In Chapter two of Teaching for Joy and Justice, Linda Christensen shares her thoughts, strategies and experiences teaching narrative writing in the classroom. In my experience in school, as I and many others shared in class before, narrative writing was very much overlooked. Especially personal narrative writing. I feel that this is perhaps because teachers feel pushed to use their writing instruction time on “more academic” forms of writing such as essays and research papers.
In her chapter Christensen focuses manly on how she uses narrative writing to both teach and enhance concrete composition skills but also how it creates a classroom community. Christensen emphasizes using writing topics and prompts that fuel student response and allow them to make connections with others in the room. While doing this she also introduces grammatical structures and stylistic approaches to writing.
I found it interesting how she has the students share their narratives or even just ideas with the class. I especially found her Read Around method to be very valuable. I do however question if some students would be apprehensive to share their personal writing or if they would change their compositions knowing that other students would be hearing their writing. The most valuable part of the Read Around I feel is that it offers a way for student to give and receive constructive feedback. The point of the Read Around is not only to workshop writing but also to make connections and hear everyones voice in the classroom. I would very much like to adapt this method into my own classroom someday.
This chapter really challenged me to think about the values of narrative writing and question why it so often overlooked. Like Christensen I feel if students are passionate about what they are writing about it is easier to teach them the more concrete writing skills like grammar and stylistic elements. Introducing model narratives as well helps students to work on literacy skills and allows them to make connections even outside the classroom community.
The most impressing thing for me about the chapter is how response Christensen’s students seemed to be about the narrative assignments and process. In many examples in the chapter she explains how students really opened up and talked about very personal and serious concerns. By opening up through their writing they were able not only to make sense of things for themselves but have the support of others in the classroom community. The students were often surprised to find out other peers were going through the same challenges.
Overall I found the chapter very enlightening to the idea of narrative writing, something I too often overlook when thinking about teaching.
I agree with you, especially about the lack of narrative writing in schools. I can honestly say I cannot remember doing any narrative writing during high school. I also agree that the read around would be valuable for creating a positive atmosphere in the classroom. However, I also had the same concerns about it, and I especially liked how you mentioned that students may change or leave things out of their writing if they know others will be reading it. In general, i think that most students view their teacher as a nonjudgmental figure, whereas they view their classmates as people who control their reputation and may harshly criticize their writing (and therefore their personal experiences/thoughts/feelings). These perceptions would definitely become apparent in a read around, because some students may choose not to write on certain topics in fear of being judged.
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