Keeslers Writing World

I really enjoyed Anne Lamott's excerpt from Bird by Bird. I think the reason that I liked it so much was because I feel like she identifies with amatuer writers. She's basically telling us all that every writer goes through much of the same things. They have trouble starting the paper, their writing is shorter than they expected, they write horrible first drafts. I think that to many this is kind of relieving to hear because some of us have taken writing classes or had that teacher that expected that every word of your paper be absolutely perfect. I think it's very important to let students know that we all go through these sort of things and that they need to just sit down and get things on paper. Then go back and fix it up some. Their writings don't have to be perfect the first time and that they need to utilize others and the opportunity for polishing to make their writing great.
I know that I often can't plan to write a paper. I need to just sit down at the computer and start writing. I think this is very important for studetnts to realize this happens and it's ok. I as a teacher shouldn't expect that my students are just going to sit down and have their paper all planned out and that it's perfect. Some of the greatest authors have went back and edited their work years later. This is an important fact that students should know. It shows them that writing is a work in progress and that no writing is every perfect. There is always going to be room for improvement in anyones writing.
I believe that through experience with writing students will be able to plan or write a paper with less and less difficulty. For this reason I intend to take time out of my class each day for students to just write a journal of whatever they would like to write about. This won't be graded other than for participating in it. I know that we do this in our class, but I never really did spontaneous journals in high school and I think that it could be very beneficial in helping students with their writing.