[NCTE-TALK:2395] Writing with Students
IMWriter@aol.com
Sat, 20 Jan 1996 14:49:55 -0500
Martha Bogart asks why we feel so much more vulnerable when we share our
writing than we do with math -- the former is highly personal and far more
revealing about ourselves. For a number of years I've been writing with my
students, especially the seniors in my Creative Writing workshop and the
students who come to the workshops our Fine Arts magazine sponsors on a
regular basis. Because we've already worked at helpful ways to respond to
writing, I feel fairly safe, and my students have been some of my best "peer
readers." We are more the "community of writers" proposed by state and
national writing projects than we were when I remained apart and invulnerable
as "teacher/dispenser" -- and we have learned from each other! I have built
mini-writing workshops into almost every English class I teach, and they
remain the highlight of the year for most of usx Ellen Ljung