Entry 2: Past and Current Practices of Writing

 As a young writer, one of the writing activities that I remember the most from my K-12 instruction was in the third grade when we had to write an, "All About Me" essay. As a young writer, and this is something I still catch myself doing now, I struggled the most with coming up with ideas for what to write, and when I eventually had those ideas, putting them in a cohesive, organizational pattern. One of the elements I experienced in my schooling to support this struggle is the second element that we spoke of in class, which is to give students choice when it comes to writing. I remember being so frustrated during any free-writes during class time when some of my teachers would simply instruct me to write with no direction at all. When it comes to writing, I think that though it may be nice to allow students to write whatever they want, some of those individuals need some choice as to what direction they can take their writing in. Tompkins writes that, "When students have opportunities to make choices, they're more motivated to succeed, and they develop a positive attitude towards writing" (Tompkins, 2012, p. 26). Once I was able to choose and experience this element in class, I found it much easier to pre-write and brain dump all of my ideas on to paper; I would do this by brainstorming and writing down any and all topics I could think of. As a writer now, even if I am not given a choice, I give myself choices and brainstorm as much as I can within each of those branches and make my choice from there. Once I was given time to write, I also recall experiencing element 3, response in the form of feedback. In many cases, I remember my teachers giving us one on one time to review what we had written and having someone else read my writing helped me to see organization patterns that went awry or deleting/adding information. 

As a teacher now, one element I have been utilizing is the first one we talked about during class, which is to give students time to write. During the beginning of my class, one of the first tasks we accomplish for the class period is a writing prompt. On the white board, I give my students an option of two different prompts they can write about, they just have to write continuously for 5 minutes. I typically write with them, and when the timer goes off, they have the option of reading off a small section of what they have written. While they do have to write about a topic for 5 minutes, they have the choice to defer to one prompt over the other and I love seeing the motivation come from my students when they pick their particular prompts...they get excited! Having students be motivated about writing is not something typically seen at the secondary level, but it is always pleasant to witness in my class. 

I have not had the experience of using a writing workshop quite yet in my classroom, but one element and feature I would love to use in the future comes from the chart that Tompkins uses on page 30. I have never used one of these charts before but being able to utilize this format in class the other night put into perspective how beneficial this could be to students of all ages who are in the writing process. Not only does this chart help the teacher note where you are in the writing process and guide you along the way, but to help the students utilize their time wisely and to plan ahead for where they will be going in the writing process.