I actually did it. One whole month. I am actually not really sure what to think. I don’t have a lot of will power and there have been a lot of nights (like tonight) where I thought UGH I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE but I just forged ahead and did it anyway.

So what insight has this given me to my teaching of writing? First, that it can sometimes be difficult to just start. I have always known this, but I know it way more intimately now that I am doing it every day. I think I’m a little more sympathetic when a kid that is genuinely trying to write every day doesn’t get down as much on one day.

Second, brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading often happen simultaneously rather than in separate steps. Yeah, when I’m writing something really important, I’ll go back and revise, then when I’m done, I’ll read it for different issues (overused superlatives, punctuation issues, etc.) but I think typical writing that isn’t for publication or for grading doesn’t follow the typical writing process. I’m not saying the steps aren’t important – I think they are totally important because newer writers need to learn to revise for different purposes. But I guess it’s more of a holistic process here: for example, I just started, then erased this second half of the sentence three times before I finally finished it. I had to press backspace a number of times because I can’t leave a spelling error alone. If you see a spelling error in these blogs, it’s probably because either I totally missed it or spell check automatically changed it to something inappropriate. If I notice it, I can’t let it be.

Another thing I “knew” but didn’t really always keep at the front of my mind is that sometimes I write myself into new ideas – like, they aren’t always there when I start writing, but they start to come as I write. Today I didn’t know what to write. No clue. So I opened it up and put in the date, then I realized it was the last day of the month, and then I started thinking about my original purpose for starting this blog challenge, and now I’m here writing about my thinking. I wish I could convince my students that they could do this too.

I think the problem that I face is that they don’t want to. That’s a tough issue because almost all writing pedagogy assumes some desire to improve on the part of students. I think that students have a desire to be heard, to be recognized, to be validated, to get their stories and ideas out there, so that definitely can motivate a student to write. The problem is when it comes to revising it – they care about the story, but they don’t quite care as much about the way the story is communicated to the reader or how they could make the writing better for the reader. I don’t think grades are the best motivator for all kids and honestly, grades SHOULDN’T be a motivator or a currency.

I can get kids to write. There are some natural motivations there for many kids. It’s getting them to write for a reader that I need to think about. Now that I write it, I realize that’s really hard for an adolescent. Hm.

So I was tired when I started writing. I’m still tired. But now I’m going to be pondering the implications of adolescent development on writing pedagogy. I hope I can get my brain to settle down soon.

Happy blog-iversary, me!