Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Lessons Learned in the Exploratory Writing Workshop

I think the new theme for my blog will be what I am learning as the facilitator of the Exploratory Writing Workshop.

Today is Orientation and I start it as early as possible in order to get the students to thinking about how the class will work. There is a student lounge, Classroom and Library as well as Objectives which serve as mini-lectures they might get in an actual classroom.

The first thing I ask for is a Favorite Author Chapter Template which allows them to look critically at why they like a chapter of a favorite author’s work. They break the chapter down into components and show the percentages of dialog, exposition, foreshadowing, backstory and symbolism. The reason for this is to peel back the onion and get them to realize why they liked a favorite author’s style in a closer and more objective sense.

This class has four (4) students and I hope they have the persistence to stick with it.

Anyway, as I work with a class, items of interest jump out at me that could benefit aspiring writers at WDC who are not in the Workshop. I will try and seize on one of these lessons learned and share it with my readers every day.