In class on Thursday, Dr. K did an experiment of sorts to show us what the writing process can feel like for some (often many) students. He had us free write for 2 minutes and then count how many words we wrote. Then he gave us a set of 5 rules for our next writing. They included things like you have to write from right to left and spell all the words backwards too or you have to write in passive voice. In presenting these rules on the projector, the words were symbols and jumbled letters that we couldn’t read. After giving us all the rules he also added that the content was the most important and to enjoy it…. yeah right. My initial thought was, “I’m just not gonna write anything.” This is WAY too overwhelming, anxiety producing, and just flat out not fun. I couldn’t remember the rules and even the ones I did remember I didn’t know how to do them correctly. He told us to do the same thing as before- write for two minutes straight and follow these oh so “simple” rules. Not to mention that as we were writing, Dr. K walked around and kindly reminded us of the rules. As you can probable guess, the word count for my writing dropped drastically.
This exercise gave me incredible insight into what it’s like to be a struggling writer. As teachers with good intentions, we walk around the class while our students are writing and say, “Oh don’t forget your period! Don’t forget to put spaces! Don’t forget your capital letters! Don’t forget to spell it correctly!” The rules seem simple and easy to us as accomplished writers but to those struggling it is utter chaos and noise in their brains. No wonder they don’t want to write! I didn’t want to either. The power of free writing is becoming more and more powerful and important to me! The use of mini-lessons and mentor texts are essential to teach writing. We cannot bombard students with all the these rules on their first drafts. They HAVE to have the freedom to write down their thoughts (on their self-selected topics) without worrying about all of the rules and regulations.
This is a very accurate picture of what I felt like during the experiment in class….and what many struggling writers look like and feel like.
Teaching The Language Arts 