What You Know by Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop

by Katie Wood Ray

No one can say it better than Lucy Calkins-Katie Ray has written a wise, comforting, intimate book. It goes to the heart of where good ideas for teaching of good writing from yourself and your own experience. As Katie shows, the most profound and effective curriculum can result from your own deep understanding of quality writing-what you know about writing through your own and others' writings and through your reading. And the best teaching can result from what you can wrap your heart and mind around and communicate to your students. It is this very personal approach and contagious enthusiasm that Katie brings to bear on creating curriculum for her own writing workshops. Her book shows how you can do it for your own. In Part One, Katie takes a close look at the lines of thinking you can use to find curriculum in your own writing experiences. In Part Two, she shows how to use the same lines of thinking to find curriculum in your everyday reading life. Along with her own inimitable writing style, Katie sprinkles special features throughout her book as helpful tips for thinking about your own writing workshop and curriculum development, Follow Katie's example. Write like a teacher of writing. Read like a teacher of writing. Then teach from your own experience. And watch as you and your students flourish like never before.

Genres: Education, Writing, Teaching, Professional Development, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

Reviews

[Coley Adkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

What You Know by Heart by Katie Woods Ray is a terrific book about developing curriculum for writer’s workshop. To me, a simple summary of this book can be ascertained through this quote from the book where Wood’s states: “The curriculum is woven into the very fabric of every story we tell, every example we give, and every interaction we have with students around writing in our classrooms” (pg. 70) This basically parallels our learning from this semester. Within the book there are two main discussions. Part one deals with the process and part two deals with the product.
Part one deals with the process of curriculum meaning how to write like a teacher, using your writing in the curriculum, developing mini lessons and using other authors as co-teachers. I love this because there are mini lessons, understandings and strategies throughout to help guide our young writers. One strategy that I found useful includes: some people find their writing ideas far away from the desk and therefore must have a writer’s notebook or repeat it to them themselves in order to not forget. Another great idea was to have students keep a list of “seed” ideas that they can go back to develop at a later time. When they go back to work on these seed ideas, I learned questioning the ideas to further develop the “seed” into a piece of writing. Another great point Wood’s makes is that for drafting, many people feel comfortable utilizing different mediums such as legal pads, writer’s notebooks or composing on the computer. This is a great idea to enable students to have more freedom in the classroom and more of a choice. I think if they are going to compose a draft on a computer, I will require to see track changes on the document to see their process.
Part Two deals with reading like a teacher of writing, then developing that skill into making the curriculum, developing products, more mini-lessons and using co-teachers as examples of final products. I really enjoyed this section as Woods drove home the importance of using mentor texts to help students create their writing. She underscores the importance of not just showing one example but many over the week so that they have the freedom to choose which style they liked best. Woods also let’s us know it is important to choose a co-teacher that has many different varieties of writing. This would enable students to see a wider range from one person. She uses authors like Jerry Spinelli, Gary Paulsen, Jane Yolen, and her personal favorite Cynthia Rylant. I was already brainstorming an author for my upcoming year and Carl Hiaasen came to mind first. I love this comedic style and it engages the students. However, I will have to do some more research to see his variety.
To end, my overall feeling is that this book would be valuable for colleagues as it underscores many aspects of writing we have been studying this past semester (using mentor texts and using our own writing). By having solid examples that students can utilize, and assisting throughout the process, they will be better able to put together a solid end product. I did really enjoy this book. It was a quick read and had many usable ideas to put into action. The appendices in the back are chock full of curriculum with author examples. It was a well organized book that will definitely assist my writer’s workshop this year.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book that motivated me to become a better student of writing, which will in turn help me become a better teacher of writing. Essentially, Katie Wood Ray teaches you how to become a better teacher of writing through your experiences: reading, writing, listening to interviews, etc. There are so many insights of writing that she points out that just blew me away. I was shocked (in a good way) about how deep her knowledge of writing goes as she breaks down passages of writing to emphasize a facet of writing. I really wish I would have this book before I took a creative writing class, but with that being said, there are plenty of ideas and mini-lessons that I will use with my upcoming 10th and 11th graders as I guide them through the writing process. Definitely a book I will come back to repeatedly.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I grow up (as a writer and teacher of writing), I want to be Katie Wood Ray. This book, like her others, is simply wonderful in both content and writing style. Of course, I like the way this book works with writing strategies (not a surprise!). What Ray does in this book that really impresses me is make explicit the bridge between what teachers who write know about writing and what they do with/for students in the classroom--their curriculum. I've never seen that step spelled out so clearly. She also, of course, makes explicit the bridge between what she calls our "co-teachers" (mentor authors) and the teaching that occurs in class. I have sticky notes poking out of this book all over the place. It's a book I'll come back to many times.

[jacky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I breezed throught the first half of this book which focused on using your own writing experiences to develop curriculum for writing workshop. The second half of the book discussed using the same process with texts be professional authors to develop curriculum. Overall, it was very useful for me at the point I am at with my own teaching of a writing workshop. It was reaffirming of some of the things I was already doing, but also provided some direction for what I should work on next and support to help me improve on what I'm already doing.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am only one chapter in, but as a reader of Katie Wood Ray's previous books, I have to say, I love each one more and more. I can't wait to share this book with the teachers in my writing class! Love you Katie!

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend. Basically, practice what you preach and write when you teach writing!

[Krista]

I started this one, but didn't have time to finish it. I think I'd like to buy a copy since it seems like one that I would go back to over and over.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO GOOD! I love Katie Wood Ray's writing style.

[Tabitha A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, though I found it a bit longwinded at times...

[Carol Frego · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a Katie fan. Books are all excellent.