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

▲Narratives about Teaching Writing 49Why Won’t He Write?DJ would come to my creative writing class every day with no books,no paper, and no pencil. He would sort of slink into the room andslide into his desk a full two minutes before the bell rang. But hewould be carrying nothing; his hands might be shoved into the pocketsof his green plastic jacket. DJ was what you might call a reluctantwriter. He seemed unable to sustain any independent fluent writingfor more than a minute. Religiously, he would opt to go into the computerlab (which was next door to my classroom) to draft his papers,poems, and stories; however, few actual words would emerge on thescreen. Instead, he would type a couple of words while I was lookingover his shoulder, but as soon as my back was turned he wouldexecute one or two computer clicks and be on the Internet or in a taboochat room. Sometimes he would just sit and change the font andsize of what he had written countless times until class was over. DJwas computer savvy, so he loved to sit in front of the screen and play.And, paradoxically, DJ loved to read and would often talk about longsci fi novels he was currently engaged in. But writing? That was adifferent story for DJ. Consequently, he was quiet in class, well behaved,and appeared to be on task, but rarely ever was. Sometimes itwas easy to forget about DJ because outwardly he demanded littleattention. In fact, he seemed to prefer being left alone.This day is no different. We are working on a final draft of aHalloween story, a scary narrative that students usually love to sinktheir teeth into. Even though most of the class is in the revision orediting stage, DJ has yet to draft anything. Whenever I can find time,I work one-on-one with DJ (there are twenty-five other students inthe class demanding my attention), trying to help him generate ideas.But I have had little success, as usual.I walk over to DJ and sit down beside him. He sits transfixedin front of his Macintosh computer, staring at the displayed data,which I have no idea how he has accessed or even what it is. I askhim to show me what he has written, and he clicks back to the properdocument. All he has written is “A DARK NIGHT,” but it is beautifullycentered across the top of the blank page.“That’s a great title. Where do you plan to go from here?”“I don’t know.”“Well, what might be the setting of this scary story? Who mighta character be?”