Help Guide Children to Choose Topics Randall

The power of choice is alive and well. I am glad that we are learning the importance of letting students take control over what they write. As teachers, we are their guides to becoming unafraid of the writing ghost. Throughout elementary school, I don't remember having the opportunity to write about my own interests without the help of story starters and lead sentences. In a way, I think this held me back from growing into a mature writer early on in school. It wasn't until college when I was really pushed to write on topics of my choice and I believe this enabled me to become the writer that I am today.

There was one conversation that I had with one of our classmates recently and she told me that her school did a good job at preparing her for the English courses in college. It seems like at her school, they made an effort to make students write as much and as often as they could. For me, taking my first college level English course was a challenge because I was not introduced to the type of intense writing as our classmate was. If only we all had the this same kind of opportunity. Even though she complained that at the time she hated it, it still gave her a crucial element to her foundation as a writer.

I can only hope to be able to give the same type of education that she received. Well, maybe not the whole not liking it part, but I would be honored if I could prepare my students for college in the same way. I've got a hunch that allowing our students freedom to choose their writing pieces (things that really come from the heart), might just be the key to literacy.