"They minimize voice in order to sound “objective.” They choose topics they think others will approve of. In short, they do the very things that make strong writing performance all but impossible" (Spandel, 69).
These words rang so very true throughout the vast majority of my schooling, and ironically is one of the biggest reasons why I'm so drawn to English education. I aspire to be the teacher I wanted when I was younger. Someone who will teach just as much as they inspire, nurture creativity, and give students access to reading and writing in a way which is exciting, new, and fresh, rather than monotonous, draining, and half-hearted. This isn't to say that all my English classes have all been a complete drag, but rather I found so many of them repeating a never ending cycle of reading X book to achieve Y goal: read this book, write this essay, rinse, repeat. Sometimes when we covered certain books, we wouldn't even read the whole book, instead jumping from passage to passage as if to "cover more ground." So many books were sold short, degraded into glorified scavenger hunts where the reader has to use them to simply "learn" a specific theme/subject and then regurgitate it as if to signify some kind of knowledge gained. These practices were a robotic and offensive approach to books, and were a disservice to both the students and books. Experiences like this had me believe for so long that books were pages upon pages of homework, rather than something to be experienced and enjoyed. All of this not only lead for me to have a distaste for reading, but lead me to write papers and essays which were just as mundane as the lessons which spawned them.
Returning to the current day, some things have changed, and some things have remained the same. I've still struggled to fully actualize my abilities and desires as a writer, but I've had some classes such as creative writing along with various literature classes, which I felt have tapped into a more rewarding approach to English education with much more gratifying content and assignments. Furthermore, I try to approach the more tedious assignments as a learning experience, as a continuous reminder that this is precisely what I want to avoid in my future curriculum. With all of this in mind, Sam's quote on Spandel's article resonates with me to an uncomfortable level, but through the quotes honesty, I find reassurance that I'm not alone in feeling as if my writing abilities have been reduced to meeting some standard.
"We fear—teachers and student writers alike—that someone will find out the truth: that we are not always perfect, that we make mistakes, that not every performance is a success" (Spandel, 70).
To bring this jaded and bitter blog post to a close, and to summarize my thoughts into some sort of hopeful ending, my goal as a future educator is to harness these frustrating experiences to fuel a never-ending hunger for a more engaging and life affirming kind of curriculum. In doing this, I'll bring my students into arms reach of the joys of reading and writing, and let them do the rest as they choose, ultimately working to maintain that closeness regardless of the adversities and doubts which inevitability present themselves to all writers alike.
3/1 EDIT: Definitely missed the mark on actually answering the blog prompt for this post, so I wanted to add this to approach the questions at the very least. (sorry to anyone who had to read all my complaining!) Let's just cut to the chase:
Describe your personal writing process - My writing process varies by the assignment, but I definitely start slow, focusing solely on ideas and concepts before worrying about the intro, conclusion, format, and ordering. I like to use bullet points or other lists/charts to gather all my ideas, and try to organize them in logical ways to establish my key points. From there, I actually start writing, which then makes the writing process as streamlined and painless as possible because I already have my points organized and established. For creative writing, this process differs, but I honestly don't feel like I've had enough opportunities to really explore creative writing to figure out my "process."
How might your process differ from that of novice writers? - If I had to guess, I think organization might get overlooked by novice writers, whom would rather opt into jumping straight into writing. This certainly can work for some, but isn't necessarily my style because I don't want to lose track of my points and lose steam trying to remember anything I might have forgotten.
How might your process change when writing in online settings or via multimodal resources? - To me, the biggest thing that mediums like multimodal writings bring to the table is a kind of parallel vision to writing. Through this, I feel that my writing might come a bit more naturally, because the other elements in multimodal composition such as music, visuals, and audio will work in tandem to bring out a clear and precise effect in my writing and ideas.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-authentic-multimodal-projects-young-writers/
https://www.creative-writing-now.com/short-story-ideas.html
Hi Seth! I think your reflection is pretty spot on to what I see in many of my students, and yet, I feel that they go back to that type of writing because it is the path of least resistance, right? It is hard work being creative and thinking outside the box, playing with the formula so to speak, and much easier to just check the boxes of a 5 paragraph essay. I get so much insight when talking to my students about the things they read, yet, struggle to inspire them to put on the page what they speak about. Any tips and tricks on inspiring teens, let me know! I think part of it is how most curriculums at the highschool level leave creative writing to a specific class or minor activity, while argument essays become the major focus. I think we can thank the state mandated ACT for that!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this blog post, and I appreciate the points you raise. Especially where you discuss the classroom and the sorts of assignments that you are tasked alongside reading that you, and many others, have felt actively harm a students interest or enjoyment of reading. I am in a class right now on literacy in the content areas and we are reading about and discussing methods for testing a students comprehension that don't suck, and it's tough because a lot of them suck! It's a great point that you make where you talk about a student's interaction with a book in a classroom being framed as a scavenger hunt, where they are tasked to catalogue moments where they feel some theme occurs, and in many cases, they have already been fed the theme they are on the hunt for. I experienced this method of english ed in High School and in a lot of ways it was super frustrating. You are led to believe that every book has a key needed to piece meaning together, and it's only once you have tried to begin assembling the "clues" can you try to extract any prescriptive message or generalizable moral from the text. This is why I feel that modeling reading and comprehension. Some of most impactful experiences I have had as a student have been when a teacher shows the class their copy of a text---the peak behind the curtain. Surprisingly, zoom classes worked nicely for this, as a teacher could share a digital text as their screen and in real-time work through even just a paragraph to demonstrate their own process for analysis.
ReplyDeleteNice work in this blog post, I wish you the best of luck,
Isaac
I highlighted the same line from Spandel on my PDF. However, minimizing once own voice and limiting the amount of topics one chooses to write about in order to meet other's expectations is something that unfortunately most writers must face and overcome at some point of their careers. However, at no point is this practice more pernicious for the growth of an individual than during the formative years spent in high school. Such constrains put upon a writer are a type of self-censorship that prohibits a writer from approximating full expression. Such an approach to writing also invalidates a young writers ideas by suggesting that their interests are not worth exploring. While awareness of the public is something every writer must maintain, high school writing classes should be safe place where students can grow, and experiment as they deepen their understanding of self, language and the world around them.
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