Demo - continued

Sorry this is so long, but it finishes some of my ideas and responds to questions/comments from your letters. Thanks for being a great group of participants.

The process of writing from another perspective is valuable to me because I believe it is important for my students, especially where they are developmentally, to be stretched in their thinking, hopefully generating a deeper appreciation for individuals other than themselves and finding greater significance in the characteristics other than their own. Added to this is all that research indicating that journal writing in connection with any subject enhances the classroom experiences and assists students in articulating both questions and thoughts.

With all of this in mind, my true hope in doing this demo is to see similar activities like this incorporated with reading assignments. I envision students writing from certain characters’ perspectives, allowing a deeper connection with the work of literature and with the character. If coinciding with a novel, as students progress through the novel their journal entries may take on greater complexity as their appreciation for a character and his/her decisions may grow, which may in turn serve as a great resource for ideas when it comes to writing an analytical paper. If coinciding with a short story or poem, students may write journal entries elaborating upon the possible motives of characters, or develop a minor character’s view on a situation. This could then develop into a multi-genre study or response to a text, which groups of students produce as a different character in any given story, using the journal entries as the impetus for the extended written responses.Hopefully this isn’t too confusing. I really wish that I would have been able to talk more about my ideas for this concept, but I think it was important for me to have you all try this out so that I could get your responses.

I received lots of questions and comments, luckily many of which overlap, seeming, in my mind, to fall under one of the following four categories. I know its long; I apologize already.

1. Regarding the early struggles and walls encountered when writing yourself into a corner: I want all of this. This is the first time my students try this type of writing, and the floundering is part of it. As almost all of you indicated, you find your feet after a while. You shouldn’t have your center of gravity (or get it right) by simply looking at a picture and reading a blurb. Almost all of you indicated that you grew to be more of the individual as your knowledge of that individual grew. This is also what happened to my students, and I think this is what should happen.

2. Sharing prior to writing: I don’t want this. I don’t think I did a very good job of explaining the amount of front-loading that is done prior to attempting this role-taking. I wasn’t able to do any of the front-loading, other than the individual journal reading, in the demo. I imagine sharing happens, but I don’t want the students surveying the crowd and imitating; they know their own voice, they must individually explore the voice of another – not through groups. Sorry if I step on toes with this answer.

3. Sharing after writing: I didn’t have my students do this, but I am open to letting them do this after the entire journal writing is completed. I guess I still have in my mind this idea of a deeply personal experience between each student and the individual assigned. I don’t think this should be especially easy to share because of the closeness that has developed over the course of writing. I am continually surprised every day at the project how excited everyone is to immediately share what they write. Personally, I hate this part of the project, and have comfortably found myself in the corner where I can slip through the crack, enjoying listening but not desiring to share. Several of you all gave great ideas for how to share after the journal writing is complete, and I will take all of this into consideration.

4. Concerning emotional fallout: I hesitated in class, and shouldn’t have. I want this. If a student is truly going to give voice to this individual, then this should not be easy. A feeling of loss should occur. After discovering the fate of their assigned individual, most of my students either became mad or sad, while the few who survived were jubilant. This is, again, what I want. This shows me that the students’ experience of studying this material has become real, and has begun to bleed into their consciousness. This final day of journal assignments corresponds to the final day of our reading of The Diary of Anne Frank, and it is a bleak day, casting a shadow upon the mood of the students for the remainder thereof. I let the other teachers know why the students may be unresponsive, and these teachers are, thankfully, understanding. It isn’t easy to deal with loss, but there is no way to avoid it. In my classroom I face this emotional fallout the same way I faced my students’ loss of friends, siblings, and parents: I listen. I don’t avoid it, or gloss over it, I embrace it and encourage my students to embrace it, to learn from it, and to articulate that learning in a way that even the most apathetic individual cannot help but be shaken by the message.

Again, thanks for being great participants.