Inside a Writer's Brain

One of my 8th grade students made this for me:

I think it's a fairly accurate representation. 

Oh, and in case you were wondering,  "writter" is not an ironic misspelling of "writer." No, in our writing community, a "writter" is one who brings shame to or otherwise disgraces the good name of a "Writer with a capital W;" therefore, calling another a "writter" is a serious accusation and not an epithet one should casually use. 

Unjustly calling a fellow Writer a writter is a severe violation of the Writer's Code.

What Makes a Writer a Writer?

As the end of the year winds down, I have been thinking more and more about what makes a seventh or eighth grade student enthusiastically embrace the identity of a writer. After three years and nearly 500 students who have become "Writers for Life," I am still uncertain exactly how this has occurred or where I should take it in the future.

I of course give most of the credit to my students.  While it may have just been a whim that first day of school in 2011 when I had the students in each class turn to a partner and introduce themselves by name and "I'm a writer," but all that has followed has largely been due to the actions of my students.  The first student who walked by my classroom door one morning and said, "Hi Mr. Myers, I'm a writer!" led to my being unable to walk across campus without a student, or usually more, calling out to me with affirmations of their writer status.  The first time a student made a "W" for writer hand signal, I had no idea that it would become a sign we all give each other out of adherence to the commandment "Never leave a fellow writer hanging."  Now there is so much more; from our writer's motto that "writing time is sacred," to the whiteboard in the front of my classroom that has been designated our "Writers Board" for the students to add any contribution they wish, as long as it is respectful and writing-related.  Something magical has happened, and I suppose there is some small irony in the fact that I lack the words to properly capture its essence.

All of these exterior manifestations would be meaningless if the students didn't write.  Now, there are more than a few students who proudly proclaim that they are "Writers for Life," while doing very little, if any, actual writing.  I don't begrudge them this, even I do wish they would actually embrace the act of writing as much as the identity of being a writer.  Middle school students are tribal by nature, and that sense of group belonging is something they all need at this turbulent age, so I am not going to tell them they can't claim the identity of a writer unless they produce "X" amount of writing.  I would much rather see the "W4L" logo scrawled on their notebooks than some gang sign or drug reference.  So I don't discourage the few non-writers from claiming their writer status and if they give me the writer's sign, I will never leave them hanging.

For the most part, and I'm talking approximately 90% of my students, they not only proudly declare that they are writers, but they actually write, and write, and write...and my, it's a glorious sight to behold.  Have you ever had a seventh or eighth grade general ed, not an honors or creative writing elective, English language arts class beg for more writing time after the end of the ten-minute "Daily Writing" session?  Well, I have, on several occasions, and often asking more than once or twice to extended time to write.  Have you ever seen a crowded classroom of thirty-five 13 and 14 year old students who, even at the end of the school day become utterly engrossed in their writing "flow?" I have, day in and day out.  Have you had classes of middle school students plan for "Quarter Quell Writerbrations" to celebrate the 25th, 50th, and 75th Daily Writings?  I have, and there would be much more if we weren't on a block schedule with each class only meeting every other day?  How many of you produced over 100 pages of writing when you were in 7th or 8th grade?  I surely didn't, which makes me all the more in awe of my students of the past three years who have written at such a pace.

Whatever I have done to help facilitate this phenomenon is incomparable in praiseworthiness to these amazing kids who have chosen to become "Writers for Life."

At the very least, I owe it to them to do whatever I can as a teacher to keep the writing flowing.

After all, I'm a "Writer for Life," and a writer never leaves a fellow writer hanging.

Writers for Life: Origins

A few years ago, I was a fellow at the Summer Institute of the South Coast Writing Project, my regional affiliate of the National Writing Project, at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  This experience was a transformative experience for me both as a teacher, and a writer.  I came out of the Summer Institute revitalized as a teacher, and eagerly looked forward to the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year so I could start working the many ideas percolating in my head into my 7th grade English language arts classes.

I immediately began incorporating several of the elements from the Summer Institute in my classes.  We  begin each class with our "Daily Writing" for ten minutes or so, although I give the students a prompt to work on instead of the free write approach of the Summer Institute.  Every Friday we have an "Open Mic," where student volunteers share their writing; but unlike the Summer Institute where we all had to share some of our writing, I never require a student to share if he or she is uncomfortable doing so.  Also, since we are on a block schedule, each class only has an Open Mic every other Friday.

None of these things would work, though, if I didn't create an environment where students could embrace the identity of being a writer, rather than seeing writing as something they have to do in English class.  Creating such an environment and classroom culture has been my proudest moment as a teacher, and it all started on a whim.

(Little things like a student writing this on my whiteboard is just a small part of the environment in our Writers' Sanctuary, also known as my classroom.)

On the first day of school, in addition to the tedious review of the course expectations and classroom guidelines, on a whim I decided to skip those clichéd icebreaker activities and had the students turn to the person sitting next to them and introduce themselves saying "Hi, I'm ___, and I'm a Writer!"  They laughed, but did it enthusiastically, and something amazing was begun.

There were many milestones along the way, but fast forward nearly three years later, and being a "Writer for Life" is something nearly all of my students embrace with pride.  I'm in awe of what has happened, seeing a group of seventh or eighth grade student not only "in the flow" during the daily writing, but groaning and begging for more time when the timer reaches zero.  I always grant this request, for although it usually puts me further and further behind in my planning, how can I say no to students who WANT to write?  

(Just another day of 8th graders in the flow during Daily Writing.)

I thought it would be difficult to get students to share their writing at Open Mic, but now I feel horrible when I have to deny many students volunteering to read because we run out of time.  We have a W4L logo, and a "Writer's sign" that students give me wherever I see them, in or out of school.  Several of my students have published novels after winning National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  Students who previously hated writing and who struggled to write a few sentences at the beginning of the year, now frequently write pages and pages when the writing prompt is engaging enough. 

I am in awe of what my students have accomplished, and will do everything within my control to build on this foundation.  After all, I owe my students and fellow writers no less than that.