I define myself as a writer because I am blessed to be surrounded by people who write. I seek writers in my life, both those with whom I can write with at local coffee shops each week, and those that are a digital community that inspires and pushes my work in new and better directions. Writing can be a lonely process, and although we need those hours of independent time, I have discovered that better writing comes when I share my words with others.
My first vision of being a writer began in middle and high school, surrounded by teachers who let us read and write widely. I was lucky to have mentors then who valued creativity and had us write often. They created writing communities. As I became a teacher myself, I always strived to create spaces for students to share their words. Teaching in grades two through high school, no matter the grade level, writing and student’s voice has been part of every classroom in my thirty years as an educator. Over the years those communities became more student-centered as I becme a more confident teacher and writer. Becoming part of the San Diego Area Writing Project almost ten years ago gave me a group of writers and educators that push my thinking in what it means to be a writer, to help foster young writers and to create writing communities. Another community to support our work.
This summer I took the time to reflect again on what it means to create a writing community. I focused on the writing communities that support my personal writing and analyzed what elements are key to my own growth as a writer. Most recently, I have spent the past three years in writing my doctoral thesis. Academic writing was a new genre, and completing that thesis added yet another layer to my work as a writer. From that work I have learned much about what it means to revise and edit. I have learned from my dear mentor Nancy Frey to “never waste words”, meaning that if you delete an entire section for the moment, save it somewhere as it will foster new writing another time. I have learned from my writing sister Elvia that it takes determination and dedication and she leads us still in meeting each week to write and share our next projects. Diane Lapp challenged me to continue to write once I completed my doctorate because in her words, “why would you get your doctorate if you weren’t going to continue to publish?”. So I am ready now this fall to come back to this space, creating something new and I hope exciting for others to read.
On Monday a group of independent high school students will be coming to our classroom. My goal this year is to create a true writing community. I have found over my years of teaching and leading writers, that most students who come into my classroom do not see themselves as writers. When I hand out our blank journals at the beginning of the year, there is a myriad of feelings expressed from joy to avoidance to fear. Our first nine weeks is dedicated to the theme of identity. One way we will explore identity is defining our writing identity. We will be using the questions posed in this great post from the National Writing Project Fostering the Writing Identities of Teens in the ELA Classroom.
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One way to engage students in this kind of identity work is by asking them to both individually and collaboratively answer the following questions:
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How do you define a writer?
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Would you call yourself a writer? Why or why not?
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Do others describe you as a writer? Why or why not?
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Describe all of the things that you wrote today.
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What kinds of things do you like to write?
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What kinds of things do you struggle with in your writing?
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Why is it important to write?
To get the most out of these responses, we will be using these not only as writing prompts but discussion cues in our circles. The greatest challenge is to not use these just as a quick survey, but rather an opportunity for deeper discussion. These will be questions that we revisit over the course of the year together as a touchstone to determine how successful we are in creating and supporting this community.
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This year I am recording this journey of creating a writing community here in this space. I will be honest, it is a scary proposition. I know that we will face challenges, and sharing them out broadly it is my hope that we can develop a writing community here that supports writers and educators who are trying new things in their classrooms and writing spaces and we can support and challenge each other. Here is the post my students will see on the first day of class. It will be on our class webpage as a reminder of why we are here. What do you do to create a community of writers?
Create a Community Promise by Janet Ilko