Writing and I
have always had a love hate relationship. I really enjoy writing until there is
a grade attached to it. I feel that I am
a good communicator but I’d rather express my thoughts and ideas through my
writing. Composition journals were really popular in my
elementary school. My teachers required we
write journal entries at the end of every day before we left for home. These entries were free write entries to help
get our thoughts down on paper. We weren’t
graded for these but our teachers did read them to make sure we covered the assigned
topic. I think because of those composition
journals I have been an avid journal writer through the years. I have kept a personal journal since I was in
7th grade and I just started my 8th journal this year. When
I entered junior high I started expressing my ideas through poetry, art and
photography. I found myself really
enjoying expressing my thoughts in abstract ways. When I entered high school I really got into
blogging and poetry writing. I started
my first blog in 10th grade and have been blogging ever since. I started entering my poetry into local and
international poetry contests and have since become a published poet. I currently still keep a journal, write
poetry, photography and have now taken part in social media. I really enjoy staying in contact with
friends and family through Facebook and Instagram, and I am also able to share
my photography through these internet sources. I have written a fair amount of
papers in my school career. Sometimes I
enjoy writing them and sometimes I want to gouge my eyes out after 15 hours of
trying to finish a 25 page research paper for English 2010. Through the years I
have learned that I only enjoy writing papers that put very few restrictions on
my creativity. I dislike those papers
that are cut and dry. I don’t like when
there are unrealistic word limits and when teachers are not very clear with
their expectations. My biggest pet peeve
right now is when professors give instructions that say: “Write one substantial paragraph that gives substantial details on the 5
articles you just read but it cannot go over 5 sentences long.” SAY WHAT?? After reflecting on this blog post
I recognize how much I appreciated those teachers that helped me expound on my
creativity through other dimensions. I
will structure my writing prompts the same way.
I will have composition journals which are not graded for students to get
their thoughts out candidly. I will
create writing assignments that will increase student’s knowledge through
papers, journals, art, photography etc. I
understand that grades will have to be attached to writing but I want to teach
my students that writing should not be a scary thing. I want them to have the opportunity to
express freely and be recognized for their efforts.
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5 comments:
This is so well written. Jaycee you have a way with words. You are so creative and I can see that your teachers in Elementary school helped you with that. I love that you want to incorporate that into your curriculum. I think that a composite journal for our discipline is a great idea. There are always so many creative ideas and thoughts they can write down. I think this is a great idea and I would love to implement it into my own classroom.
I'm just like you (and so many other people I'm realizing!) in that I like to have some creative freedom in my writing. It's great that you got that in your education and it influenced you to continue writing to this day. I would love to instill that in my students.
Also, cool picture!
I agree with the idea that a certain word count or page requirement can hinder on a student's ability to be creative in writing. I remember always feeling stressed about either not having enough content or way to much and struggling to add or take away. This can really take away from the focus of developing the writing traits for the students. We as teachers, need to focus more on the content and interest of the students rather than the lengh of the writing.
I had no idea you were such an accomplished author and artist! On another note, I want to shake your elementary teacher's hand for sparking within you a life-long love of writing. I'm so glad you had that experience so you can create similar conditions in your own classroom. Thanks for another great posting.
That is so cool! I didn't know you wrote poetry and all that stuff! Wow. I loved those free writing prompts too. I loved when teachers would just put a quote up on the board and tell us to write down our thoughts about it. It's really important to give students opportunities to write what they want, how they want, without the pressure of meeting the teachers specifications and ideas about what writing SHOULD be. Anyway, I love your perspective on this!
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