What’s Right with Writing, by Linda Rief
As I begin my second week with the Northwest Inland Writing Project, I have come to a blasphemous conclusion about writing: one size does not fit all in terms of the writing process. Let me share with you a vignette that happened as a result of not understanding this notion.
This past year, I am proud to say that I offered my 5th graders numerous ways to organize their ideas before they began a piece. They could use a list, web, outline or the dreaded “four-square” method. (I say dreaded because it was the only one that produced audible moans—it had been hammered to proverbial death earlier in their careers, apparently…). One day, a student raised his hand and asked, “Can’t we just start writing?” Not having read Barry Lane’s After the End, I panicked. Stammering, I finally told the student, “No—you need to choose and do one of the pre-writing strategies.” If this had happened during the first few months of school, maybe I could have made a case for insisting on him demonstrating a formal piece of pre-writing. But we were in the second half of the year. We had built a solid, safe community in which students could take risks. He was ready to venture out on his own.
Rief reiterates the idea that “there is no one process that defines the way writers write." Anne Lamott in her book Bird by Bird advocates just to write, write, write. Barry Lane talks about diving in and “exploding a moment.” The effect these and other writers have had on me so far will significantly inform my practice in terms of the way I teach writing. And now I know that it's OK to "just start writing."
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10 comments:
Sometimes I cringe when I think about some of the writing experiences I provided for my students in my early days of teaching. Thank goodness every year we get a do-over, based on our new understandings. Like fine wine, we really do get better with age (and NIWP)!
Amen, sister and bro!
I love this reminder!! We can believe in the writing process without worshiping it as doctrine. The last thing we want is Luther nailing theses on the Writing Project's door :)
Good for you. I think having all this information from this workshops will help us to react when students get bored about writing.
That's a beautiful realization! I would have reacted the exact same way you did to your student, the only reason being because that was how I was taught. To be honest, I don't like how I was taught and now I know why, it's just like you said one size of writing DOES NOT FIT ALL.
It is so important revise our teaching experiences and be ready for change. I'm agreeing with you that this worshop is helping us in many ways. I can't wait for put it in practice what I learn.
I valued what Barry said about the freedom to have our own way as well. As a writer, it drives me nuts to sit and brainstorm. I want to get into some of the meat and then like a good roast, shred it apart to use it for other recipes!!
As we near the end of the second week, I am really starting to see how all of the pieces that we are reading relate. I am drawing connections between the texts and really cementing these ideas into my schema. Side note: I only used four square with my weak writers, who really appreciated it.
I have no idea what four square is, so I'll have to look that up. Hindsight is great though, isn't it? I know I really appreciate your honesty, insight and willingness to share the painful experiences!
I think this post gets the award for having the most comments. People really resonated with what you had to say. I myself have to rethink this also. I am still a bit guilty of over "prewriting" my students.
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