Teaching Writing

As I think back on my school years, it is clear that the best teacher I had was Mr. Hahn. He was gentle and kind, he was patient, and he was not afraid to admit his shortcomings. But what I loved most about him was his willingness to improve his teaching. He varied his teaching methods often, and he frequently asked us students for input. I have tried to model my teaching style after his.
To that end, after each semester, I ask my students to reflect on the past weeks and write me a brief note about what they have learned from the course, what they enjoyed about my class, and what I could do to improve it for the next time. I have been intrigued to note that the students in my American Literature class often say they would like to do more creative writing assignments. Since it is an English class, their writing is heavily weighted toward the formal essay, and I am pretty sure they were hoping I would replace a few of those essays with fiction assignments instead. Unfortunately, the department handbook demands a certain number of formal essays, and I do not have the luxury of throwing those assignments out the window. But I can replace other smaller assignments with “creative writing” assignments.
So that will be the focus of my practicum this semester. In my fourth year at Napoleon High School, I feel like I have become familiar with my classes enough to have the leisure to create and add different assignments. In the past, I have retained quite a bit of consistency from one trimester to the next, with my lessons and units changing very little. But this year will be the year for more change.
In American Literature, I have already arranged thematic units, which include a variety of topics, such as “Identity: Who am I?” “What Is an American?” “Is America a Land of Equality?” “An American’s Beliefs,” and “What Makes a Good Short Story.”
I intend to keep the same units and integrate brief lessons on creative writing techniques and creative writing assignments into the lessons I already teach.
In the past, I have assigned brief written responses to the literature we’ve read perhaps two times each week. These written responses usually vary greatly in creativity and originality. I have often been frustrated when reading them by many of my students’ carelessness in their writing. They don’t have any deep interest in the brief responses, they don’t feel like they really “count” as far as a grade is concerned (homework is only weighted 20%, whereas essays are 40% of their grade in the class), and it is clear that they have written the responses as quickly as possible just to get them done.
I want to change that this year. I want them to care about what they are writing, to take their time writing, to even be excited about it. So the challenge for me will be to design assignments that allow them enough freedom of choice while still setting expectations for the assignment. These are the changes I will make to my teaching this year, then: first, I will look over my existing units for ways to incorporate creative writing assignments; second, I will create choices for each assignment so that students are more invested in what they write; and third, I will assess their progress at the end of the trimester through the use of writing journals and student self-assessments in which they analyze and reflect on their writing progress.
A note about the writing journals: I have had students keep a writing portfolio in the past. All their essays would go into this portfolio, and they would write a very brief assessment on their strengths and weaknesses for each essay after receiving the graded essay. This year I intend to do something more formal. I think I will have each student keep a spiral notebook for writing assignments. They will turn this notebook in each week, and the notebook must include their creative writing assignments and a brief journal entry about their writing that week. The journal can include comments on writing process, generation of ideas, problems with grammar or mechanics, really anything about their writing. Hopefully this will encourage the students to be more deliberate with their writing choices, to think more carefully about how they write and why they write.
As the semester progresses, I will be looking for books and articles on the teaching of creative writing, specific ideas for assignments, methods of assessing students’ creative writing, and any research on the benefits of using creative writing in a traditional English class. I am sure I will find much more material than is required for this class.
In short, this semester’s teaching practicum should be an enriching experience for my students and me. I am hoping that I can excite them about writing, to make it a challenge instead of a chore, to show them that an English class is not entirely about essay writing and busywork writing. I hope to become a better teacher of writing, one who is more thoughtful about the goals and outcomes of every writing assignment and its benefit for the students.