and why don't we do a better job encouraging students to love writing?
I certainly have some theories based on over a decade teaching in K-12 classrooms. I certainly don't know everything, I will be the first to admit that, but I do see some commonalities between shifts in teaching and student attitudes.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere and I remember not liking school from an early age, but a series of teachers help me become excited and comfortable with writing. My seventh grade teacher allowed me to write weird and crazy stories and share them in class to my peers. The sharing pushed me on to stranger stories incorporating my classmates. My eight grade teachers created this little haven for reading and writing, while encouraging the creativity in multiple subjects. In high school one of my English teachers, who is now published herself, allowed us to build big ideas while also crafting format and structure. All of these teachers helped me become the first person in my family to attend and graduate college, but more shockingly a guy with an illiterate father testing into honors English when I arrived to college.
As I have moved into teaching I found that we have ramped up the pressure on student writing. We focus on personal narratives and highlight "small moments" in an effort to make everything deep and meaningful in the classroom. We think we can create amazing authors and thoughtful students, who analyze and debate each other's work. There are several problems with this method, in my opinion. First, we spend much less time modeling writing, because teachers are less likely to be confident writers themselves. Secondly, we don't give students any flexibility to find their own voice because we over focus on one style of writing for too long in elementary school. Another reason I think we are failing our students is because we are constantly putting time constraints on writing and removing any chance for enjoyment.
I am almost forty years old and I love writing small vignettes to use as modeling for my special education students. I actively enjoy writing and I try to share that joy of writing with my students. I do this because I work with high school students who don't have that love for writing. I see the end result of the constant barrage of personal narrative and deadlines and academic stress. It creates students who shut down or won't write at all. I spend a great deal of time trying to undo the dislike for school and the hatred for writing that has built up over 9 years of school.
So let's try to get together and chat about what we can do about making writing an important part of the lives of every student!
