7. Knowing Your Students: Times of Transition and Transformation
Becoming a Teacher Who Writes - Let Teaching be your Writing Muse - Nancy S. Gorrell
Nancy S. Gorrell [+]
English teacher and poet
Description
Chapter 7 addresses the question: Who takes a creative writing class? The author’s answer – a mélange of students. Chapter 7 presents that mélange of students, affirming the power of “the community of writers” to transition and transform students. Chapter 7 begins with a poem by a graduating senior (Judd) struggling with transition, followed by a series of case studies. In “Transformation of a Resistant Writer,” Judd explains entering creative writing by a schedule default, his “hatred” of writing, resisting participation, and finally engaging in the community of writers. In the second case study, the author discusses Tim and Robert – “Polar Opposites” – one, a fifth-year senior repeating English credit for graduation, the other a soon-to-be salutatorian. In “Here’s to Heterogeneity,” the author confirms her greatest pleasure witnessing the power of the diversity of voices to teach, motivate, and inspire not only writing, but the transformation essential to writing. Chapter 7 concludes with Interdisciplinary Applications for Teachers and Students and the “Times of Transition; Times of Transformation” writing prompts.