“QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You learn to write by writing. It’s a truism, but what makes it a truism is that it’s true. The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.” –William Zinsser in On Writing Well.”
This was part of Stacey’s call to post quotes this morning! Do you REALLY believe it? What’s the evidence? Is it the number of words you write? Is it the amount of time you write?
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Acceptable Evidence?
Is your threshold for evidence AT LEAST what you would expect from your students? Think about how often you require students to write “on demand” . . .
“Daily journal?”
But . . . they get to choose what they write about!
“It’s still an on demand.”
“Weekly probe?”
“But that’s required for IEP/Progress Monitoring . . . “
“Whatever you “require” for your students, you should meet or exceed as the teacher! The March Challenge to write for 31 days straight is basically equal to requiring a weekly on demand during the school year. And think of the stamina that is built up.”
Are you writing as much as your students?
Should you be writing MORE?
Check out the writers, readers and teachers here. Thanks to Stacey, Anna, Beth, Tara, Dana and Betsy at “Two Writing Teachers” for creating a place for us to share our work.
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You are “write”. Kids are influenced by seeing their teacher’s writing. It’s an important ingredient. I think sometimes we don’t fully get what we are asking unless we are also doing it beside them. – Great post.
Thank you!
I think we “forget” the learning side unless we also participate in the “timed” write or literally work through the assessment ourselves. What would the final “outcome” really look like?
And as a former special ed. teacher who used weekly probes (required), I owe a whole bunch of writing! ❤
Interesting, Fran. I never considered that we should measure our own writing up against our students’ writing. I, myself, don’t use word counts, but I prefer to measure my writing in how much time each day I devote to it. Do I devote as much as I would demand of my students? Yes, I think so.
I’ll have to share this thinking with teachers…
Dana,
My writing count would be in “arrears” as I assigned writing for years without writing myself – and to my least “able” students! 😦 I am working on not having a negative balance!
I am not saying that it would need to be a minute by minute match. However, I would use it as an argument that teachers of writing MUST also be writers! (I’m not seeing that.)
What wonderful questions you pose. Time for me to change my behaviors!
Yup…I write more than my kids, which is okay by me. The fact that they know I write is huge – this gives me credibility.
This is so true. The beauty of SOL is it supports authentic writing for us – writing teachers… I too assigned writing for too long and am writing “in arrears”. At least I “Be writing” now. Writing for an audience is inherently different than “just writing”. It’s a whole new ballgame. And I am certain we are better writing teachers for it.
TThanks, Dayna!
I so want our students to have the joy of “Writing for an Audience” as well! It’s just more purposeful and also encourages taking risks and stretching ourselves!