Author Archives: irenelylalee

It was 2020. I was beginning my teaching practice in a weird environment that probably will not happen again. Students needed tutors, they needed one-on-one teachers. I had several clients, but one in particular would log on with me early in the morning and get off with me late in the day. We got intoContinue reading “The benefits of reading aloud”

I was working with a student – a brilliant student. They literally shimmer, and I feel privileged to be able to work with them each week. When we’re together we spend most of our time looking at words, writing, and considering the tens, ones, and hundreds places, and how numbers expand and contract. They are inContinue reading “Reading in Third Grade”

It’s easy to get lost in the endless advice books and lists and structures. Writers (and I include myself in this), have wasted many precious hours of what could be writing, thinking. Sometimes my students get caught in thinking, letting their thoughts fill the page with empty without putting one letter down. We all knowContinue reading “Genre as Mask”

There’s a 1999 “craft” lecture by the writer Denis Johnson. He maintains he doesn’t like making these craft talks and so he ambles, presumably fighting against an assumed form of lecture. Johnson is a masterful storyteller and poet and for a writer of that commitment to speak about their craft is like teaching someone howContinue reading “Living to Write”

Winter is ending when it was only ever a ghost. Its feeble reign was an invisible abyss with no growth, some cold, and nothing to see for the king of frost but a few paltry flakes clinging to a quickly warming ground. In this state spring will arrive, and I will think, none too soon.Continue reading “Reading Guide: Invisible Cities”

In so many ways writing is a way of slowing down time. A friend of mine told me about a book by Mark Mcgurl called Everything and Less. This is a translation from my friend, through me, and to you. But he said that novels are a way of manipulating time. This has happened withContinue reading “Writing Time”

It was 6am at Grand Central. I was on my way to teach. The massive wheels and wings, oak leaves and helmets on relief in the semicircular windows soared overhead as the morning set into gear. I stood right below the heater. On these January days the heaters offer an overwhelming, but welcoming heat, aContinue reading “Learning from the Insect”

So much of teaching writing is guiding students towards an awareness and curiosity about themselves and where they are. Within these lessons, I always hope to unpack the present. Whether this means understanding the architecture of a building, its place on the land, or the land on which it stands, identifying the plants and animalsContinue reading “Unfolding the Moment”