Calkins+Ch.10

** Teaching Adolescents: Improvisation and Commitment **
//Jennifer, Heather, & James//

What we found super interesting in this here chapters on adolescents was the paradoxical nature of teaching writing to high schoolers. It is the job of adolescents, as Calkins says, to create an identity outside of and often in opposition to authority figures. We therefore cannot have our feelings hurt if that opposition applies to all that it is we wish them to do--such as writing. Calkins discusses the ever so tempting response to this opposition, namely the tossing of the towel with the pronouncement that "//it doesn't work//". While the chapter insists that we move past this point and make it work, she warns against quick fixes. For example, she notes that one morning, a teacher turns around a "//failing//" writing workshop by writing humorous prompts on little pieces of paper and assigning them randomly. Despite the enthusiastic response to the writing and sharing process received by this exercise, Calkins concludes that it was just that--an exercise. Our writing workshops are not meant to be exercises in meaningless writings, however clever and enthusiastic the responses to these exercises. Rather, Calkins suggests that we stick to meaningful, perhaps even useful writing.

Calkins takes the idea of a writing workshop a step further. She suggests that a teacher's responsibility is not only to help students succeed in the academic world but to also find an identity. She quotes a story by Mike Rose, who recalls growing up on the L.A. streets, noting that he never met anyone who was passionate about anything. What changed him wasn't an incredible love for writing, but rather a sense of direction and purpose. In this sense, a teacher is an encourager and guide. Calkins says that helping students in this way requires a one on one style relationship with students, which can be difficult for the second-level educator. She makes her point recounting the story of a teacher, Lucretia Panozzo, who noted that a boy in her class played guitar in a band. When the time came for an inter-team meeting at school, Lucretia asked the boy and his band to play. She says "I think they had a repertoire of only three songs, which they played over and over all afternoon, but t was worth whatever headaches we got. That party made those kids famous; it gave them an identity." Calkin's point is that students have character traits and interests that go beyond the scope of simple "writing exercises"

Calkins observes that students are "//waiting for the bell to ring and life to begin//" (p.172). Adolescents have full, enriching, passionate lives outside of school. They play sports, make art and music, and enjoy various hobbies. Interestingly, a study quoted in this chapter mentions that secondary students seem to find these structured, proactive activities more rewarding than their leisure activities like watching TV or hanging out with friends. So, Calkins concludes that this passion for life can be brought into the instruction of writing. Students can write meaningfully about and for these passions. But here again is a paradox: Calkins, while implying that these passions can and should invigorate writing, does not recommend a focus on these subjects. Rather she says, the core of the writing workshop, and writing in general is to make meaning of the small things in one's life. To pick apart a moment, a feeling, to come to an idea through writing. Despite their resistance to writing, Zemelman and Daniels, authors of //A Community of Writers//, stress that students have a basic need to write in order to process ideas and values. Along the way, they develop their own conventions and create voice.

Creating a space safe enough to actually expose the personal lives of 30 adolescents is very challenging to the secondary level teacher--especially because this environment must be re-created five times a day and for only 45 minute at a time. The block schedules that are prevalent in Wake County High Schools offer more time in which to create these environments. In addition to time constraints, teachers must also work around demanding curriculum that doesn't seem to allow for schedule-hogging writing workshops. Calkins suggests creating this environment with small, unchanging peer groups and by having one-on-one literacy discussion with the teacher. The wisdom behind the establishment of permanent peer review groups is that this allows students to build the trust required to engage in socially risky behaviors like sharing one's writing. She notes that REAL responses to students' thinking (not teacherly responses, or polite, encouraging responses) can build an unspoken respect for what happens in the classroom as it is made in the context of an adult relationship. While student peer review does not produce particularly significant contributions to the writing itself, the experience of receiving positive feedback from peers keeps young adult writers engaged in the process. Because of the powerful nature of peer review, Calkins recommends explicitly teaching review guidelines before commencing the writing workshop.

Here's a sample of consecutive journal entries of an adolescent. They are hilarious AND indicative of the urgent experience of EVERYTHING throughout adolescence--and really one's whole life:

//"I think I've made up my decision about the world. I think it depends on the way you make the world. If you hate and despise the world and everyone in it, you're going to have a very hard life. I think I'm going to try to like most people."//

//"Today we had no school, but I was sort of disappointed because it seems whenever there's no school because of snow or ice, my hair looks good and I have the perfect outfit. It never fails."//

Calkins concludes the chapter by stating "This may be the most important thing that can be said about teaching in secondary-level classrooms: We need to seize the moment. We need to see where the energy in our classrooms is and go with it." Teachers must have the unique ability to find the areas in which students are passionate on a one on one level and guide students through that. From there a teacher helps a student not merely focus on his or her hobbies and passions, but learn to express his or herself in a meaningful way.