Before this week’s reading, I had never heard of the “teacherless writing class.” I think it sounds like a great idea if you have the time to experience once. Elbow mentions that it will take a commitment of about 10 weeks.

I would love to try one of these teacherless writing classes, but I’ll admit the concept is completely out of my comfort zone. I’m not used to sharing my writing with other people, nor am I used to giving critiques of other people’s work. Although the writing I did for my high school newspaper was shared with the entire school, it was never very personal writing; it was usually fact-based news writing. I don’t feel as vulnerable sharing writing like that. I never experienced a lot of “peer review” activities in high school or college. Usually papers were just handed in to the instructor to grade. I do remember one professor who made you read your first draft aloud to just him in a conference and he would provide instant feedback. I found that process nerve-wracking at first, but eventually very helpful.

I’m sure it doesn’t sound like it from that last paragraph, but the idea of being the reader in the teacherless writing class scares me more than being the writer. I feel like I have a hard time being completely honest while critiquing someone else’s writing. I want to be helpful, but I also don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, so sometimes I’ll end up saying I think something is wonderful, rather than being truthful. I do like that Elbow gives some different ways to respond to a writer’s work, particularly the section on showing. Some of the ideas in the showing section seem a little wacky to me, like number 20, “Make the sound the writing inspires.” I’m not so sure what to do with that one! But some of the other ideas are great, like using weather terms like foggy or crisp. I also like the idea of describing the writing as a lump of clay and telling the writer what you would do with the clay.

I’d be interested to see how you could implement the ideas of a teacherless writing class into an actual classroom. You obviously can’t dedicate all the time it requires, but I think incorporating some of the ideas into class would be helpful. It would be good for students to hear honest, unique feedback from their peers. Usually students just hear what a teacher had to say about their writing, and sometimes that may not be enough to help them improve their writing.