significantly, but their writing often did not reflect that maturity and the response had to be long enough – the dreaded 5 paragraph essay – to cover the topic.
Case study of Kurt -Writing strategy:
So Kurt, he knew a lot about black holes, but knew nothing about how to write an essay like this. He didn’t know how to elaborate.
The FCAT also had strange prompts, too like…“Who is a hero in your life? Explain why…” OR “Persuade your principal to take your entire 8th grade class on a field trip. Where would you go? What would you do there?”
Student Scores were on a 0-6 scale, and Kurt often scored low on my practice essays, usually a 2 out of 6. Like I said – he needed help with elaboration.
I showed Kurt techniques for how to add examples and anecdotes to help him to explain his points. He found a technique that finally clicked for him. His essays really improved dramatically AND He scored a 5.5 out of 6 on his FCAT writing test.
Only about 3 percent of kids in the state earned scores that high!
I had students who routinely scored higher than other students in my district and state. Even though I taught him how to beat the test, I also taught him how to elaborate and other writing strategies and techniques that Kurt could use in high school and beyond.
He’s just ONE of the thousands of kids I’ve helped.
Case Study of Tiara – Writing Technique:
Another student – Tiara – needed help with writing a poem for her social studies class. Shout out to history teachers that give creative writing assignments!
I taught Tiara how to mind map her ideas and how to include sensory details to describe as if the reader was one of the soldiers in the American Revolution – the cold, the lack of proper boots, the overwhelm of facing well-trained, British regulars. By using this technique, she was able to write her poem the way SHE wanted to express it.
Giving students the tools to express their VOICE…it’s really powerful.
That’s what I hope to do on this podcast…Help you to find your writer’s voice, to be able to come up with tons of ideas and learn which ones you want to use and when you want to use them…
This podcast is for ANYONE who wants to improve their writing skills AND…for teachers who need PROVEN strategies to help their students to succeed. The best thing about writing strategies and techniques is that you can apply them to ANY type of writing. In FACT, I used a few of them while coming up with this podcast episode!
ANYONE can use the strategies and techniques I’m going to talk about each week…
By the way…I’ll be dropping these episodes to you on Sunday mornings because I know many teachers are lesson planning on Sundays or checking their plans to make sure everything is good to go.
The Write Idea Show Notes Conclusion:
So, there you have it – my reasons for doing this podcast. I’ve been thinking about doing this for quite awhile now…and I’m so glad I took the leap and finally did it.
Before I go, I want to give you a hint about next week’s podcast. Oh! I love this topic so much, I can’t wait to talk to you about it. It’s one of the most essential tools I believe every writer should have. I will tell you ALL about it in next Sunday’s podcast.I can’t wait to share with you how I use this essential writer’s tool.
By the way, it’s not a computer, although that’s essential, too.
Thank you so much for listening to the first episode of THE WRITE IDEA. Please refer to the show notes below for the transcript of this podcast.
Like I said, I will be coming to you EVERY Sunday to talk about writing strategies and techniques that will help YOU and if you’re a teacher, to help your students.
If you like the Write Idea Podcast, please give a rating below and leave a comment. What would you like to hear about writing on this podcast?
I will choose one or two of your comments or questions and give you a shout out and an answer.
If you’d like to visit my website, click here: https://teach2write.com/
Music Credit: “Come Inside” by Snowflake (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/snowflake/59564 Ft: Starfrosch, Jerry Spoon, Kara Square, spinningmerkaba
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5 Tricks that Break Writer’s Block Resources
Teaching writing doesn’t have to be complicated or take hours of grading. In fact, teaching students these 5 writing tricks, helps cut wasted time from late work, revision and grading!
These resources are my TOP FIVE writing strategies that I use with my students nearly every day throughout the school year. These strategies give my students and I the proven results of higher quality writing, less late work and less revision.