Week 3 post

In our cohort, I am known often as the articulate guy or maybe even the guy who says weird things to get attention. I respect both lines and prefer the former. However, when reading Atwell for this week, I had nothing better or more succinct to say other than, "she makes so much sense." Obviously her care and thoroughness for her students borders on the level of breathtaking, but more importantly she helped me situate what a writing prompt in a class should look like. Well maybe not so much what is should look like but how it can be properly scaffolded and how we need to evaluate student's needs with writing. In particular, I love her use of time in regards to writing. She recognizes that deadlines and strict guidelines proves potentially problematic to the process the students must undergo to develop as writers. I can't tell you how much sense she made when she described the difference between, "Yes, I can" and "I guess I have to", in regards to teachers assigning writing to be done at certain times (this particular instance refers to teachers asking students to compose a writing due at the end of a class period; pp 91-92). For me, this clicked with my own struggles to come up with words in a timely manner or in a particular instance; sometimes those words strike me at a random time later on and I only wish I had the chance to think of it at the time. 

This is not to say that the classroom is not a place for writing (speaking in regards of the workshop space Atwell laid out). Instead, Atwell encourages teachers to give students time to foster their own positioning with writing by giving them ample time to workshop themselves. But then what should the writing workshop look like anyway if the aren't to work towards creating something by a certain time frame? I'll admit that this contradiction is somewhat challenging at times, but I think this time makes more sense when students are given space to develop as a writer in their own pace. Where I think Atwell forms pacing with writing is in a student's reading. Let me tell you that I appreciate her connecting reading and writing quite a bit. She states that, "Even when students do write everyday, growth in writing is slow (pg 93)", and this quote connects me with my takeaway from this article: reading development is writing development. Now I am not stating that writing is an antecedent of reading, rather they are complementary and help create a larger picture of a student's skill with language. Thus, not only is it necessary to give students time to both read and write in a classroom, in order to foster good habits, but we must begin to forge the connections between the two principals of English language interaction. Upon reflection of creating a workshop, it should be less about reading or writing, but rather allowing students the space to engage with English in the way they need to or want to. It's about creating an experience, rather than it being centered around a writing prompt or assignment. On a side note, I appreciated Atwell's description of her classroom space as a way to illustrate how she fosters creative engagement with reading and writing.

However, in spite of all my praise for Atwell, I still need to pose a certain question surrounding her theories: how do we realistically fight against the tyranny of "deadline writing"? The easy question is to not assign deadlines to writing requirements. Yet, I combat this notion by proposing that a class (in itself) is a deadline imposed by the hierarchical school structure. Schools are saying that by the end of a quarter, semester, year, or whatever that the student should master the topic matter. Truth is, there is no "mastery" or true litmus for determining if one has gained full knowledge of "English". What are we to do, then, with writing and a classroom if it is not to master something? To answer this question for myself, I had to look at my own pedagogy and how this question might shape my classroom. My first answer is to reshape the idea of the class with a title beyond "English" and maybe to something more open like "Write your own short story." This solution, however, is more about the hook of the class rather than proposing actual solutions to the time problem. Next, I thought about having a certain number of requirements for the class and asking students to have to complete them in their own time. The problem with this idea is that there still is a deadline: the end of class. For those who procrastinate (like me), this idea becomes even more of "deadline writing" than traditional "deadline writing" might be. Right now, I cannot come up with one single solution to this quandry, but I know that allowing the resource of time will help students with their overall development as writers. When it comes to writing, it is not just about the product, rather the process plays a large part in growth and development.

Links for the week!

http://kckindergartentimes.blogspot.com/2012/01/writing-workshop-goals.html

Upon searching for writing workshop ideas, I found this blog from a Kindergarten teacher. This particular post shows a strategy where the students move their name tags to different writing goals they want to work on. I, surprisingly, like this idea even though I believe that writing development is personal. Making connections with other students while developing as writers is key to overall development in the same way that Atwell encourages/ requires students to publish writing works outside of the classroom (it widens the audience of the writing and makes students more accountable).

http://simons-rock.edu/young-writers/about-the-young-writers-workshop

http://www.slc.edu/ce/pre-college/summer/workshop/index.html

For anyone who knows anything about me, I love camps and I love summers that surround camp. Thus, the idea of a summer camp three week session that centers around giving young writers the space and time to develop is just so awesome. Recommending spaces like this for future students with an affinity or desire to write is something I can see doing in the near future.

http://www.learner.org/resources/series194.html

This DVD documentary of situating developing writers seems pretty real/legit, in terms of helping situate teachers in their positioning with their students. I haven't seen the film, but the trailer looks promising.