Pyrotechnics on the Page

Ever since I saw Stenhouse advertising that Ralph Fletcher's Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That Sparks Writing would be released this spring, I could not wait to have it in my hands. I was especially anticipating discovering new ideas for writing workshop and writer's notebooks.

I have been enjoying reading more about writing and rekindling my early interest in writing over the last couple of years. I knew that this would be a text that could help me improve as a writer, which will in turn help me to be a better teacher of writing. Thus, even though the book is written from the angle of how to integrate the ideas into the classroom, I was reading the book from two lenses - myself as a writer and as a teacher.

Throughout the book I found myself underlining many sections that I could share with my students about writing and that could be included in the regular feature on our classroom blog, Author Tip Tuesday. One recurring concept that came up over and over that I know I will share with my students was, "We write with the ear as much as with the eye or the mind" (p. 4).  There were many other quotes that eloquently explain the importance of language play and writer's notebooks.

I loved that Fletcher included many examples from his own writer's notebook illustrating the concepts, including examples of moments that he recorded of his own children's language play. It was also fun to see other published authors commenting on the impact of language play in their writing lives. I was especially pleased to see insights from Chris Crutcher because he was even talking for a while about Whale Talk, which I had just finished, and I am also still very excited to learn from him at Heinemann's Boothbay Harbor Literacy Retreat this June.

Another concept that came up over and over again was about how enjoyable language play can be with a defense of why there is room for this "play" even in this age of heightened awareness of testing results because enjoyment in writing has a huge correlation with motivation.

The book is broken up into five sections: Playing Around, Getting Serious, Playful Classrooms, Craft Lessons, and Resources. Starting with a background of pyrotechnics and why it is important, in the second section Fletcher then transitions into explaining different types of pyrotechnics in detail, including a section at the end of each chapter explaining how to bring it into the writer's workshop. Next, he outlines a rationale and some suggestions for implementing pyrotechnics into the classroom. At the end of this section is a Q&A which is always helpful to think about more considerations around the topic. Those who love the fiction and non-fiction craft lessons books that he co-authored with JoAnn Portalupi, will love that he has a craft lessons section in this book divided up into three grade levels bands: k-2, 3-4, and 5+. Each craft lesson includes an example dialogue of what he would say to students, as well as suggested texts to go along with the lesson. Finally, the resources section has many gems, including a pyrotechnics glossary and excerpts that go along with the craft lessons.

Since completing it yesterday, I realized that this summer one of my priorities will be to recommit myself to being more diligent to using my own writer's notebooks on a more consistent basis throughout the summer in order to better implement the use in my classroom next year. I already started recording more snippets of funny things my daughter's say, much like Fletcher did with his children throughout the years. Before I finished Pyrotechnics, I pulled my copy of Breathing In, Breathing Out off my TBR shelf, knowing that I would want to roll right into reading that book to see even more of Fletcher's thoughts on notebooks.

*Review copy provided by publisher.