Chapter 3 Share Your Writing Life

It's almost as if the author could read my mind. I used to enjoy sharing my writing with friends and family, but sharing my writing is very hard for me now. You wouldn't believe how many times I edited my first two blogs. The anxiety of clicking the Publish Post button was just too much. I almost immediately clicked Edit Posts. However, it is reassuring to hear my fellow teachers admit they feel similarly.

I do model my writing with my students, but only once in a great while. I am much more likely to model revising techniques with my class. Which seems funny, because you couldn't ask for a more compassionate audience then your own students.

I recently asked my students to write a 100 word story. They could choose the topic, but it had to include 100 of something in the story and had to have exactly 100 words. I thought this would be a perfect time to model my own writing with my class, so I got out my computer and not one word processing application worked. Just ask Bill! More surprising is that I was genuinely disappointed. I think that's a good sign. As for my students, I could tell that only a few found the writing to be too broad and needed more control. We discussed how they problem solved if the words were more or less then 100. Here were some responses: I made a contraction, I changed several words to this, I added more to my story. What a great way to have students learn to revise.

I agree with the author about connecting reading and writing. As we read a novel in class, we will discuss the language the author used. I feel I need to take better advantage of modeling my own reading more when my students read.

I never gave it much thought about why I teach writing the way I do. After this chapter and taking note of the author's suggestion to pay attention to my own writing process, it makes sense to me. My daughter always struggled when her teachers asked her to brainstorm using a web. Her web always became linear. I would reassured her that that happens to me. We both like to write and revise as we go. If we do, then surely my students have their own style. I now approach the traditional writing process as one model I teach my students, not the model.