The end of a school year is a chaotic time. As I wrap up one year, which means giving and grading final exams, remediating competencies, counting books, cleaning my classroom, I inevitably start thinking about the following year and my goals for the classes I will teach. What will I keep? What will I change?
Once answer I've arrived at for what to change for next year is my approach to writing with my classes. As none of the classes I teach are exclusively focused on writing, I've tried to blend the reading analysis and the writing practice. I say "tried" because I haven't found a way to manage a balance. What usually gets lost is the writing process as it appears in a workshop-style class.
An experience last week, when I was working with 4 students to revise or write essays they needed for competency, reminded me of how much I love teaching writing, but also how impossible a task it is when class sizes hover around 20. For those 4 students, that hour and a half they spent with me after their exams were done for the day was probably more helpful than all of the writing instruction I'd given them in class either that year or that semester.
That last statement is hard for me to admit. I feel like I do a pretty good job teaching students how to write, but I know that I can do better.
But I won't have class sizes of 4 next year, so how do I manage the kind of one-on-one attention that is so essential to developing student writers. Each writer is in a different place, needs different instruction, and I am only one person. In an hour and a half (longer than my class periods during the year), I was able to get to each student, read what he/she had written, ask them questions about what they meant. They were able to ask me questions about quote integration, citations, topic sentences, transitions.
All good stuff. But how do I find the time to do all that good stuff in 75 minute classes, with 16 or 17 students in the room.
Honestly, I can't.
But I can schedule time with them outside of class. I can provide more time in class, give more feedback on the first, second, and third drafts than on the final draft where, as the name suggests (though it's not really true), students feel as though what they've written is final and so the feedback serves little purpose.
All of this eats up time, both the class's time and my own, as much of that feedback I will have to write after school and on weekends. This will probably mean that, in class, we read less and write more. It will mean that my feedback will have to be specific and focused.
What's another solution that would allow student writers to get feedback on their writing, would allow teachers to give that feedback in a small setting, during the school day, so that they don't have to devote hours outside of school to feedback?
A writing center.
So one of my goals for next year is to begin the process of developing a writing center in the school. Perhaps as a duty for teachers, perhaps as an opportunity for students to tutor. The logistics aren't fully clear to me yet, but at least the goal is.
And, at the end of the year, when I'm tired and the year seems to have gone on too long, I am grateful to have a clear reminder of one of the reasons I wanted to be an English teacher in the first place: I love working with students on writing.
I'd love to hear about how other teachers and schools have incorporated writing centers or work with students on writing.
