Peter Elbow has influenced
my writing and teaching as well as work with other writers for decades.
Freewriting and other techniques, such as writing workshop, designed to unlock
the writer within have helped me grow as a writer and a writing teacher.
I continually return to
Elbow’s work to help sustain writing workshop in my classroom and helping to
help my students develop agency as well as become better writers. In fact, I
believe re-reading some Elbow over winter break may just help me restructure my
writing workshop and get back to the place I want to be with it and help me get
out of my students’ way. I think I’ll need to revisit the criterion-based
questions in particular to help my students give each other better feedback.
Thinking it through from Elbow’s perspective I think I see where I strayed from
the path and mucked things up a bit.
I cannot stress enough how
much “Writing Without Teachers” has influenced the way that I teach writing and
shape my own writing classroom. Elbow has also helped me gain a better
understanding of good and bad writing which fits in well with my focus on
writing self-efficacy. I rely on Elbow’s methods of freewriting as well as
editing but I also love the emphasis that he places on confidence and dealing
with anxiety as well as writing to learn.
Elbow’s work has made a
tremendous contribution to the writer and writing teacher that I am and
continues to shape my growth and development as a writer and teacher.
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