“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.” ― Yogi Berra

Week Seven.

Challenge Writing Tasks.

The first challenge task follows the 8th Grade Language Arts Standards and the second follows the "Found Words" prompt. These are not transferred into a typed revised version. Below is an entirely different writing assignment.

The Theoretical Writing Classroom and the Experienced Writing Classroom

When I read the line “Sometimes it feels like our writers are waiting and waiting and waiting instead of writing and writing and writing” (McGee 126), I paused to sketch out an "!!!" and underline it. YES, I thought. This is exactly what's happening. What's the magical answer? (My gut reaction was to practically imagine myself a superhero- I was so ready to swoop in and save the day with whatever came next.)

Surprise; there isn't a magical answer to student hesitance and resistance in the right class. Oof.

But! There are methods that may prove helpful when introduced to the classroom. I think Kittle and McGee would say the biggest thing holding these kids back is their lack of ownership in their writing. McGee suggests letting students create and/or choose their own tools (176) and to set small and steady goals prompted with questions that support ownership and agency (177), but this is seemingly in conflict with the perceived need (in the mentor classroom) to provide a very structured outline. Kittle suggests that students have to take risks, and here I believe the mentor teacher has beautifully created an environment where this can happen. While Kittle's assertion that teachers should "care most that you write well, not when you write well” (222) isn't apparent on the surface, I think the mindset is somewhere ingrained into the environment.  McGee is right that "for most, writing is challenging, confusing, complex, and intimidating” (96), so students have to be willing to take risks in writing (99), have to be more comfortable with failure (104). This is where I most admire my mentor; she is intentional about establishing the classroom as a "safe place to fall." 

The two authors converge most on feedback. Kittle asserts that "writers need feedback, not evaluation" (208). (Although, on evaluation, Kittle "read[s] for content and craft separately" [209], not unlike the eighth grade writing standards more clumsily attempt [see writing task above].) Perhaps more helpfully, McGee explains that writers "may need some feedback to help them nudge themselves out of this sort of logjam [of freezing up when it is time to put words on a page]” (McGee 114). (I think this particular logjam is the frequent status of the classroom, collectively.) Even more helpfully, McGee offers a means of offering feedback to achieve these means by returning to ownership and choice (the two are intimately connected), demonstrating those conversations that provide a place in student writing to create choice (McGee 183-201). In the public school space, where choice is so frequently limited, we have to find and create moments of choice whenever possible. But, fortunately, "choice is not limited to just one part of the writing process; it can be offered as feedback wherever writers are and whatever the writing program” (McGee 202-203). This is where we, as the "writing experts" (in the very generous words of our mentor teacher), can come in. However, as Kittle warns, “when editors or teachers kidnap the first draft, they also remove responsibility for making meaning from the writer” (213). We have to be careful to maintain student ownership in writing. Instead, when the student "writer claims her writing as her own[, she] holds a sense of responsibility for this writing” (McGee 166). Additionally, when we "ha[ve]n't established the right to [edit student's] work," what we perceive as help can become "an intrusion" (213).  We must be very intentional and cautious with our feedback. For these reasons, I intend to implement McGee's method (118):

1. Name the Treasures. 

2. Call the next steps “readiness.” 

3. Model the technique. 

I'

The classroom has been and continues to be a place of exploration, navigating my expectations (which I in turn must negotiate with student expectations) and my developing teacher identity. 

References

McGee, Patty. Feedback That Moves Writers Forward: How to Escape Correcting Mode to Transform Student Writing. Corwin Literacy, 2017.

Kittle, Penny. Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing. Heinemann, 2008.