I remember that I've always liked writing stories, though my follow-through has never been good. It came to me today, while creating this timeline, that this lack of follow through may be the product of a lack of purpose. As a writer, I've always been driven by the product and the timeline that I have to meet. I write with purpose and while I don't mind free writing, mine usually drifts into making to-do lists so that I can feel that I have been productive. This mentality totally seems to go against our writing into the day:
"You will write
if you write without thinking of the result
in terms of a result...." (Gertrude Stein)
I'm always thinking of the product and what I need to produce and I think I share that in common with my students. I understand their need to think (even obsess) with the final product, after all that's what shows our growth! I want students to understand the process they are going through as their writing and I want them to love writing for the love of learning and writing, but that isn't how many of them operate, I don't even think that is how I operate!
That's where the Murray Cards gave me some enlightenment. I decided that I wanted to go through the Murray Card process in a way that was meaningful to me...thinking about my classroom next year and the graduation paper. I decided to outline the process that it would take to write the graduation paper. As a result, I realized how many steps students will need to fulfill the requirements for the project. That was definitely helpful, but the most helpful thing was to force myself to put myself in my students' shoes.
I know that they don't want to write this paper and if I'm honest with myself, I don't want them to have to write this paper. In fact, I felt like I should spend some time responding to the hypothetical complaints and questions about the paper. That led to:
I want to continue thinking about this response because I think this will help the most. Why is it important to write this research paper other than the obvious? If I can figure that out, I can do the most important thing....invest students in this process.
Erika, I know I'm not in your writing group, so I hope you can forgive my blog-creeping - bleeping, ha! Your blog is great! Your thoughts are clearly and concisely put together and I like the honesty. I noticed your time line from across the room, the comfort zone statement really stuck out to me. We can't grow at anything if we don't toe our self-made boundaries and writing is included in that.
ReplyDeleteFinally, your title for your blog is shear brilliance. I chuckled, I marveled, I applaud.
I had the same thoughts about myself as a writer. I'm a task oriented person--often writing to complete a task and then check it off my list. I rediscovered the love of finding my voice while in college. I need to remember how wonderful this process can be and share that with my students. That was a great idea for the research paper. I too dislike this requirement
ReplyDeleteI think most writers write to deadline, write into conversations where they have something they want to say, write to figure things out, write to get things done. There may be some writers who "just write," but that isn't me. Writing does a particular kind of work for me. I write to engage in conversations with other people who are thinking about the teaching of writing. I write to figure out what I want to do or say. And I try to make this kind of writing important for my students as well. So when we engage in research, for example, I want it to be legit. I don't want them writing THE research paper, just because . . . I want them to feel impelled to explore a topic and enter a conversation about what they find out.
ReplyDeleteI truly understand your feeling of how one can prepare for the unknown and what it feels like when you have to abort creative/best-practices to meet curricular standards. It is a balancing act that sometimes confuses teachers much less the children, but I have faith in your ingenuity that help you be successful. Happy 4th!
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