Leading the Charge 

            The term Social Justice Warrior or SJW is often used as a derogatory term given to a person that promotes socially progressive views. When tasked with coming up with ways in which teaching authentic writing can promote social justice, I immediately came up with the idea of changing this term into Social Justice Writers. This train of thought led me further into thinking about the age-old quote “the pen is mightier than the sword” and how currently, social justice writing is of the upmost importance. As future teachers of writing, we have a unique responsibility to arm our students with the tools necessary to become critical thinkers who challenge the social standards present within our society. That sounds like an overwhelming task, however, by simply teaching our students the value of authentic writing and their value as writers, change is more likely to happen.

Everyone Can Be a SJW

            As I mentioned in my previous blog post, drawing from the guiding principles of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), one of the single, most important things we can instill in our students is that they are all writers. Not only is this a great thing to teach students for them to become better writers, but it also can teach them how to find and use their voice. Obviously, I am not talking about simply their ability to speak but rather how to take what they believe and their experiences and turn it into words on a page. Some students might have great things to say but have trouble articulating themselves and getting their words out. Other students might have great things to say but aren’t confident enough say them. In most cases, students who are only taught traditional writing are rarely given the opportunity to use their own voice and speak up. Therefore, we must teach our students the value of authentic writing, or “real writing, written for a real audience, for a real purpose, in a real forum” as defined by Leila Christenbury and Ken Lindblom in their book Continuing the Journey 2: Becoming a Better Teacher of Authentic Writing. As teachers of authentic writing, we have the ability to unlock our students’ power to convey their thoughts and feelings effectively through writing while also giving them confidence necessary to do so.  

            Along with ensuring that our students believe that they are writers, we also have to make sure that we engage our students in a way that allows all of their voices to be heard. Another important guiding principle from the NCTE is Principle 2.2: Writers bring multiliteracies, and they bring cultural and linguistic assets to whatever they do:

“Writers also bring their past writing and reading practices with them whenever they write or read. In short, everything they have experienced, who they are, where they have been, and what they have done impact their writing practices, literacies, and language attitudes.”

This is pivotal in viewing writing as a form of social justice because it highlights how writing is closely linked to identity. This principle also notes how writers are influenced by their experiences, whether positive or negative, which sometimes leads to writing being more emotionally impactful. However, the type of traditional writing instruction present in schools normally hinders students’ abilities to write about themselves, their emotions, their opinions or many other aspects linked to their identity. Traditional writing in the classroom is normally formal, impersonal, and lacking any depth beyond constructing an argument. Therefore, as teachers of authentic writing, we have to ensure that we give our students the tools and opportunities necessary for them to properly express their unique identities.

SJWs Express Themselves

           By allowing students to express themselves in their writing, they might learn how to speak up for themselves and articulate their emotions in a larger way. Jim Burke, author of The Six Academic Writing Assignments: Designing the User’s Journey, writes about how it is important for teachers to remember the three H’s – the head (intellect), heart (emotions), and hands (skills) – in mind when creating assignments. Although he was referring specifically to a yearlong research project he had his students complete, I find the three H’s to be an important guide to keep in mind when creating any writing assignment. Students are often only asked to focus on the head and the hands, but very rarely their heart. This can possibly be attributed to the fact that teachers may not want to open the floor to uncomfortable discussions surrounding emotions. However, sometimes part of teaching authentic writing IS to be uncomfortable with subject matter and that is perfectly okay as it emulates writing in the real world.

            In her 2019 blog post titled “Emotion and Intellect: An Unconventional Pair” for Writers Who Care, Cait O’Connor writes extensively about the importance and power of allowing students to express their emotions in writing. She states:

“Allow students to be angry, upset, sad, and emotional in their authentic writing. Because if they’re one or a few of these things when they write about an issue they care about, it’s probably because it affects them personally. And who are we to taper down their experiences, especially if those experiences have to do with racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and ageism?”

I thought this was a really powerful quote because by not allowing our students to discuss their feelings in their writing, we are in some way contributing to their oppression. Students who are taught to express themselves in their writing can begin to realize the importance of what they have to say and can in turn help others who have gone through similar experiences. This type of discourse is the basis for many social movements as people facing similar types of oppression begin to share experiences and come together to overcome them.

SJWs Identify, Speak Up and Overcome  

            In the real world, we need to be able to properly identify things that make us uncomfortable so we can figure out how to overcome that feeling. If something is bothering a student, they should be allowed to properly express themselves through their writing. Jim Burke also excels at this and includes many of his students’ voices throughout his book. He asks them about their thoughts on specific assignments, but more importantly, how they FEEL about the assignments. This type of discussion with students is almost unheard of but is essential in creating critical thinkers and people that might be more likely to speak up when dealing with things that they don’t like. It also goes a long way into promoting equity and fairness in the classroom by letting every student be heard and have a say in the way their writing instruction continues. This can also empower students to recognize that their voices matter and that they deserve to be treated fairly and with respect inside and outside the classroom.

            To continue my previous point, Jim emphasizes the importance of real writing by explaining:

“That spirit of engagement, the feeling that writing should be for real purposes to real people, that it can make a difference, can make things happen, is the reason that I design alternative writing assignments when I can and that I regularly bring into the classroom examples of writing from the real world that demonstrate and remind students of its importance.”

I think this quote highlights that a) Writing in the classroom is necessary to prepare our students for their lives outside of it and b) That writing does have the power to cause real change in the world. One example given by Leila Christenbury and Ken Lindblom in their book involved elementary school students that were fed up with the quality of the “mushy string beans” they were being served at lunch. The second-grade students wound up writing letters to the lunchroom manager and not only had the menu changed, but also were given the chance to taste the other available vegetables to find a suitable replacement. This story stood out to me because the students in this example were children and they were able to change something significant in their world through the power of authentic writing. If students at such a young age are able to cause change, imagine the change that students entering the world beyond the classroom can cause if they are taught authentic writing effectively.

To Arms!

            By teaching our students authentic writing, we are effectively giving them the tools necessary to cause real change in the world. Skills such as knowing how to write for specific audiences, expressing and articulating feelings in writing and understanding the close link between writing and identity are all things that students can learn through authentic writing. With those skills, we as teachers have the potential to arm our students with the tools necessary to create a fair and equitable world within the classroom and beyond.

Ready, Set… 

            One of the most important things that we can teach our students as teachers of authentic writing is that they are ALL writers. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) even lists this as one of their guiding principles. Under Principle 2.1: Everyone is a writer, they state: “Everyone has the capacity to write. Writers are not static. They develop skills and enhance their writing skills throughout their writing lives; thus, writers grow continually. Becoming a better writer requires practice. The more writers write, the more familiar it becomes. As writers, sometimes they feel confident; at other times, they may feel afraid and insecure. Therefore, students learn to write by writing.” Therefore, the importance of us as teachers to instill confidence in our students can’t be overlooked. Here are five things I believe we can do as teachers to ensure that they not only begin to view themselves as writers, but also gain confidence in themselves as writers:

And Away We Go…

1. Asking students what type of writing they do in their daily lives is effective in showing them that they are already writers.

            One of the most prominent forms of writing most students already engage in is social media writing. However, many students might not even consider this to be a form a real writing. As Ken Lindblom wrote in his 2015 post for the blog Writers Who Care, “Some may scoff at the significance of social media writing, but when students write on social media they are devising something to say, considering how to best say it to their intended audience, and they engage the results of their writing (that is, they either see that they are understood or they must rewrite it, so they are understood). This is real writing.”  Therefore, if this is explained to students, they might begin to reassess their roles as writers and begin to change their views on what constitutes real writing.

2. Exposing students to various forms of writing and having them emulate these forms can be effective.

            Just as the NCTE notes, writing is all about practice and writing in different forms can help students prepare for writing outside of the classroom as well. In another Writers Who Care post from 2014 titled Writing in the Work World, the authors Ann D. David, Dorothy Meiburg Weller, and Amber Funderburgh list a range of writing found from various areas of work. Compiling a list such as the one featured in the aforementioned blog post might help students who don’t believe that they are writers or that they will need writing in the future reconsider their position. This type of exposure to writing can also allow students to write to different audiences, something that traditional writing instruction fails to include as students are exclusively asked to only write to their teacher.

3. Talking with students throughout their writing processes is a great way to make them feel like real writers.

            Just like in the real world, a writing process normally involves a multitude of people fulfilling various roles. Unfortunately, the writing process most students are used to is a very lonely experience. By simply asking students how their process is going, they will begin to view themselves as writers who belong to a larger writing community. Jim Burke excels at this and even includes his students’ voices in his book The Six Academic Writing Assignments: Designing the User’s Journey. These accounts from students exemplify how effective this method is in getting students to talk and think like real writers. I might implement this by sitting with students one-on-one and simply asking them how their writing process is going. Students are very rarely asked questions about assignments directly and by giving them that opportunity it can allow them to start thinking metacognitively about their writing.

4. Creating a writing community within the classroom is of the upmost importance when trying to get students to view themselves as real writers.          

            One of my favorite aspects of writing is getting to collaborate with others, something I really didn’t start doing until I entered college. When I used to follow my writing process alone, I would constantly feel insecure in what I was writing, and that doubt would sometimes have a negative impact on the final product. By collaborating with others, I am able to get feedback and revise things that are unclear to the reader. Furthermore, by having another person read my work out loud, I am able to pick up on things that are awkward or need further clarification. Therefore, if students feel like they belong to a writing community and collaborate with one another frequently, they will begin to feel, think and act like real writers.

5. Modeling your own writing process in front of students can help them view themselves as real writers and further the creation of a positive writing community.

            Oftentimes, students view their teachers as all-knowing and infallible beings that exist only to educate. By modeling a writing process for our students, they will begin to realize that teachers are people just like them and can make mistakes. Modeling also comes with the chance that students will see their teacher perform something similar to their own writing process which can give them confidence in their own writing. It also opens the floor for students to provide feedback to a person in a position of authority which can help them realize they are real writers with a voice that matters and help them address a different audience.

To Infinity and Beyond!

            The list of ways we as teachers can help students feel like, think like, and talk like real writers is impossible to capture in a single blog post. I think the single most important thing we as teachers can instill in our students’ heads is that we don’t have to teach them how to be writers because they already are writers. Our job is to get them to internalize that feeling and give them the confidence necessary for them to continue to succeed as writers.

My Thoughts So Far

            Hey everyone! I hope you are all staying healthy and are safe at home. On the bright side, having all of this extra time at home is great to catch up on some reading and writing. Currently, as many of you reading this already know, we are reading The Six Academic Writing Assignments: Designing the User’s Journey by Jim Burke in class. I really appreciate the amount of detail that Jim goes into regarding each of the writing assignments he discusses. In some instances, I find that he almost goes into too much detail and I find myself having to stop reading in order to really absorb what I just read. Two of my favorite things that Jim includes are his explanations of how he uses each of the assignments within his own classroom and the feedback from his students. I found that both of these inclusions are extremely valuable in generating ideas for my own future classroom and hammering in the fact that every assignment we create should be for a purpose and beneficial to our students.

My Three Takeaways

On that note, here are three things from the chapters we have read so far that I want to remember in the future:

            1. First and foremost, from the introduction onward, I love that Jim keeps reiterating how we as teachers should view our students as “users – of our courses, materials, texts, and tools” and ourselves as “designers – who are charged with the task of removing from their journey through our curriculum what designers call ‘friction points’ that can undermine student’s learning and performance” (2). Going off this principle, Jim approaches each writing assignment with those ideas in mind and even explains his own design process for each. I can say from my own experience with lesson planning that it is extremely easy to lose sight of the purpose of a lesson during the design process. I can recall times where I spent too much time focusing on trying to create a fun lesson that when it came time to share what I came up with I couldn’t answer what the lesson was meant to accomplish. Therefore, I think Jim’s comparison of teachers as designers is extremely important to remember and should be at the forefront when coming up with lessons.

            2. Second, in Jim’s discussion of short answer assignments in chapter two, I loved his breakdown of the different levels of questions we should be asking out students. The different levels, found on page 61, are as follows:

• Before Beginning to Read: These questions are used to activate connections in the reader’s brain before reading to frame the text within a larger inquiry or purpose.
• On the Surface: These are literal or factual questions one can find answers to on the page.
• Below the Surface: These questions mirror those on the SAT, ACT, AP, or state standard exams, as they emphasize close reading.
• Above and Beyond the Surface:These questions involve critical reading and thus ask students to make connections with other texts, current and historical events, etc.

The aim of designing questions in this way, as Jim describes, is to give them some basis of logic and structure, rather than just asking easy questions with no real purpose other than to test if students have completed the assigned reading. I found this section to be worth remembering as well because it’s a great example of scaffolding by helping student’s work up to the harder, more critical thinking-oriented questions. This type of structure is definitely worth thinking about when designing any lesson or assignment.

            3. Finally, when discussing writing on demand or timed assignments, Jim notes that these types of assignments are often considered the hardest and most anxiety-inducing. To this day I still have trouble with writing on demand as I normally spend a lot of time brainstorming before I begin an assignment. I sometimes beat myself up after submitting a timed writing assignment because I remember important details I wanted to include after the fact. Therefore, this fact wasn’t necessarily surprising, but I think it is something to keep in mind when designing any type of assignment, especially timed ones. Jim gives some great examples of how to alleviate some of this anxiety such as allowing students to refer to their notes and giving them handouts as guides in order to provide them support when approaching writing on demand assignments.

In conclusion…

            Overall, I am excited to continue to read the rest of this book as I definitely think it will be a valuable resource to have in the future. I can see myself referring back to it when I need specific information about designing assignments that are integral to an English class. However, the main point that I keep replaying in my mind is to talk to and listen to students. Ultimately, it is their education and we as teachers have to make sure we are providing the best education, or experience as Jim would say, possible for them. I look forward to reading what everyone else came up with for their three takeaways and I hope everyone continues to stay healthy!

Preface:           

              As I was thinking about writing this post, my immediate thought was that I wanted to remember everything we have learned so far. I wish it was possible for me to remember every sentence down to the punctuation, however, I know that is unrealistic. Instead, I had to sift through everything we have discussed thus far to try and pull out the details I found most important. I am sure this list will change as we move closer towards the end of the semester (I can’t believe we are already almost halfway done!) but here are three things I hope to remember when I am teaching writing in the future.

Things to Remember:

1. It is not only okay, but also encouraged to take risks when teaching in general but especially when it comes to teaching authentic writing. I will be the first person to admit that I am the dictionary definition of a perfectionist. I hardly ever stray from my routines and the thought of failing at anything gives me more anxiety than the times I was running late for an important exam. Therefore, I think that this point is something that I also have to internalize to benefit myself in the classroom and beyond. I believe students should recognize that failure is one of the greatest teachers and when it comes to writing, sometimes the scariest risks result in the best rewards. I would even argue that because authentic writing is intended to be real writing, it is almost impossible to not take risks.

2. Along with taking risks, it is important to teach students that authentic writing can have real consequences. Both of these two traits go hand in hand; taking a risk literally means exposing oneself to danger and authentic writing is no exception. In Chapter 4 of Continuing the Journey 2: Becoming a Better Teacher of Authentic Writing, Professor Lindblom and Leila Christenbury describe one of these “nightmare scenarios” on page 62. This point lends to my own issues with taking risks, however, I would make sure my students are mindful of the consequences that could arise from their own authentic writing. Furthermore, I would ensure that this point does not dissuade them from taking risks and remind them that risk is one thing that makes authentic writing so exciting.

3. Finally, to piggyback off my second point, I want to remember that collaborating and running ideas by other teachers and administrators is a beneficial tactic. This doesn’t necessarily have to do with direct instruction of authentic writing; however, I think it is an important point to remember and reaffirms what makes teaching so great: collaborating and sharing ideas with others. Whether this collaboration is between teachers and students or teachers and administrators, I think it goes a long way into creating a positive learning environment for everyone involved. It also allows any possible issues with an authentic writing assignment to be identified before they can manifest outside of the classroom.

Moving Forward:

            As I said in the preface of this post, I am sure that this list of points will change as the semester continues. As I mentioned in both of my previous blog posts, I am constantly learning new things and being challenged on what I thought I already knew about teaching authentic writing. The further we continue in this class, the more confident I am becoming in my knowledge and ability to teach students how to write. I look forward to revisiting this post later on in the semester and seeing how or if this list has changed!

            I don’t know about anybody else, however, my expectations going into this class have been completely thrown out the window. While reading the prompt for this assignment, I struggled for awhile to come up with something to write about; not because I haven’t learned anything, rather there is so much I have to UNLEARN. Now that we are going into week four of class, I feel like there are already so many things I thought I knew about teaching writing that have been challenged or outright refuted. I expected to learn how to effectively teach students “important” skills such as the five-paragraph essay 🤢 or how to only prepare students for standardized tests 🤮. I am not only relieved, but also excited that this is not the case and that this course encompasses so much more than what I expected.

            One of the major things I’ve learned so far is what authentic writing truly is. As defined by Professor Lindblom and Leila Christenbury in their book Continuing the Journey 2: Becoming a Better Teacher of Authentic Writing, “authentic writing is real writing, written for a real audience, for a real purpose, in a real forum.” (pg. 6) Almost every part of this definition immediately struck me with a question: What is considered real writing? What is a real audience? What kind of purpose can classroom writing serve?

It was then that I realized just how outdated and uninspired my idea of writing in school truly was. However, I think my previous teachers are more to blame for that considering only a select few ever taught me the importance of writing in a non-academic setting.

            I’ve always enjoyed writing, so I never really had an issue with writing assignments in high school. Yet, I can totally see how students who self-position themselves (I believe I am x, therefore I am x) as poor writers and don’t enjoy writing kind of become a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers do not show them the real world application of writing. Therefore, I believe introducing our future students to authentic writing AND ensuring that all our students know that they all have the capacity to write (NCTE: Guiding Principle 2.1: Everyone is a writer.) are effective ways to engage and motivate our students to become better writers.

            Another thing that I have learned that coincides with my previous point is the ability to give students more agency when it comes to how they are assessed. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, as a future teacher I am really concerned about unintentionally being too harsh when grading my students’ writing.

That is why I absolutely loved the process of creating a student-teacher rubric as demonstrated in one of our previous classes. I thought this was such a wonderful idea to not only allow students to be involved in their own grading process, but also for the teacher to have a better understanding of what the students’ expectations are.

            According to a post on the website Teachers First, this type of process has also proven to engage and motivate students to want to complete the assignment due to it being intrinsically motivating. Although I’d imagine this type of process can backfire in some cases where students don’t take it seriously (“Just give us all A’s!”), I believe it has the potential to reshape the structure of the writing community within a classroom.

            As we continue our journey (see what I did there?) in this class, I am excited to have more of my thoughts challenged and learn more skills to be an effective teacher of writing.