Real Writing (again)

New class, same problem. I have been struggling again with teaching the idea of ‘real’ writing to my senior English class. “Who is your intended audience?” I ask them at the end of a 10 minute spiel about imagining that in the real world (the world beyond the classroom that is), that writing still occurs. I give them many examples of real writing. I am inspiring. But it seems much more difficult a concept for them to grasp than saying that elephants don’t only live in the zoo! “Who is your intended audience?” I repeat. They look at me filled with new knowledge and understanding (or so I think) and confidently answer: “You are.” And I realise, with an ugly jolt, that I’ve wasted another 20 minutes of a crucial English lesson. Add that to the hours I spent with some of the same students last year, and it totals up to a much bigger failure.

But the failure is not complete.

For her writing folio, one student wrote a personal piece about the death of her mother ten years ago, and how she is still coming to terms with it. Her structure was interesting, and some of the reflections were genuine, but the piece still fell flat; there was no sense of purpose or audience.

After school that day, I introduced this student to blogging. We set up a blog, I shared some blog knowledge that I had, and asked her to rewrite her piece in this new public forum. She suddenly realised what it meant to have a purpose and audience.

We managed to make a personal connection held together by the interest we have in writing, and have been corresponding by email since. She has been forced to start a new, second blog, having forgotten her original username (as I do regularly), and is annoyed because she lost three posts. But she’s writing. And she’s doing it for someone other than me. And she’s loving it. And I have made a difference.

Now for the rest……