Parent/Teacher Seminar: Using a Commonplace Book and Imitation to Teach Writing

This two-session seminar will introduce parents and teachers to the practice of keeping a commonplace book as well as the practice of improving one's writing through imitation.

A commonplace book is a themed notebook;  a literature commonplace book is one where students will store beautiful literary passages, wise quotes, favorite poems, lists of books they wish to read, and other literature-themed tidbits. It becomes a repository of quality literary excerpts that can be saved as a treasure for years to come. 

Great authors and thinkers of the past such as John Locke, John Milton, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry David Thoreau all kept commonplace books. These books were invaluable resources for these thinkers over the years of their lives. These books also served as an excellent source of research and inspiration as these thinkers developed their own ideas. 

In the first session, I will discuss the commonplace book--its history as well as examples from famous commonplace books of past and present . I will demonstrate how you can use this technique for yourself and your students as I discuss the benefits and how-tos of this practice. I will show you examples of my own commonplace books and we will jointly set up a book together in class. 

In the second week of the seminar, I will discuss the technique of imitating great writing as a tool to improve one's writing style. 

Writers of old such as Benjamin Franklin used the technique of copying and imitating great writing in order to flex their own writing muscles. When students analyze and try to copy a great writer's style, they learn more about the different styles of syntax and rhetorical devices the author used. They stretch their skills as they learn to craft sentences after another author's model.  

I will break down sample sentences from literature and demonstrate how I instruct students in the imitation technique. You will create your own imitation sentences as you experience first-hand how this technique is done. 

What are some of the benefits of copying and imitating? When students develop this habit of copying and imitating, I have seen several benefits unfold:
* Students learn to identify good writing. My students will now point out to me, "Look at this passage! It's written so well--I think it should be copied." 
* Students learn to write in new ways, which helps them over time develop their own voice and style. They absorb rhetorical devices without even realizing it.
* Students learn to gather insightful, beautiful, inspiring, and thought-provoking ideas as they collect quotations and excerpts
* The mere act of deciding what to copy and how to organize these excerpts is a valuable tool of metacognition--reflecting on one's own thinking process
* In years to come, commonplace books become treasured keepsakes that give a glimpse into one's personality and thinking, as well as a "time capsule" of sorts that helps one look into one's past

These techniques of commonplacing and imitation are powerful tools of writing and thinking, and this seminar will give you the tools to incorporate these into your own writing and writing instruction.

In the end, I will also briefly address the concept of plagiarism and how to convey to students that these writing exercises are not for publishing, but rather for practice where the long-term goal is that they develop their own style. 

What kind of writing can students create using imitation? These are sample imitation sentences by students using the imitation technique:

Original sentence from "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander:
"The gwythaint hung like a crumpled black rag, one wing upraised, the other folded awkwardly on its breast. No larger than a raven, it was young and barely out of its first moult; the head seemed a little too big for the body, the feathers thin and quilly."

Imitation by AB, 10 years old:
"The wolf hung like a grey cloud, his legs intertwined, his tongue drooping awkwardly. No larger than a raccoon, it was young and barely a summer old; the eyes seemed a little too big for the head, the fur matted and dry."

Original sentence from "Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms" by Katherine Rundell:
"When the men on the farm talked about her in the evenings, they used handfuls of 'ands' to describe her: Will was stubborn, sha, and exasperating, and wild, and honest, and true."

 Imitation by Z, 8 years old:
"When the women at the art fair talked about her, they used mouthfuls of 'toos': she was too loud, too overthinking of herself, too stubborn."

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Registration: Register your name as a learner with age 18 to register. This class is for adults--the 3-18 is listed as an age range in the listing merely for search purposes. I teach a version of this same class for students and it is listed in my profile.

Special Needs: Please let me know in advance if there are any special needs I should be aware of. I would love to be able to accommodate all learners.