This semester has been…chaotic, to say the least. However, along the way, I have been privileged to have learned some fantastic ideas, concepts, and truths from some of the best educators in the world. From Leila Christenbury to my professor, Mr. Kenneth Lindblom, Jim Burke, and the many others encountered in the “Teacher’s Lounge,” thank you. Your innovative practices will be implemented at some point in time inside my classroom. While observing the many intellects, I started to think to myself: what is my eventual philosophy for a growing classroom? This was something I had been curious about before the semester had even begun, so for me, I wanted to go into these next few months prioritizing my eventual template for how I want my students to learn writing inside my classroom. The idea is to create a necessary balance of exercises that foster development for the year. I want my students to know that their writing is unique, and how they get from point A to point B is a process, one that they can call their own, and nobody is to tell them it is incorrect.
Writing for Purpose
Anytime we sit down and put pen to paper or fingers to keys, we need to ask ourselves one question: what message or point are we trying to convey to our audience? Jim Burke in his The Six Academic Writing Assignments: Designing the Users Journey, discusses self-evaluation, and why the student needs to evaluate their written progress throughout their time spent in the classroom. When in class, you expect to grasp new tools and to be able to effectively use them in your writing. I discussed this in a blog post of my own, but the idea of having peers review my writing to check for mistakes, improper sentences or even to find ways to enhance the content never crossed my mind. I should also note that this was mostly during my middle and high school days. It became a goal of mine to sit down and finish papers as quickly as possible, but maybe not as efficiently. What was the purpose of me being so eager to finish the paper in record speeds? I simply didn’t enjoy a lot of the predetermined topics and narrow choices that had been selected for me by the teachers. It was hard for me to engage with the content because I didn’t enjoy what I was writing about. Simply, it just didn’t serve a purpose for me. Me being the naive student I was felt that I knew more about what I wanted to say than somebody else so why would I listen to someone else’s thoughts or suggestions? After all, they didn’t know what I was trying to convey. Sure, I’d listen to the teacher, but that’s as far as I’d go for feedback on my writing. It wasn’t until I arrived at Suffolk County Community College for writing classes that I learned how imperative it was to bounce ideas off your peers and to brainstorm ideas, thoughts, and concepts as a unit. Burke also discusses the idea of structured note-taking, which allows the student to organize their thoughts and ideas in a more coherently. Taking notes on post-its when reading books was always something I did, as it usually helped me remember certain events necessary for when I had to write a paper on the book or take a quiz/test. Noah discusses the idea of annotating works of literature and it ties in nicely to what is being discussed here with note-taking. Noah goes on to say, “I never really liked annotating when I was in school, I always felt like it took away the magic of reading. I was being ripped out of my exciting book for of mystery and magic, to underline a comment about personification… how lame is that?” Well, he isn’t entirely wrong. I always found it hard to enjoy a book if I was required to annotate every few pages, cherry-picking for literary devices to tie back into my book. I like how Noah talks about the double-edged sword that comes with annotating. Sure, it’s helpful, but you can’t abuse its meaning. Teachers that force students to constantly annotate everything they read will wonder why the student has a hard time engaging and making sense of the story itself. This is why balance is key.
Progress Journals
Ah, yes, the progress journals. Journaling was always something I looked forward to, especially in middle school. The idea of having the class quiet down and ideas to freely flow through my head was appealing to me. I enjoyed thinking about what I was going to write next. Something to note about the progress journals: in Burke’s The Six Academic Writing Assignments: Designing the Users Journey, he talks about how important it is for students to “reflect on their progress,… demonstrate their understanding through informational assignments such as exit tickets; or write in their notebooks… [relating] to what we are reading, discussing, or learning” (Burke 14-15). I know Rhiannon discussed the progress journals in her blog, as well. I like this idea because it allows the students to track their progress over time. Now, when journaling, you can have the students divide the notebook into genres or topics to write about. As they flashback to these pieces over time, they’ll be able to see how much they have gained from this exercise. Doing this allows one to track their punctuation, grammar, ideas, world flow, etc. These notebooks are of good use to the student and will only produce positive results. There is no reason not to incorporate some sort of journaling inside the classroom. Allowing students to develop their ideas of what they want to write about allows them to become more motivated writers. With the journals, the student can see their path from start to finish. Everybody has their unique path, and it would be pretty cool if a student can see how they exactly got to the finish line. The journals allow students to understand that past mistakes and bad habits are breakable and acceptable, as long as you show you’ve learned from them. Here’s a secret regarding the progress journals: they’re universal! People write their ideas down all the time, no matter the content background they’re in. Math, English, History, Science, etc, it works.
Authentic Writing
I cannot stress this enough: authentic writing is essential to classrooms, especially in the year 2020. Over time, too much of the focus has gone to preparing students for tests. Not enough time and effort has gone into preparing students for writing to real-life audiences for an intended purpose and that has to change. Authentic writing is purposeful when writing to specific target audiences. Maybe it’s my poor memory, but the only time I ever remember writing to an actual person or audience was when I wrote to my penpal in elementary school. We exchanged letters and eventually met, this per the school’s curricular requirements. Professor Lindblom has a quote in his Continuing the Journey 2, and it reads like this, “authentic writing instruction is an advanced approach to teaching, and one that we believe should be used with students of all ages and abilities. Bringing student writers into the real world of writing creates greatly enhanced opportunities and can truly set fire to students’ engagement, creativity, and empowerment” (Lindblom 53). This quote was powerful, and it was one that I made sure to immediately place into my outline before I began typing this post. I believe that allowing a student’s work to be published for a real audience for real people will thus cause more motivated students. There is no doubt that this also forces students to articulate their thoughts and ideas to those outside their specific disciplines of study. Authentic writing also allows for more organic class discussions, more participants, and even potential consequences. Now, I know “consequences” will raise the ears a bit, but bear with me: if we don’t allow real-life discussions to occur inside the classroom, what are we teaching our students? To avoid any type of uncomfortable real-world problem or topics they’ll ever face, thus shielding them for all things unholy? Sure, topics can get sensitive, which is why it’s up to the student if they choose to become a participant or not. This is where having a respectable educator leading the room plays a significant role. On a personal note, I have written more than a few articles for publications such as The Hockey Writers and ET Week media, and I can say that it’s always satisfying to get feedback on your thoughts and ideas and to engage with others about them. It’s rewarding. These are many of the necessary exercises I will bring into my classroom that I feel will have a lasting impact on the young minds that I plan to mold in their pursuits to become better, more efficient writers.
Writers Uncensored 