Teaching Adolescent Writers: Chapter Four

(Page 84) “Let’s face it, our students will not be spending the rest of their lives reading Beowulf. But, hopefully, they will spend their adult lives reading books and magazines. By getting them to analyze real-world text, not only are we preparing them for their adult reading lives, but we are also providing them with interesting, relevant models.”

While I think it is important to tackle some tough stuff in class, I love that Gallagher explains the importance using of real-world texts. His point about Beowulf is on par. How many adults do you know who read that kind of stuff for pleasure? I bet most English teachers wouldn’t even read it if they weren’t teaching it. If we want our students to be readers once they get out of high school, we have to show them the types of things that are available. What better way to make them want to read—and improve their writing in the process—than to utilize real-world texts? After all, what are the chances that a student is ever going to write like Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)? And would we want them to write like that anyway? Heck, I’d have to reread their work a couple of times if they did!

I know many of us are readers, but many adults find themselves “too busy” to read long books but often read other short texts—newspapers, magazines, blogs (I’m partial to Reality Steve’s blog), etc.? By using these pieces in class we are able to expose students to texts that they may find appealing and continue to access outside of school. I hate that we are not able to get newspaper subscriptions at a discounted rate anymore. I used to have students read the newspaper religiously…granted, they were often hooked by the Sports section, but they were reading nonetheless. One of my students, Don (whose last name shall remain unwritten, but I suspect some of your know who he is) clearly developed the love of the newspaper while at school that carried on after he finished. He continued to read the paper well after he graduated—he called Pam one day about something he read two years after he finished at Airport. I’m certain that enjoyment of reading the newspaper would not have happened if he had not developed the habit at school. Using a variety of texts for pleasure reading, analysis, and writing models allows students to discover that there really is something out there for everyone to read.

I recently read Nicholas Sparks’s Dear John (2006). (I wanted to read it before seeing the movie…which I have still yet to do.) The main character, John, wasn’t the most stellar student in high school nor upstanding person once he graduated; he ended up joining the military to straighten himself out. Even though the book is fiction, something John said (wrote, technically) after being in the army resonated with me: “I read a lot too…I wasn’t into Chaucer or Proust or Dostoevsky or any of those other dead guys; I read mainly mysteries and thrillers…I took a particular liking to Carl Hiaasen because his words flowed easily and he always made me laugh. I couldn’t help but think that if schools had assigned these books in English class, we’d have a lot more readers in the world” (p. 20). I was that student who hated to read in high school—I didn’t like those dead guys either. Luckily, I eventually discovered on my own the type of stuff I like to read. I wonder how many students out there hate school reading, but may actually love to read if they had the experience working with a variety of texts. And by having instruction along with those texts, they may learn not to believe everything that is written—it is okay for one to develop his own opinion. Heck, he might even learn how to write a letter to the editor and share his opinion with the world.

Teaching Adolescent Writers: Chapter Three

(Page 48) “They don’t need a teacher who assigns writing; they need a teacher who demonstrates what good writers do.”
(Page 50) “Students do not understand that most first-draft writing, for everyone, is lousy.”

All writing is not created equal! Because of that, we have to show students what to do with the kinds of writing we want them to do. Just because I’m pretty decent at writing a blog thread does not mean I would remotely know how to go about writing some sort of law brief. (I don’t even know if the term “law brief” even exists…it just sounds like something I’ve heard on t.v. before!) So, as Gallagher points out, if we want students to produce good written work, we must show them how to do it. Though I took three years of science in high school (one more year than was required for graduation at the time, I might add!), I truly have no idea how to write a lab report. However, I suspect if Stephanie showed me how to write one—as opposed to just telling me to write it—I bet I could do a decent job. I’m sure my first one wouldn’t be the best, but each time I could be shown something to improve upon and eventually do a darn good job at writing lab reports.

I chose the second quote because students do have a tendency to think that teachers—and even professional writers—just write well naturally. Granted, the first draft of writing for teachers and authors may be better than what many students initially could produce; however, polishing is still necessary. For those of you who are Twi-hards (lovers of the Twilight saga) and have gone to author Stephenie Meyers’s Web site, you know she has posted a draft of Midnight Sun, a novel she was working on which is basically Twilight from Edward’s point of view. She did not want the manuscript “out there” and only posted it because it had already been leaked on the Internet. Meyers was not happy, to say the least, that the leak occurred, and she prefers that her fans not read the unfinished draft. She says, “the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes.” I love that she writes that…we’re talking about a woman who has sold MILLIONS books, and she says that her first draft writing is not so great. What I would really love is to be able to compare a final draft of Midnight Sun—if Meyers ever decides to finish it—to the first draft. I think being able to show that to students would be an awesome lesson in the revision process!