Inspired to Write
Elizabeth Stevens is a fourth grade teacher at Madison Country Day School. In this guest post, she reflects on writing beside her students.
“What’s your homework tonight?” my fourth grade students ask me with a teasing twinkle in their eyes, as they finish writing in their assignment notebooks. Another school day is nearing a close. “Do you have homework to do at home?” they ask me.
I used to answer this question with my own teasing twinkle and my standard response: “I’ve already done fourth grade seven times — once as a student and six times as a teacher. I’ve learned a lot and done my share of fourth grade homework. Now it’s your turn.”
Yet this fall, it’s been different. Spurred on by my participation in the Greater Madison Writing Project summer institute, I’ve decided to challenge myself to write alongside my students. Yes, I have copies of my own writing in my file cabinet, neatly saved in folders labelled according to the various writing units I teach. And yes, it is faster to reach in and grab these old writing samples, project them up from my document camera, and teach the lessons that have now become so familiar to me. However, I have a hunch that what I gain in ease (and lack of homework), I lose in authenticity. So I’m taking a fresh go at my own writing classes this year. Pull up a chair and let me tell you some of the benefits I’ve seen in my teaching and in my students’ writing.
Benefit #1: These Lessons Are Real
No longer do I stand in front of my class as the expert who has conquered today’s lesson, like, five years ago, and has hung around to inspire yet another group of children to do the same in their own writing. Now I am a struggling writer right alongside them, experiencing all the painful stops and starts of ideas, the messy drafts with entire paragraphs x-ed out, the pressure of an upcoming deadline to meet, the perfect word just out of brain-shot, and very little clue how to express what I really want to say. I may very well be the person in the room who most needs to hear my writing lesson and apply it to my own writing. And because I now teach from a place in the trenches alongside other brave writers daring to tell their stories, I can more clearly see what we all need and we can go after it together.
Benefit #2: I Feel Their Struggles
How many times have I conferred with students who weren’t sure how to get started or what to write next, so I offered them pat suggestions that seemed like the right thing to say? That’s about all I had to offer when I hadn’t tried my own hand at what they’re attempting for years and I couldn’t clearly remember the process I’d gone through when I was in their shoes. Now I’m laboring through my own writing pieces, feeling the process of it all over again. I’m the one sharing my partially-written paragraphs with the preface, “Okay, this is what I’ve got so far. I know it’s not quite what I want it to be, and I’m not sure what to write next, but maybe you’ll be able to help me today.” My ability to empathize with them as a fellow writer is creating a stronger sense of community in our writer’s workshop. We share our own tips, processes, and feedback with each other; the lines between mentor and mentees are blurring in a way that gives us all confidence to take risks and try using words differently without fear of getting it wrong or displeasing the teacher.
Benefit #3: I Get an Inside-Look at Our Writing Curriculum
Over the years that I’ve worked at my school, my grade-level partner and I have written unit plans for the writing units we teach, modified from the popular curriculum of Lucy Calkins and Teachers College in New York City. Writing these unit plans has been no small feat, yet most of my work on these units has been through the lens of a teacher. Writing through these units has allowed me to see them through a new perspective: that of a student. It’s been a very helpful process to consider whether the order and structure of our units makes sense and is useful to a budding writer. It’s been instructive to use the editing checklists and grading rubrics we’ve constructed as tools to assist my own writing process. I can honestly say that I feel more confident of what and how we teach because I’ve experienced it from the inside. I can see what works for writers and tweak what doesn’t.
Benefit #4: I’m Becoming an Artist
In the busy, fast-paced day of a teacher, there seems little time to slow down and craft something beautiful. Writing alongside my students is giving me that opportunity. I have the luxury of pondering my own ideas, considering my interests, meandering down paths I’ve not spent much time on before, and putting some of this thinking onto paper. The words I carefully select, the pictures I paint with layers of description, the writing styles I mimic, these creative dabblings inspire me. They give me joy and enthusiasm for teaching, which enlivens my lessons and conversations with students. I’m growing as a writer myself and sharing out of the overflow of my own artistic experience.
So, what’s my homework tonight? “The same as yours. I’ll see you in class tomorrow and we’ll share what we’ve written.”
