Since the first time that I wrote a short story of my very own, I have thought of myself as a writer. I continuously write for various purposes at school, but I also consistently write for my own purposes and on my own time. As I have grown up, writing has become a very important part of my life. I know that as a teacher, I hope to encourage my students to include writing as an important part in their daily lives as well. Something that I have struggled with, however, is how I can achieve this. Writing comes fairly easily to me, and I rarely struggle to get my thoughts down on paper. I have written for fun since I was very young, and no one had to encourage me to do so. I just did it because I wanted to. Obviously, only a small percentage of students are going to feel this way about writing, and it will be a challenge to keep an entire class engaged in daily writing activities, especially if those activities follow a traditional format.
Simply giving students a prompt to write about week after week and expecting them to go through the writing process for each piece is monotonous, and the teacher will surely lose students in the process. If students come to view writing as boring, they will have no desire to attempt to become better writers on their own. If they are constantly writing about prompts that they do not care about, they are not being given the opportunity to see the value of writing. Students need to be given the opportunity to write about something that is important to them so that they can begin to view writing as a way to send a message to the world. Writing of this kind also gives students the opportunity to share things about themselves in the classroom that they may not have a chance to share otherwise. This gives the teacher and students the chance to get to know each other better during writing workshop activities.
After reading through these chapters in the book, I took some time to think back to my experiences as a writer in elementary school. Specifically, I thought back to a very broad and open-ended writing assignment that I was given in 3rd grade. The only instruction that we were given was that our piece was to be non-fiction and informative and that the subject should have something to do with water. This assignment stands out in my memory, because I do not remember another time that I was given such freedom in choosing my topic to write about. I settled on writing about tiger sharks, and other students wrote about everything from the Titanic to the Loch Ness Monster. This assignment was so valuable, because it gave me the opportunity to research something that I wanted to explore and then present the information that I learned to the class. This allowed me as a student to see value both in the assignment and in writing in general.
I hope to include open-ended writing assignments in my classroom so that I can learn things about my students that can only be revealed through writing. A writer's hopes, dreams, fears, pain, happiness, and imagination come to the surface in their work. I hope to write alongside my students in the classroom so that they can learn these things about me as well. It is important for students to see that their teacher is making a journey as a writer just as they are. This idea was heavily emphasized in the reading for this week. Not only is it important for a teacher to think of each of his or her students as a writer with valuable things to say, but it is important for students to see their teacher as a writer as well. The best way to do this, in my opinion, would be to include myself in the writing workshop in the classroom by creating my own piece that fits each assignment and sharing it with the class. I believe that this will motivate my students to become better writers and also to view others' writing critically, no matter what position that person holds. I want my students to know that I understand that I have room to grow and that I am open to criticism, so that they can understand that constructive criticism can help them grow as a writer as well.
As a teacher, I hope to model constructive writing workshop behavior in the classroom to help it become a seamless part of my daily routine. I hope to encourage my students to work together as a writing community to help each other produce the best writing possible. By creating a safe environment where students have room to grow, I hope to help them develop a love for writing like the one that I have myself.
Rachel, this is an excellent response. I enjoyed reading all about the memorable experiences you had growing up (and then the connections you made to Ray's book.) Every one of us has challenges as a writer and as a writing teacher. Yours may be learning to help the students who do not come to writing topics so easily. I do think that including yourself in the writing workshop is important, and writing along with the students can provide powerful opportunities for modeling and relationships.
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