Many of the ideas in the book corraborated ideas that I have read about previously in books that I have self-selected to improve as a writing teacher. However, the chapters often made me reconsider or refine a concept or to see how multiple ideas worked together. One example is that the course has made me think a lot about writing to learn. Previously I thought about writing instruction as more isolated. While I knew students did a lot of writing in other content areas, I never considered the writing to learn pieces as part of my actual writing class and writing grade. This concept came up in the book as well.
Our instructor has had us participate in many writing to learn activities, including the one for this text, called VIPs (Very Important Points). I enjoyed finding my personal VIPs for the text as I read and to reflect on them. I realized that it is actually the way I reflect on most of the books that I blog about. Here are a couple of my favorite VIPs from the book:
*From Chapter 10 - Boscolo and Gelati (2007), “The problem is not finding an interesting topic, but making writing interesting” (p. 208). This really stood out to me. They continued to discuss that while making sure students are interested and invested in their topic is important, helping them recognize that there is worth to writing on the topic is key to motivation. I have found that one of the main components that makes professional development reading ideas catch my attention is not that they are completely foreign ideas, but rather they help me make a new connection to something I have already thought about. It reminds me of King’s (2000) comment on writing, “good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up" (25). I had previously thought a lot about topic and motivation, but I loved how the authors made me think about making writing about a topic interesting, rather than “interesting topics”. This makes sense, as many of the resources I have read emphasize the importance of teachers who are passionate about writing and how their enthusiasm positively impacts their students’ growth as writers. In this case two previously unconnected ideas came together for me, and I will be reflecting on how I can make writing interesting for quite a while because of the connection.
(Note: The King book that I mentioned is On Writing, the book that I chose for the class' book club selection.)
*From Chapter 1 - Pressley, et al. (2007) state, “If there is one generalization about writing in our work, it is that in classrooms and schools with good writing, there is a lot of writing instruction from teachers who are passionate about it” (18). When I was in college I remember dreading my writing classes. I only took the discourse (a combination of literature and writing) track, instead of the literature track because it was recommended for future language arts teachers. However, now that I am actually teaching writing and reading about writing, the more I find myself reconnecting with the passionate writer that my mom says I was when I was very young. I am already committed to making sure that I have a balance of reading and writing in my classroom on a daily basis. The more I find ways to foster my love of writing, the more effective teacher I will be able to be. This is a concept that no matter how many years I teach it will always be useful and applicable.
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