Chapter 8

Today at our pre-institute day my group was brainstorming for demos and I just found this chapter really timely. We want our students to write and sometimes structure is helpful but we want them to write and experiment and make something uniquely their own. I loved the comparison between writing and a really great recipe, like an amazing soup. Then the example ofr pre-packaged food and how its calorie fulfilling and the same and that is why we eat it. That really struck me because so often we want something easy and comfortable but the point is to write something to be read- love that!
Once again I loved getting her take on writing steps and the admission that thinking is hard. If writing is thinking on paper that means that every so often its going to be hard... but anything worthwhile may once in awhile be hard, I think...
The questions she identified on page 124 to springboard writing excited me because this is the kind of reflective writing that I want my students to do. The thing about these types of questions is that once again they are pulling on what they know, their strengths and themselves. If we are the experts on anything it is ourselves.
I love the quote from William Faulkner- "Writing is one-third imagination, one- third experience and one third observation."
Formula is helpful, it seems like it should be the way to go but life is not a formula. I am reminded of the last chapter that said at the end of all of this the point is to see what our kids can do with the resources they have been given- I am paraphrasing. In my fight to teach this way rather than worry about all the state assessments, thus far, my kids, when given these types of writing opportunities always rise to the occasion. I really liked the line on page 127 where Stephen Kramer asked the question, "I wonder, though,whether anyone has calculated the effects of writing test pressures on student's love of writing. " I think that is a great questions, wondering if anyone is checking?? :)
In my class I am asking my kids to be vulnerable, open and raw. That is a super scary position to put them into. But once I have set up that safety net the rewards for this type of writing are amazing.