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A Crate and an Unfinished Book

Nothing confounds writers more than the challenge of organizing drafts, notes, miscellaneous scribblings, odd jottings, etc. so that we can find the stuff and use it later. The book I’m writing now — A Thousand Words: Graphic Organizers in the English Classroom — grew organically over the course of four years, and finding the right system of organization has given me a feeling of pleasure and control and has even had an impact on how I organize materials for my teaching.

My Crate — and four years’ of work

I started working on this book during the 2006-07 school year in response to a need I felt English teachers have for reproducible graphic organizers — plus, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to have a teacher’s explanation of how they’re actually used in a real classroom with real students. The ready-made audience for the book also had a lot to do with my pursing it, of course. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that all of my writing and student examples are currently filed in this big plastic crate on my desk. I enjoy telling my students that there are many ways to think about “drafts,” for drafts can be a on piece of paper, stored on an electronic device, or even shoved into a huge crate.