For the month of March I will be participating in the Slice of Life Challenge sponsored by The Two Writing Teachers Blog. Each day I will be sharing a Quick Write as my way of slicing. The idea is to offer a SPARK that will kindle thinking and then write as quickly as you can for 5-10 minutes. No filters, no revisions.  I’ve been curating a collection of Sparks and will share some with you all month. It’s a great way to ignite your writing life.

REFLECTING ON IDENTITY  Our identity is the combination of how we see ourselves and how others see us. How often do we purposefully take time to reflect on our identity? Choose some aspect about yourself and quick write whatever comes to mind. You might make some interesting discoveries about yourself.

Here’s my Quick Write for today:

I’m the kind of reader who…

• Tends to choose books that are recommended to me. Sometimes a book grabs my attention from a display, but there are so many books out there and so little time I tend to read the books recommended by others.
• Tracks my reading on Goodreads and social media. There’s a sense of accomplishment that comes from this. I’ve created a history of my reading life and that is very satisfying to me.
• Love to give shout outs to the authors. I share their books as I said on social media, but I’ve also created a hashtag #DeliciousWords where I celebrate the words I wish I had written or that linger with me as I’m reading.
• Hates to abandon  books, they tend to stay in limbo with a bookmark jammed in between pages or returned to the library but lingering on my TO READ lists-waiting patiently for my return.
• Reads lots and lots of kidlit. Yes, I do enjoy “grown up” books, but I cannot consume them as quickly and thereby visit as many worlds. I cannot share them with my students or have conversations with them that motivate them to create a reading life.
• Still loves picture books. They are modern day pieces of art to me. Have you seen some of the illustrations these days? I mean, Matt Tavares is blowing me away with his realism.
• Has more books on my TBR list than I can possibly get to in a year, and I keep adding more.
• Checks Twitter every Tuesday for book birthdays

Ok, there’s more but you get the idea. Think about your identity: I’m the kind of friend, teacher, mom, dad, daughter, son who…   Give it a go!