2 Narratives about Teaching Writing - National Council of Teachers ...

48 Chapter 2ing. In this way, Standard English is addressed as an ideological expressionof social and economic class—not just as a set of rules to be rememberedand enacted.NarrativesHere we present four stories that focus on the teaching of writing byteachers of middle or high school English. We chose these narratives torepresent the range of issues and situations that occur in a writing classroom.These narratives, and the subsequent responses from experiencedteachers or teacher educators, should be used as opportunities to reflecton and discuss what it means to be a teacher of writing. As in the previouschapter, the responses are not prescriptive; instead, they are includedto open up discussion and help readers develop their own theories aboutteaching writing.The first story, “Why Won’t He Write?,” is concerned with one ofthe most common problems we encounter: encouraging a reluctant studentto write creatively and join the classroom writing community. Dowe push him and risk alienating him for the rest of the school year? Ordo we “let him slide,” with the opposite danger of not helping him learnto write? The second narrative, “The Rite of Passage: Writing the ResearchPaper,” discusses a reluctant student working on a researchproject as his teacher seeks better ways to plan her writing assignmentin order to increase his motivation and confidence. The third story, “Buriedunder the Paper Load,” discusses another common classroom concern:how does a teacher effectively respond to writing assignmentswhen he or she might see more than 120 students each day? The fourthand last narrative, “Reviewing Peer Review,” tells the story of a teacherimplementing peer review in her high school classroom and wonderinghow she can make the technique effective for all of her student writers.Writing Narrative 1Motivating students to write is one of the greatest challenges for Englishteachers. Here is one story about such a struggle that raises questionsabout approaching resistant writers. How can we set up our classroomsto inspire students to write? How can we overcome studentapathy about writing? How can we urge students to join a classroomwriting community? This story takes place in a small, rural high schoolin central Missouri where DJ is a senior in a creative writing class.