Affective Dimensions of Writing

The first writing experience I really remember was in 2^nd grade when, for an assignment, we were asked to write a short fictional story that we would then have to read in front of the class. Mine ended up being about a small alien that ended up stealing my mom’s Paul Mitchell hairspray to refuel his space ship with. As horrible of a storyline as that sounds, my classmates ate it up. I still clearly remember the satisfaction I’d experience each time I read an intentionally humorous passage and, in response, hear my peers' appreciative laughter. No New York Times bestselling author has felt more beloved or admired than I did during that reading. I so thoroughly enjoyed this experience, and the praise I received afterward from fellow classmates, that I not only somehow convinced my teacher to let me give another reading of a story I decided to write later that week (an equally engrossing tale in which my classmates and I built a time machine, boarded the Titanic and bribed the captain to not drive so fast with a Milky Way bar—thus saving thousands of lives), but then changed my “What do you want to be when you grow up?” response from “marine biologist for dolphins” to “writer." 

While my 2nd grade aspirations of writing best-selling fictional novels faded almost as quickly as they had started-up, my identity as a writer has continued to develop. My days are almost always packed with writing: from text messages, emails, and Facebook posts to analytical essays and lesson plans for my classes to personal journal entries. I love being a writer--not because I am particularly "good" at it, but as was mentioned in class the other day, that writing allows us to do many things: "to remember, to express, to organize, to communicate and to connect." For these reasons, I am definitely looking forward to teaching my students about writing. 

While my 2nd grade experience with writing was positive, I've definitely experienced a few bad experiences with writing in school since then. And while many factors have contributed to this, the two that stand out the most two me are 1) lack of direction and 2) lack of applicability. Some of the worst experiences I've ever had with writing occurred because the paper requirements and/or rubric weren't detailed or clear enough. Not only do the instructions, rubric and teacher expectations all need to match, but be presented in a way that students clearly understand what is being asked and how to go about it. On the other hand, having to write papers on topics that I felt absolutely no connection to (i.e. a 12th-grade research paper about Type I Diabetes) made writing, in those moments, a mind-numbingly dull and tedious chore that I would dread, procrastinate, finally toss out the night before it was due, and then never want to look at again. As a teacher, I (among other things) want to be sure to always give my students clear explanations of what will be expected from their writing and never force them to write on topics that don't have some relevance to their lives.