Get Ready for the 3rd Annual National Day on Writing,
October 20, 2011!
from NCTE INBOX 10-4-11
To draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing Americans engage in and to help make writers from all walks of life aware of their craft, the National Council of Teachers of English has established October 20 as the National Day on Writing. To celebrate composition in all its forms, NCTE invites writers from all backgrounds and walks of life to submit a piece of writing to the National Gallery of Writing. See the following resources for more on writing and composing from NCTE.
College Composition and Communication shares an updated definition of composition. We know now that there has been a shift from teaching writing through analysis of other’s texts to teaching writing through engaging students in composing itself. Additionally, "as composing becomes increasingly digitized, the word composition -- because of its relationship to composing in other fields -- helps us think about how we can compose with images, sounds, and video, as well as with words."
In the Council Chronicle article, "Becoming Writers: Visions and Decisions," Katie Van Sluys encourages teachers to articulate their beliefs about writing and writers. She describes this further in her book Becoming Writers in the Elementary Classroom: Visions and Decisions (E).
"Mapping Our Stories: Teachers’ Reflections on Themselves as Writers" (G) from Language Arts shares how a group of linguistically diverse teachers came to identify themselves as writers by drawing neighborhood maps and writing personal narratives about childhood memories.
While working with teachers from South Africa, the authors of "Opportunity Matters: The Ithuba Writing Project in South African Schools" (M) from Voices from the Middle encouraged those teachers to create culturally relevant books written in their students' languages. The South African teachers were able to explore what it means to be a writer, refining their definitions of "writer" and of their own instruction. 
"Teachers need to develop writing experiences that are reflective across time in order to foster even deeper explorations of subject matter," the author of Writing in the Dialogical Classroom: Students and Teachers Responding to the Texts of Their Lives (S) says. This text draws on "NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing."
Teacher-written editorial columns in local newspapers can challenge the broad, simplistic conceptions of the profession that have been encouraged by contemporary politics and that obscure the real work of teachers. "Writing for the Public: Teacher Editorializing as a Pathway to Professional Development" (TE) from English Education argues that English Education faculty and teacher-educators are uniquely qualified to help teachers develop their political voices and write about education issues for the public, and it provides readers with methodologies for preparing teachers to do so.
Interested in hearing more about the National Day on Writing? Listen to celebrities like Laurie Halse Anderson and James Patterson speak to the importance of writing, the National Day on Writing, and the National Gallery of Writing.
How will you celebrate the National Day on Writing, and what will you contribute to the National Gallery of Writing? We'd love to hear from you!
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