There are times when my teachers ask me to do certain things with their classes and I feel very lucky to be able to have the opportunity to do it. For instance, last year when one of my language arts teachers wanted to work with our literacy coach on how to grade extended responses she asked if we had money in our budget to pay for a substitute teacher so she could work with her during the day. This isn’t a common occurrence because many teachers work far longer hours than their contract stipulates. However, she was under a time constraint and need to get them graded. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough money in our school budget to pay for this so I told her that if she left me lesson plans that I would go into her classroom and teach for her. Some school districts make this a mandatory commitment for their administrators. They even have their school principal teaching a class or two on their master schedule.
This morning, one of my teachers asked me about coming to visit her classroom as a guest speaker to talk about writing. She, and many other teachers in my building, know that I have a blog and she wants me to discuss how I write, why I write, and what motivates me to continue the practice of writing. Several years ago while I was a teacher with her own classroom, I gave my students writing prompts and set a timer for them. I gave them time to set up their writing using a graphic organizer and then told them when they had to stop coordinating their thoughts and start putting them into form. After giving the assignment, I would sit at my desk and grade papers or calculate grades or read. It never occurred to me that this was a horrible practice as a teacher. One day, a student challenged me on this.
Mrs. Wickham. Why don’t YOU have to write? Why do we have to do all the work? You’re a writing teacher and we never get to see what you write.
She was absolutely correct.
I could righteously sit in my teacher’s chair at my teacher’s desk in my own classroom and extol the virtues of the art of practicing writing, but I wasn’t even showing them how important it was to write. First, I had to understand why I didn’t write and it didn’t take very long to recall the papers and essays I’d written for my teachers and how they haunted me. I knew why I didn’t like it – because when I got my essays back the only feedback my writing teachers ever seemed to give me were red marks all over my paper as they corrected my grammar. There was no feedback on my content or my original ideas or thoughts. That didn’t help me creatively as a writer because I didn’t know if my ideas were any good or if they made people think.
When that student asked me why I didn’t write I was struck that I hadn’t even practiced what I was preaching. It had been years since I wrote something more formal than my journals. Those were filled with my flawed writing and flawed thoughts and I was more raw and honest in journal writing because there wasn’t an audience. Blogging changed that for me because people left comments about my thoughts. There were real people behind those comments and they digested what I had written and responded. Sometimes, they challenged me and my beliefs and it’s taken a while, but I’ve come to accept that as a part of the conversation. The girl who took issue with my failing to write when students were writing called me on the carpet in front of the entire class. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at me to offer an answer for why I wasn’t writing.
That day, I took out a transparency sheet and set it on the overhead projector and began to write. I took the same prompt they were using and wrote an essay in front of my students complete with self-editing. If I didn’t like a sentence, I wiped it off and then I realized that they couldn’t see my writing process unless I left it up there so I began to strike through words or sentences and let them watch me re-write them. Ultimately, they stopped writing their own essays to watch what I was doing. Pens and pencils were cast aside and all eyes were on the screen in the front of the classroom. It was messy and disorganized and my thoughts were all over the place. It was a terrible mess and I was embarrassed so I grabbed a new transparency and started over again, taking some of my original sentences and putting them into paragraph form. Students began shouting out helpful instructions for me and by the end we had written it together. Once in a while I would stop and do a Think Aloud like this: “If I’m trying to say this sentence but it sounds boring, how could I make it sound better?” and they would answer me, debating with other students as to how it sounded best.
Recently, I read a post on Seth Godin’s blog called “Talker’s Block” where he posits that we don’t get “talker’s block” because we’re always practicing talking. Sometimes we rattle on about all this nothingness but that doesn’t stop us from talking. We just continue to do it and sometimes we do it very badly. I have a confession: this is a terrible habit of mine and I’m trying to stop myself if I have nothing constructive to say. But Godin urges us on to practice writing every single day.
Godin writes two important things about writing:
1. “Writer’s block isn’t hard to cure. Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.”
and
2. “Do it every day. Every single day. Not a diary, not fiction, but analysis. Clear, crisp, honest writing about what you see in the world. Or want to see. Or teach (in writing). Tell us how to do something.”
Tonight, I asked friends on Twitter about writing. I’m doing this for the students I’m speaking to next week and I wanted to visit them armed with the wisdom of writers. It made me realize that I know a lot of them and that they have great input to the process of writing. So, my dear 7th grade students… this is all for you. I wrote this for you so you can see what writing is like from people who practice it every day. You can see the questions I posed in the screenshots below when someone replied to me. This isn’t an exhaustive list from the replies I got and I wish I could have added them all, but here are a few of the comments from writers that I’d like you to read:
I am going to make an example out of you, @BackpackingDad.
There are a million different reasons to write (and that’s not hyperbole) (if you need to take a moment to look up the word “hyperbole” you should do that now. I’ll wait.) (because good writers are also good readers who make use of things like parenthetical statements) and, hopefully, the students I’m visiting will read this blog post before I visit them. Since I work in a technology magnet school, they are used to reading and researching online, but this is the first time I have ever used my blog to talk directly to them.
Permit me an aside: hi, 7th graders! Yes, you! I’m writing this whole thing just for you.
So, students, I am now asking you some questions: why do you write? Is it because you get an assignment? Do you write because you have to write or because you want to write? What important things do you know about writers from what you learned from all these replies from my friends? [You can Leave a Reply by typing into the box below. Normally, you need an email for this, but you can just make one up. Don't put your last name on comments. I will know who you are.]
And, dear readers, I am also asking you a favor: if you have writing advice for my students that you want to share, please leave it below. They will be thrilled to read what you have to share.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Just do it. That’s the hard part for me. If I stop writing for awhile (because I’m sick, busy or maybe even self-conscious), it’s that much harder to start back up again later.
I had forgotten that bit of advice. I’ve done that before where I’ve taken a break and then I have to force myself to take it up again. It’s like when I give up exercising and it’s hard to start getting back to it. Thanks for giving us that great advice!
At first I wrote publicly just to see if I could. Then I wrote to make sure it sounded like my “real” voice. Then I wrote because other people had things to say about what I wrote — and the conversation was better than the post. Now the challenge is to write things that are out of my comfort zone – different genres, different topics.
Words never have to be spoken to be powerful. They never have to been seen in daylight. They allow you to walk into the joy and into the pain at your own pace, and I like that. But the best lesson I ever learned, was never to let go of the “story”. Whether it was a research paper or a narrative or a poem or analysis, there is always, ALWAYS a story. Find THAT – and your words will have power and magic.
And regardless of what Ms. Wickham has said above, I believe the red pen is good. There is wisdom in the pen. Don’t fear it, but get some thick skin.
You’ll be outstanding. I know it.
This is my favorite thing you told them: “Words never have to be spoken to be powerful.” That’s why READING is so important.
The red pen is fine, but it’s not all inclusive to the writing process.
When I taught, I used a purple pen. It didn’t seem to bleed as much all over the page.
My editing process starts in my brain – I often start composing sentences and paragraphs well before I write anything down. I edit pretty minimally after that, as you can tell by my occasionally mistake-ridden or redundant blog posts.
I just went through a writing class with my children this summer, (http://smallworldathome.blogspot.com/2009/01/introducing-smallworlds-wordsmithery.html) and I had planned on just assigning writing for my children, because THEY NEEDED TO LEARN IT, and I was already a writer. But guess what the first assignment was? I had to get a journal and do the writing assignments too. It was so much fun! We wrote poetry, we wrote silly things, like music tastes like ice, and it was so freeing and exhilarating! I have taken those exercises and applied them to my daily blogging, which I must force myself to do, even when I can think of nothing I want to share, and I even apply creative writing concepts to tweeting, status updating, and leaving replies, although this reply is a bit random and run-onny.
Btw, as a homeschool mother, I read about the tyranny of the red pen and I scoffed at that concept, but I like the way you put it, Kelly. I guess it does connote blood to a certain extent. I use an orange pen, because a. I don’t have a red pen, and b. I think it’s kind of a funny nod to the whole tyranny of the red pen thing. But when I can’t find the orange, I’ll use green or blue or black. I think black is too close to pencil, and it doesn’t stand out well at all, and blue is pretty blah. Green is nice, though. (do you see why I didn’t respond to the tweet? Feeling a little less like a writer the longer this reply. Shutting up, now, thanks, Mocha and Seth Godin!)
My favorite teacher in the world used a green pen. Man I loved that woman.
I totally agree with the whole ‘write badly’ advice. You can just cripple yourself mentally if you try to put out golden sentences in your first draft. NOTHING will get onto that page. Write junk. Then you have something to edit.
Another thing that helps hugely in the creative process is to pick a topic about which you care deeply. What makes you passionate? What makes you spout opinions quickest? You don’t need to sound fancy or use huge words. Just pick something that you care about and tell us why you care.
That “writing badly” thing never worked for me. If I couldn’t see where the first sentence was leading me, then I couldn’t go to the second sentence. I have a variety of strategies that I use for writing when I’m stuck (like shifting from writing on my computer to writing (entire pages!) by hand for the kinetic experience). But I keep working until I like where the sentence, paragraph, etc., is going. I write to the end, and then– because (and here’s the most important part!) writing is as much about figuring out what I’m thinking– I then go back and revise, revise, revise.
The most valuable thing I learned from writing my MA thesis and dissertation was that writing is a way of learning, and that revising is not the same thing as “editing”. Revising is what you do when you’ve figured out what you needed to learn when you wrote the first few drafts. Editing is what you do when you’ve revised multiple times and are ready to put the polish on.
For your students: I, too, don’t like to write badly. But, that’s where reading comes in. I am a VORACIOUS reader!! I mean, I have been clocked at 2000 words a minute with 100% recall/understanding. That was a few years ago, but I haven’t lost much. It makes it bad when it’s a really good book you don’t want to end, but it’s great that you can read so much! You learn more than the subject matter when you read that much. You also learn, unconciously, how words flow, how to make them flow better, which words bring certain feelings (connotation), so you use them instead of others to evoke a mood. You can learn all of this by reading. I have absolutely no memory of how to diagram a sentence, but I know how to make you remember or feel something… and I’m not that good at writing! And always listen to someone as awesome as Ms. Wickham…
As a writing teacher and a writer (I don’t think that one can be an effective writing teacher if they themselves don’t write), I teach my students that writing is never perfect and it is never done. The assignments they do for me are never done–they draft and share and revise and share and revise and submit to me for evaluation–they can then revise again if they wish.
It is also important for students to understand that writing is an important skill and that the thoughts need to come out first. Many students are “scared” as writers and feel like they aren’t good writers because they are often not shown the process of writing. Many students think that you write once, maybe spell check, print it out and turn it in. It is so important for teachers to teach writing authentically and that involves drafting, revising, and editing.
I, as a writer, have a very organic writing process. On my blog, I don’t do a lot of editing, but I only write there when I have something that I really want to write about and explore. I also do most of my pre-writing in thought. I think about something for a long time before I sit down to draft. My blog receives a little editing–but no real revising.
Other writing–academic papers, conference presentations, scholarly articles–get significant revision usually over a few weeks time and sometimes even longer.
So, 7th graders, writing isn’t something people are born to do. Good writers go through a process and it takes time. Keep writing.
I also want to add that reading plays a huge role in building your writing skill. You will learn a lot about writing conventions and nuances of the English language by reading. And read anything. If you like sports, read about sports, etc. But most good writers are also good readers.
I write for two things. I write for personal reasons, ie, my blog, and I write for work.
I write outside of my job so that I am comfortable with putting my thoughts down on “paper”. I never actually use paper though. I found that when I started blogging, it helped me with my work writing. It serves as therapy in some cases. I do my best to edit for myself. I will often go back and fix mistakes I see the next day. However, for the most part, it is more about just getting my thoughts out. It is the practice part of my writing.
For work, mostly I write emails. I write requests, I communicate issues, I document a lot. I work in IT, with computers, but communication & writing is still a HUGE part of my job. I started blogging to document my daughter’s life, but what I found was that regular “creative” writing helped my business writing. If I am writing something important for work, I have someone on my team edit it for me. I have a few people I trust that I go to. They help me make sure that I am communicating clearly, that I haven’t made any obvious grammar or spelling mistakes, and that I don’t sound like an idiot.
Writing is never easy, but it’s easier if you do it every day. It’s also easier if you do it first thing in the day.
I tend to produce very messy first drafts. Writing is how I think.
Most people do not start writing soon enough in a project. It is never too soon to put your thoughts down on paper.
I’m probably stealing this discussion for my senior thesis writers……
Wow. You just nailed it for me. I would pour my creative thoughts and ideas onto paper and there would be no comment from my teachers. It was just a bunch of red pen marks, either good or bad. It was definitely not motivating and I wonder if that had much to do with my insecurities about writing now.
Write on paper. With red marker or black sharpie. Write on paper with lines and without. Write backwards. Write upside down. Write on the school bus. Write on the mirror when you first step out of the shower. Write songs. Write poems. Write without punctuation. IN ALL CAPS. or all lowercase. Write loudly. Write often. Write now. Just write.
You’re young and yet I know you have so much to say. You have stories to tell that belong to no one else. Ideas that are as unique as you feel.
Words have power. Writing gives you the strength to say anything at all regardless of who might read it or who never will.
Writing is art. Writing is freedom. Writing can heal.
Write. Right now. Just write.
Simple. Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Every day.
Coming from newspaperland (I know … what’s THAT?), we used blue pens. Not ball point … more like highlighters. I miss those blue pens.
I always wrote a lot, but I never considered myself a writer. I don’t know what I was waiting for. I was almost 40 by the time my dear friend, the poet Ray Clark Dickson, insisted that I label myself “writer.” It was after that that people started paying me money to write. Now I write full-time and make 3x the salary I ever did when I was doing “the only job I could get.” It’s not all about money, I know, but life is a lot easier when you’re getting paid well to do something you actually like.