Download Details Teacher as Writer Final Reflection

Alexandra Lockwood
Teacher As Writer Final Reflection
As a student I found many of the teacher as writer assignments difficult. I think
this was the case in part because I had not had opportunities for many years to write
creatively using forms such as poetry and autobiography. I did find the non-fiction piece
easier and enjoyable to write. Most of the writing I’ve done over the past year and
previously throughout my undergraduate and graduate years consisted primarily of
writing non-fiction research papers, reflections on readings, and lesson plans. Having to
write creatively, although something I wish I was more confident and skilled at, is
outside of my comfort zone and I find myself overly critical of my creative writing.
I found working on the non-fiction assignment the most enjoyable -- perhaps
because we had a little more freedom with topic and I enjoyed the topic I had chosen -a life cycle of loons throughout the year. With that piece I deliberately tried to write it for
an elementary school reader – probably 2nd or 3rd grader. I had two of my own children
read it and I felt like I was successful with that. I enjoyed using non-fiction text features
such as finding pictures to match the text, writing captions and including a map. Writers
for young children need to be aware of their audience and reading levels. I deliberately
included important vocabulary terms such as migration, but tried to keep the rest of the
language simple.
As a teacher I learned that you need to be aware of the kinds of writing
assignments that you are asking students to complete. It can be useful to write
alongside with your students and share your writing with students. (In my experience in
schools I have not seen this done although as a teacher I remember modeling fiction
writing and instilling students help with writing stories.) I can see how many students
have difficulty choosing topics or getting started with their writing. Students need to be
taught about audience, purpose, the writing process and revision.
Thinking about audience is so important to writers. I had an audience in mind
when I wrote the loon piece and that helped it flow more freely than some of the other
assignments. The other pieces I did not share and did not have an audience in mind
except for myself. I think it would be useful for students to have an audience instead of
the teacher – perhaps share their writing with peers or students in another classroom.
Another aspect of writing that it is important to teach students is purpose. My
purpose for writing the loon piece was to impart knowledge about loons. I think that with
some of the assignments my lack of purpose and audience resulted, particularly in the
autobiographical pieces, with me venting my frustrations and rambling. I then decided to
go back and re-write it with an audience in mind, but it was helpful to get some of my
feelings on paper. This is how I imagine writers often begin. We need to allow our
students the freedom to brainstorm their feelings and ideas.
I found that using a mentor text was helpful in some cases and enjoyed looking
for a mentor text, particularly for the final poetry assignment. I also learned that it is
okay to veer away from the mentor text. Mentor texts can be useful in showing students
what writers do to convey their ideas and feelings and can be used for demonstrating
various techniques writers use in their craft. It may make the writing process easier for
reluctant writers to have a mentor text to refer back to.
The writing process is multi-faceted. First you need to have your topic, which if
given an assignment you have the parameters of the assignment to work within. Then
you need to write and go back and re-write and re-work the piece until you are happy
with it. The final poem that I wrote for class about an event that happened this past
summer where I used the mentor text Welcome to the Green House by Jane Yolen I
think has promise, but I would want to spend more time revising. It is important to teach
students about revising and editing in the writing process.
As I writer I feel that I am confident when asked to do particular kinds of writing
and am easily frustrated, critical of my own writing and insecure when asked to veer
outside of my comfort zone. This can also be applied to how students in the classroom
can feel when we ask them to complete certain assignments. I think that one way to
overcome some of my insecurities about writing would be to do it more – to write poetry
or stories for myself. It did help that we did not have to share our writings as I felt that
some of mine was personal. If I had been completing the teacher as writer assignment
and knew that I was going to share it then I most likely would have made different
choices about the subject matter and tone. I could see students in the classroom,
especially middle or high school, not wanting to share writing that was deeply personal.
I am still in the process of defining who I am as a writer. I think in order to gain
more confidence in my writing I need to write more. I really enjoy the genre of poetry. In
the past as a high school and college student I took poetry writing classes and read
more poetry. I think that to improve my confidence as a writer, particularly with poetry, I
would need to read and write more poetry.