#Potential Topic
Reading
Reading to relate to upperclass friends in 9th grade
#Why it Matters
#Vivid Scene Ideas
Finding books I had read or wanted to read in Harvard Coop
The Illiad
reading as membership in a tribe
Timé
arrival of book during the summer
first week of class
seniors throwing them off library
reading this book
Writing
When my second grade teacher photocopied my story and had me bring it to my first grade teacher
My third/fourth grade “novel”
the first of so many giant abandoned projects, convincing Mrs. Zing to take me seriously
conversation with Mrs. Zing
vivid description of story and how it changed over time, physically and ideas
Essay on quitting in 2nd grade
- I read so many great things that way and had some of my first really positive experiences with adult books
- Reading with peers is so different from reading for class or reading alone
- It was also a kind of peer pressure, and I read the books that would help me gain entrance to this particular social group
Too complicated?
Arriving in New Hampshire with a stack of books - my “homework” for the summer week
Dialogue about what I hadn’t read, my eagerness to be included
Experimental discipline - writing as punishment vs. writing as processing
Print Shop!
Fight with my parents about quitting violin
No TV
deciding not to write a creative thesis, even though that was what I planned and wanted to do
discovering a love of critical writing, learning about how to make wise decisions about how I work best
??? Will this work?
discovering that my mom kept a folder of my writing from all of elementary school
realizing that writing was a real thing, that it mattered
finding the folder, describing contents
The horrible transition from writing safe papers to interesting papers in my first class with Lois
By the end of it, I wrote papers that considered questions worth asking and used academic writing to help me think about things
writing Malcolm X paper
first day of Lois’s class
spoof of high school paper
Both / Other
Paul Simon’s Graceland
changing from hating the made up words to appreciating the mystery
Driving and listening to Graceland as a child and now