My Identity as a Writer - Storify

Here is my exploration of what "writing" means and how one defines oneself as a "writer."

http://storify.com/meganfire/how-do-i-find-my-identity-as-a-writer

Day 3 Reflection

I am super interested in all the technology -particularly Glogster, Storify and Tagxedo - I learned how to use today and to start thinking about how to integrate them into my classroom.  I want to do further exploration in how these tehcologies can help build a community of writers and help my students add "writer" to their identities.  Part of what I am rolling around in my mind is how I drew/draw inspiration and advice from models of experts in the field or genre in which I am writing.  These technologies can be either model genres of writing - while encouraging a conversation about what "counts" as writing since these genres don't fit the typical school defintion of writing - or help student think about and reflect on themselves as writer.  Below is an example of how I could use Tagxedo to explore my thoughts on a topic, in this case, changing language.  I could use this Tagxedo as a brainstorming device, slowly combining and expanding on the words I thought of when I thought of the phrase "Changing Language in the Classroom".

Changing Language Freak Out

Revising does not equal improving; it's fluidity - Lil
Making it play - Carrie W
Recognizing that it's hard - Lacy
Hiking as metaphor for writing - Megan
Revising as responding to others - Lacy
It's like learning to swim in handcuffs. - Lil
Draft means ideas. - Lil

I'm thinking more into my inquiry question about changing the language we use with writing.  (I apologize for starting to sound like a broken record.)  I think I can start saying stuff that encourages constant progress and start gaining identities as writers.  However, I still fall into the binary and a non ZPD type of language.  I think part of the problem is that I can't decide which words aren't ok.  For example, "improving" and "making a better draft"  still implies that someone can move from "bad" to "good".  Even the writing center's motto is to make "better writers".  The writing center is one of the most process and collaborative orientated place I know and they still use the binary language.  So what words can I use?!  What can I say my goal is in helping students with their writing?

Identity and Writing

As I was writing into the day this morning, I was writing about why a person would throw away unused writing, and I landed on why I have such an aversion to doing that; I would feel like I was throwing away bits of myself because I connect my identity so heavily to my writing.  So, now I am wondering why I do that.  Is it because I'm passionate about writing and, therefore, put everything I have into it?  Is it just a desire to have my passion, time and effort honored and valued?  Even when I write something that has nothing to do with me, I have to fight feeling insulted when someone gives me constructive criticism on the piece.  It is so easy to make the leap from "They are critiquing my writing" to "They are critiquing me."  Why is that?  What links writing to identity? 

Also, once that connection is realized, how does that affect the way we respond to writing?  How do we help students improve their writing without making them feel like we are telling them to improve themselves.  Especially if we change the language - as recommended in Choice Words - to get students to make "writer" part of their identities and tell them that "this is what writers do," what language can I use when responding?

Writing History (July 5 - Responding to the Day)

I am thinking a lot about my writing history and about the link to reading.  Previous to today, I have been thinking about myself and my development as a creative writer.  I have attempted to grow creatively, moving from poetry to narrative (non)fiction and now moving to entirely fictional writing.  I've been struggling mostly with character development.  On all three stories I am working on, people's comments have been geared toward deeping my understanding of my characters, their personalities and their motivations.  Today, however, I backed away from the trajectory as a writer and started thinking about my history as a writer.  I have tried to think about where my love of writing - and my desire to write - as come from.  Though I wrote in school and typically succeed in that endevour, I never got really excited about my writing in school.  Occasionally, I would get excited because of an assignment but it was not school that encouraged me to write beyond that assignment.  For example, I wrote a poem in the seventh grade.  It was this moment that led me to realize I could express my emotions - and, therefore, deal with them - when I wrote them down.  I hit the ground running and started writing poetry constantly.  A school assignment triggered this, but I don't really think school was what got me writing.  I think the link comes back to my father; however, my dad never encouraged me to write.  He encouraged me to read.  He has always asked what I am reading, why I'm reading it and has pushed me to analyze the texts.  I think it was this analysis and my excitement of reading that pushed me to want to write.  In writing, I can create my own worlds or work through my own.  So, this thought is not completely worked out yet, but, essentially, today got me to start thinking about the lin between the motivation to read and the motivation to write.

Third Space

I am attempting to start the delve into theories about third space.  Can anyone recommend articles to begin my descent?

Choice Words Book Review

I had previously plogged this, but let's go ahead and get this on the interwebs.  :)

Choice Words, by Peter Johnston explores how language affects learning.  Johnston analyzes key words and phrases of four elementary school teachers, explaining how the teachers’ language can influence children’s ability to name and notice, their identity, their agency, their flexibility and ability to transfer, the type of knowledge they gain and their ability to become members of a democratic community.  In his first chapter, Johnston lays out his theory and his purposes for writing the book; in the subsequent chapters, the structure becomes more like bullets lists, giving an example sentence from one of the teachers in bold followed by an explanation of how that sentence or the particular words in that sentence affect learning.  These explanations range in length from a paragraph to a few pages.  Johnston emphasizes most highly that children must learn to develop a curiosity to discover and learn about the world around them (naming and noticing) and have the opportunity to shape their learning as they figure out who they are in the classroom and in the world (identity and agency).  The rest of the book depicts how the topics in the other chapters encourage the development of naming, noticing, identity and agency.

Johnston has obviously put a significant amount of work into this book as he looks at very specific word choices and explains thoroughly how those words affect children’s learning.  Given how much information is given in a short space, Johnston seems to recognize that a reader can easily forget what she has learned.  To combat this, he calls uses a wealth of examples, calls back to what he deems as the most important words to use and ends each chapter by asking the reader to apply what she has read in the chapter.  In these ending applications, Johnston seems to be practicing what he is preaching, allowing the reader to begin to notice how language can shape learning, discover who she is as a teacher and have some control over her learning.  Johnston also gives the reader a sort of “get started” guide, describing five ways the reader can initiate changing the conversation in her classroom to look more like the language in the book.  The combination of specific word choices, the five concrete examples and the applications allow the reader to walk away from the book with real ways to apply the book to her classroom.  In other words, the book takes small nuggets of theory and concentrates on putting these theories into practice.

I would have been interested to see a deeper critique of the use of questioning in classrooms.  Johnston seems to imply that questions can have different purposes, spending a paragraph discussing how teachers can use questions to drive conversations in particular directions and control responses, while highly praising teachers for asking questions that allow children to problem solve and explain their thinking.  Johnston does not explain, however, what kinds of questions stifle learning nor how they close down conversation.  Moreover, he does not explore how changing a question into a statement – or vice versa – would have changed the learning that gets done or affected the community formed in the classroom.