What’s Wrong with Writing Education? | Ana Lorena Fabrega | How I Write Podcast
Вставка
- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
- From frustrated middle school teacher to Chief Evangelist at Synthesis School. From 46 email subscribers to 165,000. From hating writing to publishing her first book with a major publishing house: The Learning Game.
What made all of this possible for Ana Fabrega?
She unlearned how to write.
In this episode, Ana shares the seven writing principles you should unlearn if you want to fall in love with writing again and reach people with your ideas. Like Ana, your best ideas could have the power to impact hundreds, if not thousands, of people. You just need to share them in a way that resonates.
If you’re ready to start making an impact with your ideas, then come learn writing for the modern age.
SPEAKER LINKS:
Website: afabrega.com/
Twitter: / anafabrega11
Book: a.co/d/afR9lkc
Newsletter: afabrega.com/newsletter
Instagram: / msfab_learninglab
WRITE OF PASSAGE:
Want to learn more about the next class Write of Passage?
writeofpassage.com/
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:04:00 Ideation
00:05:40 Original content
00:08:40 Writing from experience
00:17:15 Naval's "Specific Knowledge"
00:21:00 Quotes
00:23:00 School and Knowledge
00:25:20 Sentences and Grammar
00:29:30 Ana's Book "The Learning Game"
00:34:30 Feedback
00:39:30 David's impactful teaching
00:45:20 Writing is therapeutic
00:47:45 Value of writing
PODCAST LINKS:
Website: writeofpassage.com/how-i-write
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2DjMSbo...
ABOUT THE HOST:
I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.
Ana Fabrega is on a mission to remake the school system.
She hated writing while growing up. Now a published author who's hell-bent on reshaping childhood education.
Here's what I learned from her about how we can teach writing better:
1. Give kids a love for the craft. How many kids graduate with a hatred for writing that keeps them away from the keyboard as adults?
2. Almost none of the writing we do in school is driven by what students are actually interested in, which leads to indifference.
3. The solution? Let kids choose the topic. Kids have to write about what teachers tell them to. A lack of choice leads to a lack of interest, and a lack of interest leads to half-baked attempts at writing.
4. Personal Story: I was obsessed with airplanes as a kid. In 6th grade, I got to work on an essay about the Boeing 787 airplane. It was the first time in my life when I was encouraged to write about my innate interests, and in retrospect, it was the project that first kindled my love for writing.
5. But will kids work hard if you give them freedom? Ana says yes. Look at video games. They're proof that kids are willing to work hard on things that matter to them.
6. Focus on ideas, not rules: The obsessive focus on grammar and punctuation takes away from the joy of falling in love with an idea and trying to communicate it.
7. Show how writing leads to expertise: You don't need to be an expert to write about something. In fact, writing about a topic helps you become an expert.
8. Show the usefulness of writing: Writing is more than five-paragraph essays and the analysis of novels. Show kids how writing moves the world. It can set a vision, give feedback, make observations, and reflect on what you've done.
9. Writing is the best way to refine ideas which makes it the bedrock of clear communication. The world doesn't reward people with the best ideas, it rewards the people who are best at communicating ideas.
10. Promote simple language: There's a time and place for big words and beautiful poetry, but 4th grade isn't it. Too many kids think that good writing means writing like a novelist instead of being clear and simple.
11. Give kids a love for reading by encouraging them to follow their interests. As Naval Ravikant said: "Read what you love until you love to read."
Writing education definitely needs to be improved!
This was so good...never seen you being so moved David...am happy that you found such a meaningful and fulfilling moment like this...beats all the metrics driven accolades which am sure you already have...
Awesome
I was infuated with this session. Loving it ❤
I follow both of you on twitter, very excited to listen to this!
sama's episode?
Probably will be the season finale
Omg, can this woman develop a curriculum for my daughter please? I also went to many (7) schools in by 9th grade (though all in the same town). The ones i thrived in were the Montessori programs and the "alternative"/open schools. I hated traditional school. It took all the fun out of learning. One of my favorite high school classes? One called Earthworks. A 2 hour a day class on an open campus where each student decided what type of credit we were going for (language arts, science, math, history, art, etc) and then developed our own projects in small groups to fulfill that requirement. I hated language arts and did not want to take the traditional American lit or Brittish lit classes, so that's what I went for. Other kids in my group were going for other credits, but we all had the same core to start from. What did we decide to do? Do research on the people burried in the "Warlock's Grave" and each do our own spin on the project. This was a 200 year old overgrown grave marker in the middle of a woods on the edge of town. You could barely make out the writing on the stone, but by making charcoal rubbings, we could decipher all 4 sides (4 graves) and were able to research the people in the town records (pre-internet). I wrote a story aboutthe family based on the reearch and the time period. I don't remember what I wrote at this point, but was very impressed by the openess of the class and intreagued by the research and how we figured out who these people were (a mother, father and 2 young kids).
First