During Becca Woodard’s excellent demo this morning, we were asked to think about ourselves as writers. What words would we use to describe ourselves as writers? How does our vision of ourselves as writers connect (or not) with what we expect from our students? Below is a piece of my morning writing:
When I’m asked to identify words that describe myself as a writer, I find myself thinking about how I would describe myself in terms of some other activity—say, eating. I eat a lot, sometimes too much, but I’m always striving for satisfaction. Maybe satisfied is a good word to describe myself as a writer. While I don’t do it too much (not everyone will agree), I find myself generally satisfied.
As I write this, I’m thinking that this sounds egotistical. To say I’m satisfied might suggest that I think I’m a good writer. How many people feel comfortable saying this? I make mistakes, of course. Yet even with the flaws, I’m satisfied. I believe that you need to be willing to make mistakes to write well. You need to be able to take chances to fail–as Sir Ken Robinson notes.
I want my students to be comfortable with the messy way that writing begins, continues, and sometimes ends. I want them to not be afraid to write down that thought that is risky, to inquire, to take a chance. When I assess their writing, I need to remember this. Does my assessment measures allow for this type of exploration.
Another word that I’d use to describe myself as a writer is receptive. I typically like getting feedback, even critical feedback, although sometimes not at first. I want my students to be receptive too, to really listen as they write and receive responses about their writing.
Patrick, I am jealous of your satisfaction as a writer. I agree that writers do strive for that same goal- it is just more difficult to achieve for some (me). I think I need to work on that.
I laughed when you described your writing as egotistical because I was thinking, “how eloquent!”
I like the idea of having your students be okay with messy writing. I feel the same way. Whenever I do create a draft and mark all over it, I make sure to keep it and show my students. I want them to see that EVERYONE starts with a draft and builds upon it. I also like to find manuscripts by published authors (Stephanie Meyer) where the edits are shown. It’s a great model to share with the students.
Thanks for the suggestion!
I really think replacing “writing” with “thinking and presenting” pretty well summarizes my thinking about how I deal with this whole process. The joy of all of this is really in the ability to produce drafts of our thinking and then be able to go back and revise until our thinking is clear and logical. I find it telling that writing about things really helps me understand what I really think about them…