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debriefing to reflect on learning. For many years, freewriting has a been a cornerstone of the Summer Institute. In his book, Writing Without Teachers, Peter Elbow (1976) describes freewriting:
The most effective way I know to improve your writing is to do freewriting exercises regularly. At least three times a week. They are sometimes called "automatic writing," "babbling," or “jabbering" exercises. The idea is simply to write for ten minutes (later on, perhaps fifteen or twenty). Don't stop for anything. Go quickly without rushing. Never stop to look back, to cross something out, to wonder how to spell something, to wonder what word or thought to use, or to think about what you are doing. If you can't think of a word or a spelling, just use a squiggle or else write "I can't think what to say, I can't think what to say" as many times as you want; or repeat the last word you wrote over and over again; or anything else. The only requirement is that you never stop. What happens to a freewriting exercise is important. It must be a piece of writing which, even if someone else reads it, doesn't send any ripples back to you. It is like writing something and putting it in a bottle in the sea. Freewritings help you by providing no feedback at all. When I assign one, I invite the writer to let me read it, but also tell him to keep it if he prefers.
The importance of freewriting has been noted often in the literature (Blau 1986; Elbow, 1998). Freewriting is important because it allows thoughts to be externalized and helps writers--both young students and teachers--to develop language and thinking (Moffett, 1992). Just as important as the writing is Elbow’s idea that “freewritings help you by providing no feedback at all.” Freewriting can be purely for one’s own self, and it can also help to prepare students for an audience. This “sharing without response” or “plain sharing” (2004) leads to better responding.
It [freewriting] helps writers become more comfortable reading their writing out loud because they don’t have to worry about response from listeners. Plain sharing also helps listeners become more comfortable and adept at listening to writers read their work because they don’t have to worry about how to respond. (p. 42)
Beginning with the activity of freewriting, the authors describe how the importance of teacher freewriting led to new experiences with writing in an area school. Freewriting led to writing marathons which led to author’s chair. In this article, Betsy describes the impact of a national model of professional development and how her experience with writing impacted her work as a literacy coach in southwest Missouri.
What would a literacy coach gain from attending a Summer Institute on Writing?
I (Betsy) decided to attend the local National Writing Project site because I did not feel comfortable with coaching teachers on how to teach writing. At my
school, the teachers
were asked to use
writing workshop, and
while as a classroom
teacher, I used a work-
shop model, but I was
not sure how to help
other teachers imple-
ment this in their class-
rooms. I also began to realize that, for the most part, the main activity around writing was assessment. The only opportunities students had to write were during two or three assessments in the year. In the professional development I led, I felt that the main reference to teaching writing was “Remember, you need to have your assessment done at the end of the year.” Literacy in my school mostly meant reading, and “teaching” writing meant making sure the teachers asked students to take the test.
I liked to write, yet I did not feel like a writer and was not willing to share my writing with anyone. I lacked confidence as a writer, thinking that everyone else was a better writer. Because of this, part of my goal for attending the Summer Institute was to figure out ways to increase the amount of writing occurring in the school.