First Day

Until today I was pretty fried with any ideas for writing or teaching writing. In fact, if any one asked 2 weeks ago, I would say I hated teaching writing. Last quarter was a difficult one - mostly just work/grading overload.

However, gearing up for this institute with the readings and then Patti's demonstration this morning has re-energized me. Being with other teachers and building off one another's passion to teach well is always a boost and gets me hooked all over again.

I think we covered a lot of ground discussing the tension we all experience between addressing our responsibility to teach standards/ conventions and encouraging thinking and processing through writing. I often feel, as a college level instructor, that if middle and high school teachers of all subjects did more of the learning through writing experiences so that students come to college prepared to think and respond critically in writing ( and speech) that I would be happy to spend the time refining the conventions, honing the communication skills.

I just want students to explore what they think - and care about showing thinking in their writing! So many come to college still wanting to be told what to think or avoiding thinking to any degree or depth. Grasping this continuum concept for writing at the earliest levels of writing instruction is such a welcome idea. Intuitively, I would expect that many of us already do this, but to understand it as strategy takes it to the next level.