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Review

This marvelous book resonates with the author's love of literature, writing, children, and life itself. A former elementary school teacher and now Director of the Manhattan New School, Shelley Harwayne has been co-director of the Teachers College Writing Project at Columbia University and has had many years' experience as consultant to schools in the US and at least five other countries. Lasting Impressions is filled with observations of, and anecdotes from, many of the classrooms in which she has taught and talked with children.

Believing strongly that reading and writing go hand-in-hand, Harwayne divides the book into three major sections: "An Early Look at Becoming Passionate About Literature," "A Later Look: Becoming Passionate About Literary Techniques," and "A Look Ahead: Making It All Possible." Each section stresses the role of teachers and authors as mentors in children's development of literate lives. Taken as a whole, these three divisions show the importance of having children immersed ("marinated," to use Lucy Calkins' term) in great literature as they learn to become writers and readers.

One particularly interesting feature of the book is Harwayne's detailed examination, in the second section, of one child's efforts at becoming a writer. Using actual samples of his early notebook entries and later stories and poems, she discusses his transformation from a fifth grader with no clear ideas of what to write about into a more confident and skillful "author" by the end of the year. His case becomes a microcosm of what can happen in classrooms where inspiring, caring teachers create literate environments that encourage students to read purposefully and to experiment with many forms of writing. Especially informative is Harwayne's explanation of how literature was able to help this student gain more direction and maturity in his struggles toward authorship.

Another aspect of Lasting Impressions that is both enlightening and practical is a chapter called "Record Keeping and Routines of Conferring." Here, the author presents numerous samples of charts and notes made by teachers to monitor the processes and progress of young writers. She shows, in a lively and provocative way, how teachers can re-think their purposes and procedures for keeping records and written observations. More importantly, though, she includes a series of generic questions for teachers to ask as they work with students on various literary and writing tasks. Upon approaching this chapter, readers should not anticipate a discussion of how to record progress toward mastery of isolated reading and writing "skills." Instead, Harwayne's intent appears to be for teachers' notes to serve as data bases for developing theories about each student's processes of learning language. (Those teachers who have read Nanci Atwell's In the Middle will already have a foundation for Harwayne's approaches to the use of recorded observations in the classroom.) In this chapter, too, theoretical and pedagogical associations are made between the students' study of literature and their development of proficiency in writing.

Apart from its practicality, Lasting Impressions' greatest strength is perhaps its spirited tone, a reflection of the author's imposing personality, and her compassion for children and those who instruct them. Teachers who read this book are almost guaranteed to be uplifted, for the insights and experiences recounted in it are remarkable and compelling.

Without a doubt, Harwayne creates a sense of energy that will enable teachers to return to their classrooms with new perspectives on learning and with a reaffirmation of their commitment to be the best they can be for the good of their students.

Larry Crapse
West Florence High School