A Writer's State of Mind

I started reading Penny Kittle’s Write Beside Them year or two ago when I first acknowledged that my approach to writing was not working for me or my students. I was bored and hated reading their essays, and they hated writing them. I did what I normally do when I’m stuck in my teaching, talk to friends and troll Amazon. When I started the book, I bought into her ideas on a superficial level. Yes, writing teachers should write, use mentor texts, and inspire students to write about topics in which they are passionate. At the time, though, I didn’t see how I could do that. I was overwhelmed juggling 4 different grade levels of English. After several chapters, I sat the book on my bookshelf; it collected dust.

A few days ago, I started Kittle’s book again. And this time, my experience is completely different. Below are some of the big takeaways from Kittle’s book:

• The process of writing and teaching writing is messy. In other words, there’s no one standardized approach that will magically make kids become better writers.
• Writing teachers must show kids how to write, teach the tools of good writing. Many teachers, including myself, assign writing.
• Kids learn about writing from studying authors. Mentor texts are a key part of a writing class.
• Student choice matters, a lot.

Now that I am writing everyday, workshopping my pieces, and sharing my writing, I am more open to writing with my students. Kittle’s ideas seem much more feasible. I’m in a writer’s state of mind.