I agree.. and then I disagree

Okay, this is the first chapter in Williams that had lots of information that I actually agree with. I think that his descriptions of the process-oriented classroom are great! Having collaboration amongst students is a great way to teach them. Looking back on my education, I know that I took away the most from classes where we collaborated together in our learning. Whether it was learning about the life cycle of chickens, or writing a paper, or learning about teaching, the classes that taught me the most were those where I wasn’t always listening to a teacher lecture the whole time. Is this why so many students enjoy extra-curricular activities, be it sports, music, or other clubs? In those activities, there is a team focus: we win as a team, we work together to make harmony, we are all part of this play, etc. The process-oriented classroom brings in a similar team approach, but students are still responsible for their own work, their own effort. Workshops allow students to learn from each other and from a teacher as well, provided the teacher is doing active team and individual coaching.

The stages of composing are great tools to use to teach writers about the writing process. I do agree with Williams that there needs to be a shift in focus on the stages from concrete to dynamic. Students—writers – need to know that it is okay to shift between stages. Writing is fluid. When I write, I do not think about each sentence having a subject and predicate. Writing flows. If we teach students that writing is dynamic, that it will ebb and flow, just like a river, we can loosen the strict rope that we tie around each writing assignment. At the same time, I think we need to be sure that students understand each stage thoroughly. I know that I am a person who likes things laid out in front of me. Today I am doing this, tomorrow I am going here, these are the plans for the weekend. The paper is due on this date, should be this long, and should cover this topic. I think many students in middle and high school today, while they are still learning how to write, want to know the steps. How do I start with idea A and write about it and put it into the assigned form B, so that I can get a passing grade without it being painful? What I think gets lost in Williams is that sometimes students need to first be taught the steps with a focus on each step, and sometimes this can seem fossilized. But then, once writers can understand and work through the process and see its fluidity, they can be turned loose.

I think that Williams sometimes fails to see that it is okay to teach the writing process steps formally; I think sometimes he judges teachers harshly and doesn’t allow for the fact that teachers are still teaching students how to be writers. Yes, we need to do better at teaching children from the start about the writing process, so that when they reach high school, or even middle school, they can flow through the stages on their own. But, the only way to teach students how to be fluid is to give the students meaningful writing process practice at each stage.

What was disconnected for me in this chapter though was the shift from the writing process stages and meaningful writing to expectations and standards. I felt when reading that I went from a happy place to a somewhat dark place. I think that Williams is very critical of teachers as a whole. It seems as though there is a very definite line between a good teacher and a bad teacher and that there aren’t very many who fall on the positive side of the line for Williams. I think that he puts a lot of blame on the shoulders of teachers, and I think that blame is misplaced. It is always easier to judge the little person, and I think this is what Williams does. I don’t know of many teachers who always ignore best practices because they don’t feel like teaching that way. I feel most teachers are doing the best to teach their students in the best way they know how. Yes, more needs to be done to improve how we teach, but I don’t think Williams is fair in the way he portrays teachers in this book.