Essay 1: Option 1z: Describe and evaluate workshops / draft exchanges.

Heather Thompson

Workshops: The New Frontier in Teaching Writing

            Creative writing for me has always been an interest.  In my younger years I had notebooks full of journaling, poems, and random thoughts.  I found that writing down my daily thoughts really relaxed me. When I was troubled I would write. If I was undecided about something I would write.  Always my writings were intentional and along the same line.  The only venturing I did from daily writing was the occasional poem. 

            Enrolling in this class was a mix of having to for my degree plan and wanting to broaden my writing ability. Since I have always enjoyed writing poems, I saw this class as the perfect opportunity to explore something I was interested in as well as fulfill a requirement. 

            Poems were the first item on the syllabus and I was excited. I had a positive reaction since I felt familiar with writing poetry.  I very happily announced I would participate in a workshop for my poem submission.  Immediately, I knew I wanted to write a poem on being a mother. I have never been more passionate about anything else in my life. 

Despite my comfort with writing a poem I quickly became hung up on expressing the overwhelming elements of motherhood.  I had put words on paper, they were catchy, and yet not what I wanted them to express.  Finally, after multiple revision I decided that I would take what I had and put faith in the workshop.  So, from the beginning I believed fully in the workshop as a learning tool. 

This feeling was further enforced by participating in a few of my peer’s workshops before it was actually my turn to present.  This was when I realized that my poem and each revision I had made was in fact a “work in process”.  Objective five became apparent to me in the workshop process.  There were times that I arrived to class early and myself and other students would actually sit outside the class and have a “semi-workshop” of our own in the hallway.  Some expressed their nervousness, and others anticipated the workshop and knew it would move them along with their piece. 

As I future teacher, I could only be so fortunate as to have my students mimic the learning environment I have set as a precedence in my classroom on their own time and at their own initiative.  The atmosphere of the workshop worked best for me.  The set up of a circle of peers made it appear like a round table discussion.  Everyone acted in a respectful manner and this set the tone in the very first workshop class. 

Being at eye level with my fellow peers gave me a safer feeling and allowed me to accept their suggestions and criticism.  This brought objective three and four really in my line of sight and they both soared in the workshop environment. 

In regards to how the workshop worked with my actual poetry piece, it did more for me then I would have ever imagined.  I listened to my peers.  After I read the poem out load they pointed out that they could see the struggle I had in structure and expression.  This proved objective 2, my peers worked with me to create a productive workshop and this helped me to produce what I really wanted.  When I expressed the feelings I had verbally about what I really wanted the poem to say but could not make the words fit, my peers told me to write exactly what I had spoken to them.  Apparently what I had said was more beautiful then the poem on the paper.  This however would mean to rewrite the poem completely but they stuck to the task and helped me with the poem I had on paper.   Anissa K. Cantin said in her final from 2006, that the reality struck when she read her poem and the comments were generally good but they still did not get the message that she had in her head. This is exactly to what I am referring. 

Minot writes about images in Chapter one on page two.  Images are the second characteristic of poetry and are used to heighten the poem.  I struggled with the imagery of motherhood. I could feel, see, touch, hear, and almost taste the essence of motherhood and yet could not express it.  I tried to force such an obtrusive feeling, like motherhood into mere words and what I really needed to do was use imagery to drive it home.  Minot states on page four that poetry is by nature senate – a genre of the senses.

 Eventually, I had enough time to think and revise over and over, just as objective five again enforces and I was able to submit to you another poem on motherhood and it is what I feel the best poem I have every written.  It really utilizes words and forces an image of motherhood.

I do have some suggestions that may or may not better the workshop technique.  As a student the ability to read your work aloud is a great way of seeing if it is all you expect in the piece.  Currently, you read your own piece out loud to the class. If the discussion leader could take this role on and read the piece out loud and not the author of the piece that would enable the author to hear the piece in a different way and it may heighten the flaws to the author. 

Also, adding the very first draft to the workshop session and then reading the latest revision may be beneficial.  If the class can somehow see where you started with a piece and then see how far you have come, it may avoid suggestion that the author has already tired, like this word, instead of that, or maybe from another point of view. 

I will use workshop as a technique in my future classroom, but will do it initially for only certain assignments like a poem or fiction pieces.  Using it as the only way to teach writing probably will not work, since I will be teaching a grade level that will be in the early stages of writing and will most likely still need a more formal foundation.  It will aid me in the transition process to a higher level of writing.