When we finally began in person hybrid instruction, the tension eased a bit. This is “what I signed up for,” students in the classroom working together to create meaning. It was somewhat successful, but it was also draining. At the end of every day, we went home exhausted. We were still chasing assignments from the at-home learning that students were assigned when they were not in school. This time was short-lived as we returned to virtual learning on Friday, November 13, 2020. Ironic because Friday, March 13, 2020 was when K12 education in Kentucky first shifted to virtual instruction.
With the return to virtual learning came the distance between us again. Although I had met all of my students, the longer virtual schooling continued, the more my focus drifted to trying to get work turned in from students, which left me less time to focus on the actual students. . . until the Morehead Writing Project’s Winter Institute.
Just as we were winding down for the semester, I started the four-week Winter Institute, and it inspired me to try something. I posted this writing prompt for my students during one of their at-home learning days.
"Take 10-15 minutes to write about anything you choose. It can be about school or not. If you need something to write about, you could choose to write about this question: “What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned from COVID so far?” You could also choose to write about a Christmas memory. There are no wrong answers, and I won’t share your words with anyone else. "
While this didn’t solve all of my problems, it did help me see my students as human again. There was little “academic” merit to the writing that the students did. It lacked proper punctuation and capitalization. There were no neat paragraphs, and no tidy dialogue with punctuation. However, that was never the goal. The goal was for my students to express themselves freely and for me to get a glimpse into their lives again. And this goal was achieved (at least for those who did the assignment). This kind of writing is what James Britton calls expressive writing in his book, The Development of Writing Abilities. I came across this in the text Write, Think, Learn by Mary Tedrow. Expressive writing is unpolished writing that results from thinking and results in thinking. It’s getting what’s in our heads onto paper. This is the kind of writing that I’m planning to do more of in the future (both during and after the pandemic). And I plan to use it not only to connect with students but also to develop content knowledge.
More ideas for linking expressive writing and the NGSS are coming soon. In the meantime, how are you using writing in your classroom? How might you expand that as we move into 2021?