0.8 Writing with caribbean teachers: the reading-writing link

Introduction to this module

This module contains the following sections: Read each one and raise questions that will help to develop it further. * A mindset for writing: Caribbean authors and you* Reading in order to write * Journaling and personal expressive writing* Getting the writing habit and resources for writing This module hopes to answer the need of some young teachers in Trinidad and Tobago to be better writers in order to teach writing. In this regard they asked several questions. The following were among them.

A mindset for writing with caribbean authors

"I wooed my girl mostly on her way home from work, and I talked a great deal. Often, it was as if I had never spoken; I heard my words echo in deep caverns of thought, as if they hung about like cigarette smoke in a still room, missionnless; or else they were lost forever in the sounds of the city....In the crowded bus...I shot words over my shoulder, across seats...they found passage between "fares please" and once I got to writing things and pushing my hand over two seats....there was the urgent need to communicate before we parted....All these things I say, I said, waving my hand in the air as if to catch the words floating about me and give them mission"(Nasta and Rutherford, p.96).

One can choose excerpts from the works of other Caribbean authors and become familiar with them. The excerpt above from Samuel Selvon speaks of the magic of using words, of words being given a mission : to woo Selvon's girl, to communicate his feelings with urgency. We too, can weave words into stories, journal entries and poems with the confidence and skill of a Selvon or a Walcott, so giving to our words a mission and a life of their own. We can read our selected excerpts aloud several times a week and jot down notes to ourselves or questions that we might have. While doing this one should discover the mission and the meaning of the author's words. We can roam the landscapes and seascapes they create and be inspired to want to create our own. Q: What have you discovered about the writings of your favourite Caribbean author? You'll want to investigate too the growing body of Caribbean Children's Literature and build your own lists.