Why teachers should write - Pt 2

Would we trust a cooking teacher who didn't cook? Or a fishing instructor who didn't fish? So why do we have teachers teaching writing who don't write?

It's different, I hear you say. All teachers can write (and read) so they are well qualified to teach writing (and reading). But do they write? What do they write? How do we define 'writing'? (Let's not get onto reading!)

I suggest that very few teachers 'write' - sit down and compose, craft, a piece of writing. I think they should. Regularly. I think it would change how they think about writing and teaching writing.

In the 1980s New Zealand schools flirted with "Process Writing", then found it wanting and abandoned it. But I think we got it all wrong. It was never "Process Writing". Donald Graves talked about "the writing process" which is what it is, a process. Teachers interpreted this as a process that goes: draft, revise, edit, publish. Process as production line. That is not the process of writing and it is little wonder that "Process Writing" failed here. It is not what Graves meant. But in dismissing "Process Writing" we neglected to see what Graves and others were really saying about teaching writing. More fool us.

I think we misunderstood because we don't write. So teachers don't think of the writing process as a thinking process, as a process that helps us find out what we know, what we think, and helps us find out how language works (and doesn't work).

Let's encourage teachers to keep journals. We don't have time, I hear. Let's write with the class when they write. Twenty minutes flat-stick writing. If we are writing personal narrative this term then the teacher writes personal narrative. If the theme is poetry, the teacher writes poetry. And the teacher shares her writing in the same way she expects the students to share their writing. Think about how this would improve how teachers would approach feedback to students, approach conferencing with students. Think, also, about the insights the teacher would get into the writing process, into what it feels like to be a writer, to be scrutinised, to have to put your thoughts and ideas out there for all to see.

Donald Murray's thoughts on this posted below are spot on. "The best preparation for the writing class, workshop or conference is at least a few minutes at the writing desk, saying what you did not expect to say." I especially like the bit about "saying what you did not expect to say," which is what happens while writing. Writing is a process of discovery; of discovering what you know, what you think. These are the very things that we want students to learn; that what they know and think is important and that they can discover it through writing.