AV #220 - Unmask our students: Allow them—no, ask them—to write in the first person

 

      A good time to rethink how we teach writing. Let them speak from their hearts.

 The concerns expressed about Covid 19’s “large mental health cost to children” are ubiquitous (3 examples, p.2). To that end, I point to past newsletters that seem especially relevant to this moment. My criticism of the recent shift—discouraging students from writing of their personal experiences and, yes, their feelings—might now hit home. Students need to speak of how they are doing. Let them write it down. Unmask them.  

In teaching writing, of course it was my job to do much more than to ask students to write about their emotions. But how we feel and how well we write and how honest we can be with ourselves—and our reader: these are not unrelated matters. I taught entries from Anne Frank’s timeless journal while she was in much more than lockdown, as well as powerful personal essays or excerpts from autobiographies by Martin Luther King Jr., E.B. White, Richard Rodriguez, or Maya Angelou. Their words speak to us, I would tell my classes, in part because they open up their hearts, because they have the courage to write so honestly of their experiences and their anger, fear, sadness, and hope. And so I tried to be sure to give my students a chance to write about themselves. A chance to nurture their own writing voice.

If interested, if you have the time, perhaps you will find it worthwhile to take a look at one of these.

·        AV #105 – Teaching our students to write: Why I believe we’re headed in the wrong direction (Dec. 2013)  – Colorado’s writing standards and high school expectations frown on students finding their voice

 p.3 - Example – English class syllabus: eliminate the “I” in your essays. Common Core: “Students must base arguments and essays on evidence from the reading, not their own opinions or experiences.”

p.4 - Teaching the essay – examples show it can, at times must, be first person to achieve its purpose

p.5 – Addendum – If VOICE matters, you wouldn’t know it by the standards

 

·        AV #182 – Schools & the English classroom; depression & suicide (Aug. 2018)

   “If I were teaching again this year, I would find it impossible not to be thinking, more than ever, about the mental health of my students… it feels especially important to acknowledge [their] emotional struggles …”

 

·        AV #190 - Why our school needs The Imagine Project - as told by 5^th graders  (Feb. 2019)

       — Inviting students to tell their story, safely, in a way that builds trust and offers hope.

p.1  - Writing /brainstorming – Step 3: “Choose one challenging experience in your life…”

p.2  - Step 4: “… imagine new possibilities in your life. What is the ending you would like to have…?”

p.3 – Excerpts from The Imagine Project – Empowering Kids to Rise Above Drama, Trauma, and Stress

   From “The Value of Expressive Writing” – “Kids and teens hold so much in their minds and hearts. When troubles are kept under cover, they remain unprocessed, take up too much space, and prevent kids from moving forward… Fortunately, expressive writing is an effective tool that can help kids process and let go of their stories so they aren’t defined by or limited by them.” 

 All three are at the website for Another View – https://anotherviewphj.blogspot.com/ -  peterhdkpr@gmail.com

 

·        ALSO: Chalkbeat Colorado, “… don’t be afraid to tell students, we want to know you.” (Aug. 2016)

For incoming 9^th graders: “… that first week of school, I asked my students to produce three journal entries. No magic there. But perhaps the big high school becomes less scary when one adult says, I care. I’d like to know who you are and what’s on your mind. Tell me. Here are some writing assignment ideas…” https://co.chalkbeat.org/2016/8/23/21100228/on-week-one-after-a-tense-summer-don-t-be-afraid-to-tell-students-we-want-to-know-you

Concern for our students’ well-being - three examples 

Keeping students safe in Denver area schools as coronavirus lurks is a delicate dance

The Denver Post, by John Aguilar, Aug. 21, 2020

 

   Dr. Douglas Newton, chief medical officer for SonderMind, a company that matches certified therapists with patients, said loneliness and isolation is a “huge factor” with children, especially during a pandemic.

   “We are social animals and when we don’t have connections, not only can you have developmental delays but emotional impacts,” Newton said. “What we’re seeing out of this from kids is they’re feeling a little less hopeful.”

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/08/23/covid-colorado-schools-students-safe-cherry-creek-westminster/

 

Parents across Colorado express concerns over quality of children’s remote education

Fox 31/KDVR, by Nicole Fierro, Nov. 30, 2020

 

   Deteriorating mental health with isolation at home is a major concern these parents tell FOX31 they are seeing unlike ever before.

   [One parent spoke of being “scared to death” over the anxiety he sees in his children.] “Our kids want to go out for a drive just to get outside and clear their heads. I don’t want them out alone at night, I don’t know what they are going to do.”

https://kdvr.com/news/coronavirus/parents-across-colorado-express-concerns-over-quality-of-childrens-remote-education/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cb_bureau_colorado

 

Online Learning Isn’t Easy, Even When You’re Colorado’s Teacher Of The Year

Colorado Matters, Colorado Public Radio, by Michelle P. Fulcher, Dec. 1, 2020

 

From an interview with Gerardo Muñoz, Colorado Teacher of the Year 2021

 

   The students’ isolation has led to a “significant uptick” in depression among middle and high schoolers, said Muñoz. [He teaches social studies at the Denver Center for International Studies.]

[who teaches at the Denver Center for International Studies].

   In regular school, "there are always their peer groups that they can cling to, that they can laugh with, that they can complain with,” he said.

   Still, things are better than they were last spring when schools shut with only a few days notice and some kids simply disappeared. At the school district’s direction, teachers are now doubling down to make sure their students are coping emotionally.

https://www.cpr.org/2020/12/01/online-learning-isnt-easy-even-when-youre-colorados-teacher-of-the-year/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cb_bureau_colorado

 

 

From the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Among the “Guidelines for Educators, Parents, and Caregivers during the Covid-19 pandemic”

Listen to young people.  Give children and youth opportunities to share their concerns, and address the difficult questions on their minds in age-appropriate ways.  

Incorporate social and emotional skill building into learning.  Educators can use familiar strategies from an SEL program used at the school …to provide opportunities for students to reflect and contribute, pause to process their emotions and thoughts… With independent work, include open-ended questions that require young people to reflect on their personal experience and feelings to strengthen self-awareness and communication.  https://casel.org/resources-covid/