In her article “Writing Steps: A Recursive and Individual Experience,” Bonnie Mary Warne unpacks some of the baggage that comes along with the idea of “the writing process.” I hadn’t thought of how easy it would be for students to see “brainstorm, drafts, revise, edit, publish” as a linear step by step process. Obviously, we’ve talked quite a bit in the last two weeks about how the writing process is recursive. This concept is intuitive to me, so I can nod sagely when we talk about it. Warne illuminates how easy it is for students not to understand. And it’s one thing to tell them it’s recursive, it’s quite another thing to show them.
I’m very much like her student Nevil, who spends a lot of time just thinking before he drafts. I once had a professor tell me that my first drafts were like her forth ones. By the time I sit down to write, I have already revised my ideas a few times. I think the trick for me is to make sure to not think I don’t have anymore revising to do after I get the words down. And sometimes when I sit down to write, I end up in a completely different place than where the drafts in my head indicated I was going.
Reading this article reinforced what some of the other articles have said: it’s important to talk about your own writing process in the classroom. And to talk about new discoveries you make in writing. I think it’s also important to have discussions amongst the whole class about everyone’s varying writing processes. Hmmm…I just stumbled across a nomenclature I think I prefer: not the writing process, but writing processes. And I didn’t think I was headed toward that idea when I started :)
I don't think I spend a lot of time strategically thinking about what I'm going to write before I begin, so it's a part of the process that I need to reflect about. I also need to recognize and acknowledge that other writers (like you) use "thinking" as a pre-writing activity. I believe that most teachers assume a student isn't "on task" if they are not actively writing.
ReplyDeleteAnd think about all the thinking that goes on while we are writing! Talk about metacognition!!! I can hardly wait to get back to CDA and get rid of our linear, stale, prescribed writing process and go with recursive revision. Maybe they will let me wear a tiara! Or not.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Anna.
ReplyDeleteThat talk part is so important. I always assume way too much with my students. I assume if it is in my head, it is also in theirs. Wrong! I love Lynne's comment and they better let her wear a tiara! Christy
ReplyDeleteThanks :) I always got in trouble for talking in class(even though I was usually talking about the material at hand). Maybe it wouldn't have been such a problem for me if I knew time was going to be available!
ReplyDeleteI got in so much trouble for talking in class that I often had to explain to the teacher, my parents, my principal what I found so important that I needed to be talking while the teacher was talking. I always said, "She never lets us talk about what we are learning." I now know that I need to discuss what I am learning to remember and understand. I try to be very careful to include this step in the writing process. It is hard with elementary students, though, because they can get easily sidetracked and can't remember what they were supposed to be thinking about. I haven't figured out a way to get them to talk about what they are learning without talking about recess.
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