Blog 2.

Within the reading from Spandel, I keep seeing one idea that sticks out at me- the idea of the teacher doing the assignment along with the student, as if to say "I know what this is like, I'm right here with you, we'll figure this out together." It's such a different concept to me, one I've rarely experienced as a student. In school, teachers would always sit at their desk or walk around the room or just lecture. They never sat down and showed that they were in it with me. I don't mean to sound as though I'm criticizing them, because without them, I wouldn't love reading and writing as much as I do. But I think it could have pulled in some of the more reluctant writers in the class if the teacher was in it too, sharing their own difficulties and offering us tips to help us get over ours as a group.

I also like the idea of letting students find their own way. When I write, I take up the whole page with thoughts and half-finished ideas taking up room in the margins of my notebooks. I love my computer and would be lost without it, but when it comes to writing, the bulk of it is always done by hand. Maybe another student likes a detailed outline. Maybe someone else likes to wait until the perfect inspiration strikes them, and then they don't stop writing until they have twenty pages. (I tend to get my best ideas in the car or right when I'm about to fall asleep-- then it's a matter of trying to find a writing surface to get the thoughts out before I forget!)

There's a website and yearly writing project called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Every November, hundreds of thousands of writers both young and old, from all corners of the world, converge on the project's website and spend the entire month trying to bang out 50,000 words. In the site's FAQ, it stresses that the writing isn't about quality, it's about quantity. No revision, not much prewriting, just dive in and see what happens. To me, it's an online version of the writing community and classroom Spandel was describing. If you just want to quietly do your own thing, you can. If you need to discuss writing, find help, defeat a block, it's all there. In the end of 30 days, there are amazing results. My first time, I only made it to 40,000 because I couldn't turn off that inner editor, that "transcriber." It wanted everything to be perfect and I couldn't be perfect and be creative at the same time. It's the same for anyone, I think. Smith pointed out the importance of keeping the composer and the transcriber separated, and I think our challenge is to show students that it doesn't have to be perfect right away. It doesn't have to be fixed and revised until you manage to get everything out- you can always go back and straighten things up. (Even in Blogger- just look for that "Edit post" button.)