Just Keep Writing (Bonus Blog)



In high school, my freshman year writing teacher assigned us our writing project at the beginning of the year. Each quarter, we were required to write 6 pieces. We could write about whatever we wanted, but we had to have one narrative, one persuasive essay, and one analytical essay per quarter. He wanted us to simply write. He told us that they would not be graded and that he probably wouldn’t even read all of them. He just wanted us to write, and write some more. By the end of the year, we had to compile all of our writing into a portfolio and create a summative video explaining our growth as a writer. My 3-inch binder was stuffed from cover to cover with drafts, revisions, final copies, notes, and feedback from peers and my teacher. I was so proud of this final product. Reading Christensen’s chapters on engaging with student work reminded me of this, and encouraged me to go back and find the video that I created. Here’s the link if anyone wants to watch it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4BEtyNwDRA


As I went back to watch how I grew over my Freshman year, I was reminded of the writing process and growth that I went through in High School. If it wasn’t for my teacher encouraging me to write, I don’t think that I would enjoy writing as much as I do today. As noted in my video, my teacher also encouraged us to engage in using digital media, and this is definitely a project idea that I will use in my future classroom.


I think the fact that the majority of our writing wasn’t graded really encouraged me to write more and focus on my ideas and writing skills rather than creating a specific piece for the teacher to read. While we still had other writing assignments that were graded throughout the year, the majority of our writing wasn’t even read by our teacher. I think that a lot of students in my class were able to learn from this experience and grow as writers. Christensen says that “instead of rewarding or punishing students with grades, I believe that we need to create situations where students learn to care about the work they procedure”. I think that my Freshman Year English teacher really encompassed this idea, as he really encouraged us to write, write and write, and not worry about grades. As a future writing teacher, I think that this is so important, and is something that we discussed last week when we talked about Emergent Bilinguals. Just like how EB’s need to be encouraged to just write without worrying about grammar and structure at first, the same can be said for native writers as well. Once students become comfortable with the writing process and expressing their ideas, they will be more likely to accept feedback from both peers and adults. As mentioned in the video for this week, grading is important, but it should not be the only way that students are assessed in the class. I like how the video reinforced the idea that an intended summative assessment can become a formative assessment if it seems like students need to improve on specific skills, and this is something that I will remember as I plan my meaningful writing project.


Writing does not always have to be graded, and when students are given the opportunity to just write, it helps them to gain confidence in their abilities on their own without needing to rely on a grade.
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