Are We So Focused on the Nuts and Bolts That We Are Forgetting the Story? Has writing become so much about the nuts and bolts that we are missing the gift of storytelling in our classrooms? I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Like many of us, I can get worn down by the feeling that I am not doing enough when it comes to writing. There is so much to becoming a writer. In fact, writing is one of the most complex cognitive tasks we ask children to do. I made the graphic below as an attempt to capture just how much is involved in being a writer. I am sure there are things I have missed, but it gives you an idea of the sheer number of things we are asking children to hold in their heads. And this is where I have started to wonder. Are we so focused on all of these things that we are forgetting the role of storytelling? Or perhaps we haven't forgotten it at all. Perhaps we have simply convinced ourselves that we don't have time for it. Perhaps the educational pressure c...
I am passionate about play and structured explicit learning, finding the best of both worlds.