Rewriting How We See Composition #2: The Classroom

 

The Classroom

Rewriting How We See Composition #2 of 3

    One of the biggest problems in teaching writing: motivation. Whether it’s the teacher or the student, it’s hard to get students to write. Even harder is getting students to want to write. So what needs to change? What can we do?

Environmental Awareness

    Imagine an English classroom—maybe yours. Several students are nodding off, barely catching unassociated phrases of the teacher’s lecture. Others are doodling in the margins or studying the layout of the ceiling tile—which can be very interesting, might I add—completely ambivalent to the lesson. The teacher has lost her students. Perhaps their “behavior” is fine, but their minds aren’t engaged, and they don’t care about the “learning” taking place. Maybe this is what your classroom looks like, and you feel like hope is lost. How will you ever convince thirty unengaged children or adolescents that what you’re showing them is worth engaging with?

    To tell the truth, you won’t. You can’t. It simply doesn’t work for us to motivate our students, or somehow force them to be engaged. 

    “So what, Skyler? Are we supposed to just give up and accept that our students will never care?” 

    Yes, that’s it. End of post...

    No! It may seem hopeless or difficult, but there is another way to help students get motivated rather than “telling” them to be. We (as students and teachers) are used to a discouraging writing classroom--where we all are acutely aware of the stressful, anxiety-producing aspects of writing and we trudge through the experience--clearly, this is not conducive to motivation or success. This is where we must begin: the classroom environment. To combat the suffocating, pervasive myths we identified in Post 1, here’s seven key concepts to help us begin a transformation:

#1: Let’s make high school more like kindergarten.

    “Excuse me? We need to prepare students for college.” 

    Hold on, stay with me. In kindergarten, we used our imagination, we interacted with our peers, and we had active, tactile learning experiences—and this is how we formed the foundation to our schooling. Why did we let go of those valuable learning practices as we moved up the grades? Why have we shaped secondary curriculum to be sterilized instruction with sights set on standardized testing and college preparation? “Professionalism” and the reality of high-stakes testing don’t mean that we have to suck the fun, creativity, and collaboration out of learning. Why are we sometimes obsessed with beating the ideas of formality and technicality into our students? No wonder students don't like writing! These are often not the elements of writing (and learning) that bring purpose and fulfillment into the writing process. Instead, we can create a classroom that embraces creative, collaborative, and hands-on writing experiences.

#2: Failure is acceptable.

    Failure = bad grades = incompetence = bad student = failure. 

    Our current educational system struggles with this perpetuated cycle, which emphasizes on the negative consequences of failure and not initially achieving what we set out to accomplish. As we keep students thinking of failure as “bad,” the students who “fail” are continuously drawing a connection between themselves and “bad.” Failure becomes something to avoid, detest, and even fear. However, growth and progress require experimentation, testing, and trial--all elements that need an acceptance of failure to be truly effective. If we’re afraid of failure, then we’ll never grow. Learning and failure are not opposites or antitheses. They are intertwined principles to be celebrated and encouraged.

    We need to help students understand that failure is a fundamental part of life and learning. This means we can't be protecting our students from making mistakes; we have to let them try and fail so they can see that 1) failure is okay and even good--not something to fear and 2) so that they can experience real progress: the process of trying, failing, and improving. Some title this concept as: "productive failure." It entails creating an environment in which students know that it's a place where we take opportunities to learn from the mistakes of ourselves and others, where asking for help is encouraged and supported, and where every day is a new day.

#3: Communities of Writers

    Sometimes I think we see writers as isolated hermits practicing their craft deep in the forest (just me?). Certainly, it is true that we often make writing a solitary event. 

    However, when we begin to help students see themselves as members of a writing community, they’re positioned to see their peers as collaborators and supporters, fellow artists, and practitioners exercising similar forms of meaning-making. A classroom that focuses on connection, relationships, and collaboration directly influences classroom motivation. 

    Establishing a safe and supportive classroom environment is essential to student engagement and motivation (as well as to supporting a healthy view of failure). It's important for students to know that they can participate and interact with the teacher and their peers without fear of being ignored, belittled, or judged. Rather, they need to see that their constructive, well-intentioned comments and contributions will be kindly and gratefully received, even if a student gets something wrong or makes a mistake. To begin, we need to show students that we care. We can greet students--by name--at the door every morning. We can give students second chances...even when it's the tenth time. We can emphasize inclusion, making sure students aren't left out and that derogatory, condescending language doesn't have a place in the classroom. We can expect each student's success, recognizing that success in writing for some students looks different than for others. 

    Another important element to creating a writing community is the democratic classroom, in which learning and conversations exist with a foundation of collaboration. Rather than asserting dominance or authority over students, we can shape the classroom in such a way as to make students feel that they have a significant role in the classroom. They are not merely learning "subjects"--they are active contributors. We can teach them how to be engaged with their peers--how to listen effectively (with both their eyes and their body), provide thoughtful feedback and affirmation, and have open minds. When we begin to reconstruct the writing classroom so that students feel that we all (the students as well as the teacher) are co-learners and co-writers, everyone begins to feel that they belong--and belonging produces motivation. 

    In order to foster this collaborative environment, teacher participation is vital. This means, when students are in groups, the teacher doesn't sit behind the desk and rest before the next whole-class activity--the teacher is in the groups, listening and suggesting, or meeting with individuals. But, even more importantly, this means that the teacher literally participates with the students. We can share our writing with students. We can find interesting ways to share our writing with each other. We can celebrate and empathize with each others' experiences. Not only does this increase motivation and excitement for students, but it shows students that writing matters to you--the teacher. We can hold poem readings and book clubs in the school. We can show student writing on the walls and to other teachers, students, and parents. We can model asking for help when we go to students for suggestions and feedback. Additionally, we can begin to help students see that our writing community is part of a world-wide community of writers and creators, continuing to emphasize writing's relevance in society.

    If we can form a group devoted to helping each other reach our potential, connection starts to replace comparison. Members of the classroom begin to see themselves as pieces of a whole; identifying with this larger group empowers and inspires the individual. Writing becomes less of something we have to do and more of a rewarding activity that defines our participation within a community. Quality teaching and content can not replace the importance of establishing a supportive community of writers.

#4: Autonomous

    Perhaps you’ve heard of the value of autonomy in the classroom. Perhaps you’ve also considered how chaotic, frustrating, or less convenient it would be to relinquish classroom control. 

    However, when students have control and choice over their learning, their motivation is increased. They feel that their learning is their own—this is a huge part of creating intrinsic motivation for students. We can give students choice in how they demonstrate learning by providing a variety of options. Sometimes we worry that students will always choose the easy route--and they might sometimes--but we also know that students want to be challenged with their schoolwork. However, they also want it to be meaningful. They want relevant content, work that makes them think, and opportunities to share. It can be difficult, but we have to put trust in our students in order to create an autonomy-supporting environment, which also includes helping students trust themselves.

    As their ownership over their learning and schoolwork increases, they gain a greater desire to engage with it, rather than when their learning is for someone else (whether it be a teacher, school, or parent). Learning for themselves allows students to foster strategies and desires that perpetuate life-long, meaningful learning. They become participants actively doing, rather than merely being told to do. 

#5: Imaginative Composition

    Have you ever felt like writing was extremely boring? Many of us have. When we become focused on the technical and diminutive aspects of composition, imagination and creativity are sometimes suppressed--and we become so much less motivated to write. 

    When we encourage the development of ideas, the processes of inspiration and creativity, and creating thoughtful, engaging writing, things change. Students become more focused on innovation and ideation, rather than appeasing the teacher. To help nurture such an environment, we can create opportunities for students to express their learning in non-traditional forms--art, music, and others. We can teach students a plethora of genres, showing students a multiplicity of forms that their writing can take as they express their ideas. Growing imagination and creativity in the classroom has—in large part—to do with choice, because it permits students to consider possibilities, develop various ideas to experiment with, and try out their thoughts. We can give students the choice of what ideas to express, as well as how to express them.  

    When students have the opportunity to engage in creative practices, they claim ownership over their work, practice critical and analytical thinking, and engage in innovation. This gets students excited about writing, as they bring their ideas to fruition. 

#6: Relevance

    When our primary focus is meeting standards, college preparation, and standardized tests, relevance falls to the side—a dangerous road to walk. Why? Because, when numbers and statistics become more important in the classroom than the students themselves, authentic and motivated aspects of learning suffer greatly--and so do the students! When they write under the sole pretense of getting grades or to fulfill educational requirements, those extrinsic pressures undermine motivation.

    Making writing relevant means having writing experiences that are inherently important to students.  We can draw connections between our writing and real life. We can show students how our prior knowledge is necessary to write and comprehend writing. We can help students think of audience--and how their writing will make someone feel or what it will make them think. We can provide opportunities for students to share their writing with each other and with people outside of the classroom. We can create writing tasks in which we make the writing's purpose clear to students. We can fashion learning opportunities in which students use practices in new ways, rather than repeating what the teacher does. 

  Students need to see and feel why writing itself is valuable, including the intrinsic rewards of communication and expression of ideas. Students need to see that they're writing for a personally relevant purpose--otherwise, why are they doing it?

#7: Active Learning

    Sometimes it's crystal clear why students aren't motivated to write. Who wants to go sit in a desk and put the pencil to the paper for hours on end? Not me. When I write, I often am moving, shifting positions, pacing back and forth, jumping around and getting ideas, getting inspiration from art, music, other texts, etc. I don't just sit there...and kids shouldn't have to either!

    The classroom can be fun and productive at the same time--really. We can get students out of their desks and moving around. We can incorporate music, movie clips, and games into learning. We can take breaks! We can have students engaging in learning experiences, rather than just experiencing "learning". We want students to get to make meaning, rather than just be told meaning. We can have students speaking and using self-created language to express their ideas in writing and communicating. We can teach theatrically and emphatically (while still being genuine). We can literally change the classroom environment. We can make word walls, we can have writing material stations, we can have our favorite texts and quotes decorating the walls, we can use color and characters and diagrams and dioramas--we can make the classroom a place that's interesting and engaging! The classroom can become a shifting, growing, progressing space—and the students and teachers can shift, grow, and progress alongside it.    

    Invite students into writing--don't just place them there. Create a world where writing (although it can and will be stressful) is important, where writing is exciting, and where writing is celebrated--somewhere students will want to be.