Building a Roadmap

It never hurts to ask why we're going, not just where.

“I don’t get why teachers make such a big deal about reading out loud,” one student whispered to another in my class today.

Comments like these happen all the time in my classroom. It’s an important reminder to me that I understand why we’re doing the thing, but my students usually need more of a roadmap.

Teaching is a lot like editing in that regard. Both require direction and honesty - and someone willing to steer the ship toward shore.

In this specific situation, I walked over to the student and reminded them we read out loud because it’s the most primal experience we have with the written word. All humans first experience words out loud. Someone reads or talks to us, until we learn to talk and read ourselves. Then it’s another step of growth and development when we learn to read silently. But that doesn’t mean we ever outgrow the need to hear important words on our tongue, in our ears, around and through the air beside us.

I give the same advice to any writers I work with outside my classroom. Read your own work out loud. Let the sound of each syllable you’re savoring in your ideas serve as music to your ears.

And if you don’t get the why behind my tips on your writing, it never hurts to ask. You’re the one in the driver's seat. I’m just here to help you read the road signs along the way.