Hey I would really love to hear what you all have to say about the subject of free writing. What benefits does giving students time to free write everyday in class give to the students if any at all? I would really appreciate any thoughts!
I have a lot to say about this, which is good because it's also my praxis paper topic. :) I'll throw a few things out there that I've been thinking about. It gives students an outlet - one thing I noticed in practicum with one student in particular was that although this boy (lets call him Olly) was quiet during class and never voluntarily participated...he wrote some AWESOME free writes! I wrote a post about the "volcano writes" my practicum kids did, and read several of Olly's. Though he did these writes once every two weeks for fifteen minutes, he kept the same original story going through each write (five at that time) combining sci-fi and action into a really creative story. I was wowed. This is the kid who doesn't seem interested in class at all (and maybe he's not), but free writing gave him a time and a place to write without restrictions. This is just one example, but I think it shows how even if students don't seem to enjoy the other things going on in class (the things teachers do to meet standards, for example), they can still work on improving literacy & writing fluency. Reading Stephen King's book made me think about Virginia Woolf's essay "A Room of One's Own" where she talks about needing a place and time to write without distractions. Granted, this free writing takes place in a seventh-grade classroom, but I feel like it provides that for students at a time in their lives where they may not have the opportunity to find that "room of their own" elsewhere.
I have a lot to say about this, which is good because it's also my praxis paper topic. :) I'll throw a few things out there that I've been thinking about. It gives students an outlet - one thing I noticed in practicum with one student in particular was that although this boy (lets call him Olly) was quiet during class and never voluntarily participated...he wrote some AWESOME free writes! I wrote a post about the "volcano writes" my practicum kids did, and read several of Olly's. Though he did these writes once every two weeks for fifteen minutes, he kept the same original story going through each write (five at that time) combining sci-fi and action into a really creative story. I was wowed. This is the kid who doesn't seem interested in class at all (and maybe he's not), but free writing gave him a time and a place to write without restrictions. This is just one example, but I think it shows how even if students don't seem to enjoy the other things going on in class (the things teachers do to meet standards, for example), they can still work on improving literacy & writing fluency. Reading Stephen King's book made me think about Virginia Woolf's essay "A Room of One's Own" where she talks about needing a place and time to write without distractions. Granted, this free writing takes place in a seventh-grade classroom, but I feel like it provides that for students at a time in their lives where they may not have the opportunity to find that "room of their own" elsewhere.
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