Herding Chickens

     Have you ever tried to herd chickens? I have not, but it seems like an exercise in frustration. That is how I sometimes feel about getting my middle school students to write. As a Social Studies teacher, I will often hear "Why do we have to write in Social Studies?" As an English/Language Arts teacher, I see students just trying to get it done. Revision and editing are not necessary and brainstorming is what you have when you have a headache. They fail to see the relevance in what they are doing and chose not to be as active  participants as I want them to be.

     Oh, and by writing, I do mean write anything. Many students don't like to take the time to write any more than they deem needed or necessary, and...... they want to get it done and be finished.  (At least at school.)I know that somewhere in them beats the heart of a writer. In fact, I try to tell them that they are already writers. They e-mail, text, tweet. But, I still don't think that they completely buy that idea. Many of them have writing lives outside of school that they never share with me, their teacher. Is it because I did not ask or because they feel like that writing is too personal, too private to share in the space that is school? I don't know, but I want to know about that writing. That may be the way to get them engaged with "school writing."

     I also want them to make good connections between what they are reading and what they write. I  know that it is important for students to connect to the text that they are reading. That helps with comprehension and can lead to a deeper understanding of the material, and themselves.

     Ultimately, I want my students to read at a deep level, write at a deep level and use both as a way to get to know themselves and the world around them. Helping them get there is part of my job as their teacher.
I understand that part of my  job is to give them time, opportunity and choices to help them get there.  At least, that is some of what I have learned, so far,  from Laura Robb's book Teaching Middle School Writers. I am still reading, though, so I have more to learn from her.