Daily Writing, Collaboration, and Community: Keys to Living a Writer’s Life

By: Dr. H. Michelle Kreamer, NCTE member and assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Dr. Toby Daspit, NCTE member and professor of education, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; and Dr. Jack Bedell, professor of English, Southeastern Louisiana State University

Picture this: A small downtown in a mid-sized city. Saturday morning. Mere weeks away from summer vacation. And within an art museum sit a group of students, ready to write.

This was the scene at the end of the 2022–2023 school year, as seven high school students, two of their teachers, and four university professors came together for a day of art-inspired writing. After a series of writing exercises facilitated by a former state poet laureate, each participant shared something they had written. One student penned the following:

Today was different
Amongst the chaos
Where the breeze was fluent
In the midst of the slightly warm Springtime air
So many words to be said but yet so quiet
Sitting around a table and all eyes seem to be on me
Yet everyone is looking away
A world with so much to be seen yet so little time
As art fills the walls and words fill the pages
Everything seems fine and everything seems content

As educators with a passion for writing, we believe everyone is a writer and that all teachers must support, encourage, and challenge students as writers. This blog post includes writing exercises meant to engage, excite, and inspire students and help them see the writer they already are and the writer they can be!

Writing Exercises to Inspire

Daily Writing

The morning began with one of our educators guiding the group in renowned poet William Stafford’s daily writing ritual. His son, Kim Stafford, explains that his father engaged in a daily writing habit that included four elements, and that following these steps “can begin a process for distilling from ordinary experience the extraordinary report of literature.” The elements include: (1) the date, (2) prose about a recent event, (3) an aphorism, serving as a move toward poetry, and finally, (4) a few poetic lines. A detailed explanation can be found on his website. By starting with this simple practice, all attendees tackled a major writing hurdle—getting started. Furthermore, it was explained that establishing a daily writing practice is integral for identifying golden nuggets in one’s writing.

Opportunities for Ekphrasis

Since the workshop took place in an art museum, the next exercise included opportunities for ekphrastic writing. First, everyone was told to explore the artwork and identify a piece that stood out to them. Once selected, the educator directed the group to return to their chosen work and inventory what was readily apparent within the art. Like writing the date in step #1 of Stafford’s writing ritual, this served to record obvious details anyone might notice.

Once the group reconvened, they were given the next step: create a shorter list of things you hope someone will see when they look at the piece or things you would like to show them. Again, participants went off in different directions, returning to their selected work of art to consider this prompt. This was a chance to look for hidden details, mimicking the second step of Stafford’s writing ritual. Next, the group was tasked with writing a moral or message based on the piece, relating back to the aphorism stage of the daily writing practice. Finally, writers were prompted to compose a poem in which they engaged their chosen piece of art, drawing upon their previous ideas when writing in the gallery. This last task resulted in a crafted poem, which brought together the previous steps and aligned to Stafford’s final step in which he crafts lines of poetry. Table 1 includes excerpts of students’ poetry.

Throughout this process, the group was led through the exercise step-by-step in the same way they were guided in Stafford’s writing ritual, following the same hierarchy of detail and focus. This allowed participants to consider the task at hand without the pressure of crafting a poem with little to no inspiration or direction. Instead, they began with what was in front of them and added to this until they had engaged with the subject enough to craft a creative work.

Conclusion

During this event educators wrote alongside students, honoring the idea that everyone is a writer, demonstrating the value of a writing community, and emphasizing the importance of establishing daily writing practices. These were not writing tasks that were simply assigned, but rather exercises in which young writers were guided, with educators serving as mentors. To support student writing, we recommend all ELA teachers implement the following practices:

• Daily, informal writing alongside students
• In-class writing practice utilizing varied types of writing
• Scaffolded writing instruction that avoids formulaic approaches
• Opportunities to share and celebrate student writing

Through these practices, students will become immersed within a writing community and move toward living a writer’s life.

  H. Michelle Kreamer is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Site Director of the National Writing Project of Acadiana (NWP-A).

Toby Daspit is a Professor of Education and Department Head of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He serves as Emeritus Consultant for the National Writing Project of Acadiana (NWP-A).

Jack Bedell is a Professor of English at Southeastern Louisiana University. He served as Louisiana State Poet Laureate from 2017-2019 and is the Director of Louisiana Literature Press.

It is the policy of NCTE in all publications, including the Literacy & NCTE blog, to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, the staff, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.

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