Just Writing

As Ray and Laminack state in the text, I believe that daily including writing workshop into the classroom is essential in that it gives students space in their day to just write. Being given such an opportunity will allow students to fall in love with writing and to see that writing is not just a means to accomplish tasks or assignments but also a means for both enriching and maintaining their lives. I feel that, similar to reading, students must constantly be given opportunities to explore and experience writing on a personal level so that they may be fostered into lifelong writers. Through a writing workshop, students will be able to see that writing can be a very individual, very valuable practice. When I was an elementary school student, from kindergarten to third grade, I loved writing and I loved the idea of being a writer. This was due in large part to the fact that my elementary school teachers implemented writing instruction in the form of writing workshops where the focus was on the students as writers as opposed to just the writing process.  But, once I entered the fourth grade, all my teachers began placing the focus on the process and pieces of writing as opposed to the students as writers. As such, I began to see writing as just a series of tedious steps and I eventually began to feel apathetic towards writing and the writing process. I do not want any of my future students to ever feel indifference or hatred towards writing because I did not help to foster or encourage their identities as writers.  

Though I am not entirely sure how I may want to execute the writing workshop in my future classroom, I am particularly intrigued by the idea of utilizing genre studies and having students write pieces in these genres. Not only might such an activity allow students to better understand what characteristics typify each genre through actually writing pieces for each genre, but presenting such tasks would also give students a chance to explore their own specific interests through writing and through the workshop. While I am quite sure that I want to use genre studies as part of my writing workshop in my future classroom and I know that I will allow students to decide what they personally want to write about for each genre, I am curious as to how I would exactly conduct such genre studies.

The following statement really caught my eye while I was reading:

Writers need to mind their spelling, and their subject-verb agreement, and all those other conventions because certain audiences in the world expect them to, and for their writing to have power with those audiences, it should be conventional. (Ray, 2001, p. 38)

I would definitely use this quote in my future classroom and would possibly post this quote on a wall in my future classroom. Too often students are told that they need to learn to spell correctly and that they must use correct grammar and syntax but they are never told why it is essential that they attain and apply such knowledge in their writing. As such, students frequently do not want or do not care about learning about such items because they do not see any point. For this very reason, I am drawn to this quote. It beautifully articulates why writers need to mind such items and conventions in a way that would make sense to students and motivate students.

Ray, K.W. with Laminack, L.L. (2001). The writing workshop: Working through the hard parts (and they’re all hard parts). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.