Monday Musing - March 11, 2013

Writer's Block

While having a mental block of not feeling like I have anything worthy of sharing with you all in a Monday Musings post (because I've spent my weekend in a book entirely for pleasure, not thinking of anything school-related) it made me think about our students having writers block, not knowing what they should write about. This immediately led my thoughts to modeling writing for our students in an authentic way, which I learned from Regie Routman. (Unfortunately for the students I taught it was after I already moved into the principal role).

When I taught writing, I modeled the writing process for my students; however, I modeled how to write a piece that I had already previously planned out before.  I had completely gone through the writing process on my own, wrote my piece and then recreated the process in front of them so there was no authentic modeling or thinking out loud of writers actually do as they are trying to think of what to write.  How can our students learn to get through a writing struggle if it is never modeled for them?  In the book Writing Essentials, Regie Routman says, "One of the most powerful ways for students to grow as writers is to watch you write--to observe you plan, think, compose, revise, and edit right in front of them, pretty much off the cuff. Very few of us just write down page after flowing page. Students need to see and hear our in-the-head thinking as we change our mind, 'mess up,' make adjustments, do everything 'real writers' do." (page. 45).

So, how can you help model for students that may have writers block? This comes from constantly modeling for them and sharing yourself as a writer with them.  Start with a story...tell students a story that you want to write about.  On page 25, Reige writes to pick a story that:

• Is easy for students to relate to.
• Is appropriate to share with students.
• Is important to me.
• Lets students know more about me.
• Allows me to take some risks.

Tell students the story you have chosen. Routman writes, "saying the story outloud engages the students, lets me clarify my thinking, and reinforces the importance of conversation before writing."  Then take that story and model writing it in front of your students.  Write the story just as lively as you told it: include the details, descriptive words, or recreate the conversations you told.  

As you model this process for students throughout the year, they will continue to make the connection between reading and writing...writing is a way to tell stories for others to read.  They will learn how to use events from their lives or use what they are reading to inspire them to write. 

Have you written in front of your students before without having planned it? If not...try it. Take the plunge and share your writing struggle with students. 

(Please note-this post took me about 10 minutes...I opened it only having the idea of writing about writers block and helping our students.  I did not take time to thoroughly plan it out, I just wrote as if I was talking about it.  If I were doing in this in the classroom I would then tell students that I will need to go back to revise/edit later, but this was to just get my ideas out).