I am feeling bad about my creative writing class. I think I have not driven the students hard enough to produce better work. I wanted this to be a good place for tons of exploration, with a few exercises leading to more in-depth work, but that has hardly happened.
I just don't see any real improvement or change in any of the writing I'm reading now at the end of the yearlong course, and I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong. I gave them the place and the exercises and the teacherly comments, but... I'm just reading the same basic stuff I read from most of these students last year. Ack!
What kind of improvement can one expect from high school students, anyway? Should I have demanded more revisions? But they resist that so strongly, and that's the kind of thing that I assume is supposed to be happening in their regular English (and history) classes. Creative writing ought to be about rooting around in the ideas department, experimenting with different forms, taking some risks. Right? And most of these students are eloquent as it is. They don't need a ton of help with the basics, or with their ideas. They just need to keep doing it.
Any other creative writing teachers out there with any ideas for me?
The view of the backyard from my mom's house
That light fixture is now gone, sadly.
1 comment:
Try being the "Electrical Technologies" teacher and trying to get the students to write pieces for portfolios. Add to that, that I am a published poet, have one 'trying to get published' book, and one 'in progress' novel. My writing expectations are higher than some of the other teachers around me. Too many teachers (and not saying you are one of them) are content to instill the basics and call it a day.
I think students reach the expectations expressed by the teacher. It is true that some students have progressed to the highest level they will ever achieve and no amount of instruction and/or encouragement will change that, but that one, the hungry one, the one like a baby bird with it's mouth open, seeking, makes it all worth while.
Draw strength and courage from those the reach for that higher bar, and keep trying.
Teaching is an act of faith. You must trust that you are making a difference somewhere, and that difference may never come and thank you, but it is still changed because of you.
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