Teachers Write! Reflections So Far

Four days into the Teachers Write! summer institute hosted by Kate Messner, I wanted to pause to collect my thoughts thus far. After setting up my plan and writing about my childhood kitchen Monday evening, I have enjoyed the last three mornings starting my day by writing. I mentioned in my first post that I would want to reflect about what I am learning about myself as a writer in the process means for me as a writing workshop teacher.

Tuesday I completed the quick write related to location. I found myself writing about two different locations and then writing a list of other places that I could write about. I listed out different communities in which I have lived and listed out various locations. This process was the opposite of what I typically have my students do. I often lead them through a list before choosing ideas to do a quick write. I consider the list first as allowing them to think of many ideas and then having more thoughts collected to begin writing; however, now I am thinking about the possibilities of just choosing whatever first comes to mind and writing and how that process can prime the writer for then going to list out other possibilities. I am also thinking about mapping out/sketching the locations as I always enjoy.

This week is making me think about how often when I am in a timed situation that I do a quick list before transitioning to something else in order to capture all of those thoughts swirling around in my mind. I will also consider the implications for this in my classroom - allowing students to quickly jot down concluding thoughts before transitioning to the next class or to the next component of the day.

Yesterday I went back to the YA novel that I started a couple of  years ago. Each time I come back to it, I have to take some initial time to get to know my characters again and to remember what I even wrote in the first place! Each time this has happened, I realize how much I enjoy these characters. This time as I started re-reading I had my notebook in hand and started multiple pages - pages about characters, a page with questions I have, a page with areas I should research... I am finding that I am viewing the process different because of the entries on Ruth Ayres' blog and the way in which she talks about getting to know her characters.

Today I completed the quick write prompt from Margo Sorenson. It was related to a student in a library. I automatically knew that I wanted to write based on what a couple of former students mentioned in my dissertation interviews about their transition to high school. One did not go to the library all year because he was unsure of the whole process and another who disregarded it as not having his type of books after going to scan the shelves once. Both were avid readers who stopped reading because of access to books. I found that as I was doing my quick write, it seems flat. It does not have that strong voice yet. I realized that it was more about collecting the ideas.

As I was writing about how this composite character might have approached the library, I thought of how it would be nice to complement it with those who did go to the library regularly and who did find books that motivated them to read. One of my students did not go to the library until close to the end of the school year, but she mentioned another former student had been going since the start of the year. I started to imagine what it would have been like for that former student, considering it was probably a comfort zone with her transition.

I want to come back to these quick writes and develop them further - to consider their unique voices. I have always loved writing from multiple perspectives. Right now they are both in first person. I might even set it up where they see each other in the library. I am not sure whether or not they will interact. I will have to decide whether or not they know each other. So many thoughts and questions about who these characters are. That thinking will help lead me from my flat writing to writing with more voice. Part of the challenge is being inspired by the real life teens in my life but then disconnecting a bit in order to let the characters take shape as their own unique selves.

Thank you Kate, Margo, and all of the other authors who are contributing to the institute. It is definitely helping me stretch as a writer and reflect on implications for my classroom!