Acting as a teacher that believes writing in a process means acting and conducting my classroom in a few ways.
First and foremost it means teaching my students to appreciate the process, and when I say the process I mean the one that best fits them. In order to get my students to be able to write, they must first be able to complete some process that will lead to the finished product of a “piece”. Yet before even that they must be comfortable approaching writing, so that they might pick up the pen and begin a process of writing.
Many people have difficulties with writing, whether it’s the beginning, middle, or end, somewhere along the way they freeze. The problem with this is that this momentary freeze becomes internalized by the student as a failure and not as just another part of the process. In order to get my student into a process I must first help them to understand that difficulties with writing are normal, and that so are the pauses and lulls authors face when composing a piece. This can easily be accomplished by showing blog posts by authors describing their editing and writing struggles or showing authors documentaries such as Dr. Seuss’s which greatly depicts the struggles he faced as a writer. In order to teach writing as a process I must first include the author into the process, and grow their confidence so that I might be able to refine the process that they will attempt once confidence is gained.
After the above I must also look to my revision of the students work. When looking at a student’s writing through the lens of writing as a process I am not allowing myself to carry the misconception that this is a finished work, or even their best work. I must look to their work and see the subtle shifts and the chances that they chose to take in this work and not in the last. I must revise with the end in mind and not this single paper in mind. I must focus on one aspect of that students writing and leave the rest for later.
Basically teaching writing as a process directs my eye to the student and there how and why and not to the paper that they hand into me. My focus is in improving the author and then through them their writing. Yet often the only thing that I have to gage an author by is their work. Therefore I must look to the works and focus on obtainable goals for my authors. This last statement is at the crux of my philosophy on teaching writing as a process. Make your aims for your students writing attainable.
- Laura Elder
First and foremost it means teaching my students to appreciate the process, and when I say the process I mean the one that best fits them. In order to get my students to be able to write, they must first be able to complete some process that will lead to the finished product of a “piece”. Yet before even that they must be comfortable approaching writing, so that they might pick up the pen and begin a process of writing.
Many people have difficulties with writing, whether it’s the beginning, middle, or end, somewhere along the way they freeze. The problem with this is that this momentary freeze becomes internalized by the student as a failure and not as just another part of the process. In order to get my student into a process I must first help them to understand that difficulties with writing are normal, and that so are the pauses and lulls authors face when composing a piece. This can easily be accomplished by showing blog posts by authors describing their editing and writing struggles or showing authors documentaries such as Dr. Seuss’s which greatly depicts the struggles he faced as a writer. In order to teach writing as a process I must first include the author into the process, and grow their confidence so that I might be able to refine the process that they will attempt once confidence is gained.
After the above I must also look to my revision of the students work. When looking at a student’s writing through the lens of writing as a process I am not allowing myself to carry the misconception that this is a finished work, or even their best work. I must look to their work and see the subtle shifts and the chances that they chose to take in this work and not in the last. I must revise with the end in mind and not this single paper in mind. I must focus on one aspect of that students writing and leave the rest for later.
Basically teaching writing as a process directs my eye to the student and there how and why and not to the paper that they hand into me. My focus is in improving the author and then through them their writing. Yet often the only thing that I have to gage an author by is their work. Therefore I must look to the works and focus on obtainable goals for my authors. This last statement is at the crux of my philosophy on teaching writing as a process. Make your aims for your students writing attainable.
- Laura Elder