We Must Get on The Court by Melissa Wood-Glusac

Every day, we should hit our journals like the hardwood, with pens ready for freewriting. Sometimes we write to a prompt, but I remind students that if something is begging for attention, they should tend to it immediately. The goal is to play with words enough so that eventually students’ voices show up. The more they write without the pressure of a score, a rubric waiting, the more honest they will be.

So we need to make it count, but not necessarily with the scoreboard, or a letter grade. When it is time to actually turn in a revised entry, to lace up and get out there on the court, we need to focus on successes, and not a point value that judges their mistakes. Winning may feel amazing, but how much more do we learn from our failures?

We used to watch game tapes to see what we should practice to be ready for the next opponent. And by looking at work we do in practice, writing is no different. We use the freedom of writing to explore new ideas, but when we revise our writing, we learn we need details, we need to show not tell.

And that’s when we find mentors.

Like Kobe Bryant emulated Michael Jordan, we read poets, novelists, essayists and analyze the ways of their words, trying the moves out ourselves. From Mary Oliver we learn to show nature in its horrific beauty, from F. Scott Fitzgerald we learn to write dialogue and description to define a decade, and from Ray Bradbury we learn that in characterizing our loves, we invite readers into our stories so they can hide books with Montag.

We also learn from authentic audiences, made up of our peers. First we get brave and sit in the author’s chair,  then we peer edit, finally we gallery walk through each other’s work; basically, we show up for each other like a crowd does for the home team.

Authentic audiences live in the classroom too.

My students write to pen pals and wrote children’s books about overcoming phobias.  Helping my students put their writing out there more has been a goal of mine for years now. Knowing our audience before beginning and then seeing that audience’s interpretation after reading our words is far more powerful than any A+ can relay.

To truly teach, we teacher-writers must also get on the court. We can’t coach from a chair in the corner of the gym, and we can’t teach from a podium in front of the class. Instead, writing coaches must sit with students elbow to elbow, prove to them we can and will do it, even if our shot isn’t quite as accurate anymore. Again, it is all part of the process. That I can admit my words don’t communicate on any given day as I wish they would is inspiring to my students who feel the same way themselves.

But this struggle pushes me to do better next time, to revise, to show my work to others.

Melissa Wood-Glusac been a writer since she can remember. Maybe it was that first diary (with Little Orphan Annie on the cover) at the age of five. Or maybe it was her great-grandmom, who told her she would be. Maybe she has filled enough journals to earn the title, but more than anything she is proud to have been teaching writing at Thousand Oaks High School since 1998, a job she absolutely loves. You can find Melissa on Twitter @meliG43, where I help lead discussions for #aplangchat.

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