The First Right of Every Writer - Reflection

The author of The 9 Rights of Every Writer, Vicki Spandle, truly captured my thoughts in the discussion of the right of reflection. The idea that a place of tranquility is more valuable for writers than the frenzied drills and practices we provide to our students is the very concept I have been struggling with over the past two months as I have begun teaching. Entering the teaching field midway through the year, into a classroom where the students had been deprived of many things, I have felt extreme conflict within myself, especially in regard to writing. I want for my deprived students to succeed on the upcoming standardized test, but simultaneously I want them to feel the passion for writing I had as a student and still have repressed inside of me. Entering the field at this time presented me with the unjust time frame of two months to remedy my students writing woes before the new standardized test is given. I feel imprisoned with my students writing, knowing the many areas they have not been prepared for, but also knowing the true empowerment of writing they will be missing if I only teach writing in the form of a drill.

Accompanied with this idea of tranquility is the idea that writing requires a long period of thinking. Writing does not all take place on paper, but largely in the imagination of our minds. When I am writing, regardless of whether it is a five page essay for a professor or in my journal for my own pleasure, I need time to think and reflect. I need time to leave my writing, to become inspired, and return refreshed. I need time to write. How have I asked my students to write? I have asked them to comply with the norm of school writing instruction, allowing approximately twenty to thirty minutes for each step of the writing process. I don't allow my students the freedom and time they need to write properly, to allow the first part of writing, imagination, to take place.

Standardized tests inhibit the thinking and imagination step in the writing process as well, so students must be able to write in a timed manner to be successful on these tests. I believe in order for my students to master writing to the degree they can write in a restricted manner, they first need to truly embrace the art of writing on a daily basis, to learn the fulfillment it brings. They need to learn that a true writing experience is relaxing and enjoyable not stressful. I believe my students need to master the art of writing in its true form, and by doing so they will be able to perform well, even when a time restraint is given such as during a standardized tests. I do not have the time to remedy these practices for my students before their standardized test, but I plan to show these students the true experience of writing, and to remedy these mistakes with my future students, providing all my students the right to reflect.