10/3 Teacher-Writer and Authentic Writing

Teacher-Writers: Then, Now, and Next

By: Whitney, Hicks, Zuidema, Fredricksen, and Yagaleski

I thoroughly enjoyed this writing piece! When I first read the title, I had so many questions. What is a teacher-writer by the authors’ definitions? What is the teacher-writer by my definition? And before I read, I answered the latter. To me, a teacher-writer is someone who is not confined to either titles. I am a teacher and a writer. I believed a teacher-writer was someone who, to quote the text wrote to “walk the talk” of teaching writing, one of my beliefs that encouraged me to begin this writing journey. I also believe that I can both write to show my students I am a writer, but to also write for myself. While reading this article however, I began to revise my thinking, something I’m working on teaching my students. I did not view myself as an advocate or someone who will use writing “as a stance as a means of resistance to current reform efforts that disempower teachers.” But after reading this eloquent and powerful line, I was enthralled. HELL YES I can do that. I can use my writing in other ways to bring about change, or foster understanding of my field. For me this was an empowering moment, and through this feeling, I was driven to read the article from a new perspective.

Teacher-Writers: Then, Now, and Next takes the reader through three different states of the teacher-writer across time. The article begins with “THEN: A Brief History of the Teacher-Writer” referencing researchers such as Atwell and Calkins, who view the teacher-writer in correlation with “process-oriented pedagogy” and writing workshop. The idea of teacher-writer grew to writing about inquiry and growing professionally. For example, we should write to generate knowledge of our field and increase our presence in research literature. Sounds a bit stiff to me: but it is a means of getting our voice out there. Although, when I first read this section I felt like it was more about showing face than what was being said. Today, we’ve moved into the third phase of teacher-writer, which is advocacy. This is where, as teachers, we should write as a form of resistance to the “measuring outcomes: and the market forces that are designing our education system. There is too much standardization, assessments, and privatization involved in our teacher, that our instruction has become less about the kids, even though we are told these “measuring outcomes” will help us address our students needs. Well, in a three week start of the school year, I have seen my students 15 times, and three of those have been required testing days. And in my spare time, I should analyze the data. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

It’s this line of thinking that made me realize teachers should become writers who get their voices out there. Be in an online blog, a newspaper column, or the PTO newsletter, it is our responsibility to write for the press, the parents of our students, and the public in general. I enjoyed how the article detailed different ways the authors are being teacher-writers as researchers and as facilitators of this conversation through multiple media. In essence, they are expressing how to co-create knowledge with other teachers, through various avenues such as blogs, the NWP, university courses, Twitter, and Google Hangouts.

It is important for us to claim our identity as writers and ask ourselves: What can our writing make possible and what are the constraints we’ll encounter? Are we fearful of how our writing will be perceived? Do we care? In essence, we have to BE writers. Simply put. Our writing and our experience writing and connecting to the world is what makes meaning, and what makes our writing meaningful.

Teaching Writing Authentically

When I first looked at this piece, it seemed a bit daunting. My printer read 63 pages and I started to sweat. I was worried I’d be reading another dry piece, but instead, I found this reading to be a quick and practical. As someone who has used Lucy Calkin’s Writing Units of Study for two years now, the concept of authentic literature and the ten minute mini-lesson are incredibly familiar. I couldn’t agree more that student will benefit from real, authentic activities and grow as writers, but I have to disagree that Lucy Calkin’s provides this. Calkins is quoted as saying, “We cannot teach writing well unless we trust that there is a real, human reason to write.” While I agree, the reading then proceeds to talk about how Calkins believes we should find writing that is meaningful and bring that meaning to life. However, through studying her units, I do not feel she does this. For example, she wrote a unit on Investigative Journalism, geared towards her 5th grade students in Harlem. My 8th grade students in white suburbia cannot relate or participate in this unit authentically, based on how she has set it up. I think there is a fine line between teaching the curriculum and finding ways to teach authentically.

One point addressed in this article is the idea of writing for an audience/creating a product for an audience. I enjoyed reading this section because this is one of my weaknesses as a teacher. I have not developed a sense of audience with my students. I have found myself telling them who their audience “would be” but I realize that is not enough. Through sources such as Letters2thePresident, or other online sources, I am going to find ways for students to view their writing as an experience with others. But in putting student writing out there, I always wonder if we need the school’s permission, or the parents permission. That is something I’ll have to look into. I would love to have PD ono getting our students writing out into the world, where maybe other students can view it and start a dialogue about each other’s writing.

Another point that resonated with me throughout the reading was Lori Rog’s model of the mini-lesson where she states it could take four forms: modeled writing, shared writing, interactive writing, or guided writing. I feel that sometimes my mini-lesson is not a true mini-lesson and I run over time. This is because I try to do too much at once. I have found that my most successful lessons were the ones that were truly a mini-lesson and I got to spend more time conferencing with my students. Being able to provide individual or small group instruction has proved immensely beneficial and something I strive to include every day.

In addition to that, last week in class we addressed how we are moving towards a more technological approach to writing, and most writing done in today’s world is published somewhere online, or through a technological outlet. In reading this piece, I couldn’t help think about my curriculum and the traditional five-paragraph essay. We begin the year writing literary essays, which provides me time to teach the traditional structure of writing in the five paragraph format. As much as we are deviating from that, and as much as I want my students to experiment and take risks, I do believe they need to be exposed to this structure first. You can’t run before you stand and I want to give them a foundation to stand on first. However, my goal for this year is to find outlets or ways for my students to express themselves outside of this structure: through blogs, or videos, or podcasts, anything that feels more authentic and based on real world application.