A Teacher's Reflections on Teaching Writing

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February 7th, 200X

I have been sitting in this classroom one day a week for three weeks and I haven’t seen any teaching of writing going on yet, although the kids have been assigned two short essays in that same amount of time. Barb hands out the assignments on a sheet of paper, with a bulleted list of what she wants covered in the paper. How can she expect anything exciting and original to evolve if she is priming them to give her exactly what she, herself, feels is important? I am hesitant to ask her about this practice, because after all, she has been in the field teaching for 12 years and I have not taught at all at this point.

Her process goes like this: she hands out the assignment sheet for the essay, she reads it out loud to them so there is no mistaking what she is asking for, she threatens them with the due date multiple times, then she moves on to whatever literature they are currently working on. There are no questions from the kids, although, to be fair, she does ask if they have any. I think the reason why they don’t ask is because by this point in the school year, they have already been groomed to be submissive. Is this how you teach writing? There is no teaching here.

One student, Jonathan, barely glances at the paper when she hands it to him, he merely stuffs it into a tattered folder so that it hangs out and is doomed to become tattered too. Barb chides him for his lack of caring, and he shrugs and says, “I’m gonna fail it anyway, I can’t write.” She frowns at him and replies, “Maybe you can’t, but you still have to do the assignment.” I am left thinking of one hundred other things I would have said that would have been more encouraging.

February 9th, 200X

Well, it is Friday, and in this classroom that means it is time to turn in your first draft of the paper that was assigned on Wednesday this week. All the kids turn one in, except Jonathan. When asked for his, he shrugs. Barb doesn’t even respond, she walks away. After the period is over, I summon courage and ask her why she ignored him, not even telling him he could have more time, or asking to speak to him privately after class to figure out a way to help him.

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