Writing

I had a great day today at school. It was one of those days that as a teacher, you see glimpses of progress or light bulbs going off, or kids thanking you for your help. I had a little bit of all of these things, so it was a great day indeed.

I had been struggling for a while on how to teach writing. Sure, there is a myriad of techniques out there which aim at different aspects of writing. There is no silver bullet, like everything in learning, but it's writing that stumps me the most. It's not cut and dry like a math problem. There aren't any set dates like in history.

As with any subject I teach, I struggle to remember just when and how I learned something. It's nearly impossible. Not because I'm old and don't have a great memory (ahem), but because I don't think that any one instance in time set the knowledge in my brain. I'm positive that most things built on each other and my knowledge of anything is a compilation of experience, practice, and good teaching. And the thing about when I learned to write? It was all grammar. I could diagram the heck out of a sentence. I could tell you all about nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives (thank you, Schoolhouse Rock).

Now writing isn't taught like that. First, the content matters. Writing is more authentic. Prompts are rarely given, and kids are free to choose their topic. They may be working on a certain genre like persuasion or personal narratives, but they may choose what they want to write about. Mechanics become secondary. While I agree that kids need choices in their writing and there's more investment if it's something personal, I think that the mechanics are being neglected. (I think this may be another post. I'll stop about the mechanics now.)

Yet, being the person I am, I want a way that I can reach the students who I work with. I want to give them the tools they need to write well, and enjoy writing like I do. I struggle sometimes when I am listening to them tell me a story and I just want to write it down for them. I want to get it on paper. I want to expand on their ideas. I cringe when I hear, "I don't know what to write about." After giving 50 suggestions of topics, I want them to start writing immediately. Usually I'm lucky if I get their name at the top of their paper.

But today, in two separate classes, I had kids who were writing. And enjoying it. Kids who sat next to me and discussed their writing with me. I heard things like, "Does this sound interesting, or what can I add here?" or "I know I need to write more, so hold on and let me finish this." Kids who normally sat there biting their erasers off of their pencils while staring at the ceiling, actually had their heads bent down over their paper. They were re-reading their work and editing. I suddenly had one of those clouds-parting, sun-shining, angels-singing moments. It was heavenly. I even heard thank yous. My day was complete.

It's days like these that keep teachers going. I have a feeling I will be going for a while. At least until next week.