If I were to pick the one thing that I think is the hardest thing to teach, it would have to be writing. I have never felt more inadequate as a teacher than I have trying to get my students to understand how to improve their writing. Or to even get them to actually put words on a page.
Writing is hard. Really hard. Teaching writing is also hard.
This is the class I want when I teach writing.
This is what my class feels like when I teach writing.
Ha Ha!! Okay, maybe it's not THAT BAD. But it can be pretty challenging.
As an English teacher, I have come to realize the following:
1. Some students will enter my class as born writers. There is not much I can do to help them. They are gifted. Their words sing. I just hope to do no harm.
2. Some students will enter my class as adequate but uninterested writers. They will do just enough to complete the assignment. They will ignore most of my suggestions. They are happy with where they are. I'm lucky that even a little of what I say gets through.
3. Some students will enter my class as struggling writers. Their attempts at completing assignments are painful. It's not that they don't want to get better, but they have a hard time understanding even the basics of what I am asking them to do. These students are generally struggling readers as well. I can help them a little if I use very formulaic methods of writing, but the grammar and the spelling often defeat them.
4. Some students will enter my class really wanting to become better writers. They know their weaknesses, and they listen to my suggestions. I watch them improve and grow as writers because of something I've told them or shown them. It's an amazing thing to see.
Now, if I had each of these different types of writers in separate classes, I could probably be a lot more successful than I generally am. The reason I'm not is that all too often, they are all in the same class TOGETHER.
The challenge then is to meet the needs of all these learners. How do you do that? I still don't have all the answers, but what I do know is this. You need lots of time. And you need lots of energy. And you need lots of patience. It's easy to get bogged down in trying to help the really struggling kids. It's easy to neglect those gifted writers. It's a balancing act.
The first thing you need to do is BEG, PLEAD, CRY to your administration to separate these kids. I've heard all the arguments for heterogeneous grouping, but I say...it sounds great in theory but is not so great in practice. If that doesn't work, get with the other teachers in your department. I guarantee they're having the exact same issues. Maybe you could work out a way to separate the kids amongst yourself for some of your writing activities. Another suggestion is to run a writer's workshop type of writing instruction. That way the work is more individualized.
Whatever you do, just remember that you're not alone. There are loads of other teachers out there having the exact same experiences you are.
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Good Luck!!
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