As a future English Language Arts teacher, I foresee this being a problem that I will encounter with my students frequently. I know when I was in high school I was always asking my teacher how to begin the assignment because if I could get the ball rolling, I’d be just fine! Seeing as I still face this problem, I don’t know the best way to avoid it and how I should advise my students. When I get stuck writing, I often try to take a break or have a quick conversation with a friend. Sometimes these tactics work, but not always. I will often times just force myself to write to push through writer’s block. I end up writing an entire introductory paragraph, which gets me started, only to go back and delete the entire paragraph written previously and rewriting it.
When I experience writer’s block, it often times leads me to frustration. Now that I have come to love writing, frustration doesn’t bother me so much, but before I really started enjoying writing, the frustration of writer’s block could ruin my day. I don’t want my students to have to experience this frustration. I want to not only teach students how to write, but how to write enjoyably.
I believe the ability to write is a privilege and students should learn how to push through the frustration to see the beauty of what they can create with words. Writer’s block is just a menial roadblock that stands in the way of creating a piece of work, which can be worked through. I hope to minimize the dislike of ELA and maximize the enjoyment of writing, despite the difficulty of getting through a writer’s block.
Paige Mellinger