Looking back at my experiences in English, I realized that I have always loved reading. It’s a part of who I am. I inhale books. My students are amazed with all the books I read and how fast. We have a challenge going; they are setting their goal to read 100 pages or more a week (some have goals of 400 pgs!) if I keep up with my goal of 600. The point is, I’m a reader, of almost every kind of book out there. I love love love reading and how it helps me go to new worlds and introduces me to new ideas and ways of thinking. Each book becomes a part of who I am. (Sidenote: I just read “The Hunger Games” this week- really interesting in a disturbing way–I really hope it will become a series!)
On the other hand, I’ve never felt like a writer.
When I was younger, between 13-17, I wrote a lot of short stories and poetry on my own. Lots of teenage angst and drama. But I rarely showed it to anyone because I was embarrassed about how horrible it was. I did it just for myself–not something I would ever seriously consider “writing.”
And, I mean, naturally, I write papers. You can’t make it through high school or college without writing those. And it’s definitely a kind of writing. I even was in journalism in high school and enjoyed that. But I never felt like my teachers encouraged me to be a writer. We wrote a lot, but I never felt like anything I wrote really translated into my own life. Then in my English Education classes in college, suddenly we were told to focus on our students; focus on encouraging them to feel like they were writers and had more control of what they were writing, and how it was useful to them.
This year in my own teaching, I’m trying to teach that to my 7th graders. I want them to feel like writers. I want to encourage them and conference with them, but it’s hard because I didn’t have that when I was growing up. My teachers were supportive and wonderful in their own ways, but we never had things like “writing workshops” or “mini-lessons” in writing.
What really got me thinking about my own writing was something that happened this week. We’ve been alternating talking about poetry and persuasive writing. We have “mini-lessons” were for 15-20 minutes, I focus on just one aspect of writing/poetry and THEN students have time to write in their notebooks and revise the work that they have, using the different lessons. In the middle of one of the poetry lessons, one of my students asked, “Could we see some of your poetry?” And it happened in more than one class. And the kids got really excited about seeing my own writing.
It’s been awhile since I wrote for myself. In college, I rarely had a time or chance to. The time I felt the most secure in writing was in my Shakespeare class and my professor told me that my papers could be worked into an honors thesis. Maybe I should take up Jared’s suggestion and start writing seriously again. He finds my ideas entertaining. 🙂 And I really did love writing, and do, if I just had enough time!