THE VOICE OF THE MG TEACHER

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Matt Daly is a teacher everyone loves. And we all wish we could have had him as our own. He is engaged, funny, firm, and willing to listen. He brings to his kids a way of thinking instead of dictating how to think. I visited his school twice on book tours in 2011 and 2012. I hope I get the opportunity again.

As MG authors, we can learn from his words. He sees what effects our books have on the children who read them and the teachers who teach them. And as we head out there, visiting schools and sharing with kids, it is good to hear from someone who knows both about learning and writing and how they must exist together.

We welcome to Project Middle Grade Mayhem, Matthew Daly!

The Need for Privileging Authentic Writing in the MG Classroom

Over the past 11 years, I’ve been blessed to be able to pursue many of the things that I am most passionate about.  My development as a middle school Language Arts teacher has led me into a position as an Instructional Leader in my building, allowing me to teach AND shape policy and philosophy in other classrooms.  I’ve also been fortunate and able to considered myself a writer for most of my life.  I was able to turn my love of Poetry into an MFA, and utilize many of the workshop strategies I learned during my time in the program, within my classroom,  as a means toward helping my students develop a strong sense of authentic writing.

Too often, “Language Arts Teachers”, especially those at the MG level, are lovers of fiction.  Obviously, there are worse things to be than a lover of fiction, but this doesn’t always translate into creating cogent writers.  In fact, I think most LA teachers at the MG level would be hesitant to call themselves “Writers” outside of the classroom.  

This is a problem, and the long term effects of this type of instruction can have potentially crippling outcomes if there are no good models for teachers to base their instruction on in a rapidly changing educational landscape.

    When a teacher is unskilled in the time it takes to truly and authentically develop a piece of writing, they often resort to creating “process” papers, with arbitrary hoops for students to jump through, or with prescribed forms that turn writing into a glorified version of Mad Libs.  In this way, they can more easily manage the outcomes their curricula often demand.  As a society, the new Core Content Curriculum Standards (CCCS) are also moving American education faster and faster towards this practice.
    The new CCCS standards place a high value on reading what they call “Informational Texts”.  While this should be a serious cause for concern within the YA/MG writing community in terms of schools buying and creating access to their work, there are other potentially damaging repercussions as well.  By devaluing fictional texts, the CCCS essentially devalues Creative Writing.
    This flies in the face of what all writers know at their core, which is that all writing, “Informational” or otherwise, is a form and extension of Creative Writing.  An informational text that is devoid of voice, interesting syntax, and varied sentence structures, fails to engage its reader, and therefore, fails in its job of effectively conveying information.
    This is where input from writers can be powerful, especially when dealing with the middle grades.  Educational policy in this country is being shaped by people that are generally far removed from classroom environments.  YA/MG writers have the opportunity to add to the national conversation in a way that shows people that you don’t become a “writer” (and not even a professional writer, just a writing writer, a literate adult) by completing hundreds of prescribed, mandatory, forced topic 5x3 Persuasive Essays.

Eden visiting the classroom last May where the kids are recreating an invention from The Young Inventors Guild.

The best thing that YA/MG writers can do when visiting schools, or speaking to groups of teachers or students, is to tout the way that they compose, and how radically different it is from one author to the next, but also from the way it is taught in schools.  Bring an open workshop to a school, and show the teachers how it functions.  Design an activity for your visit that requires or allows students to complete the assignment in as many ways as possible, and discuss the values of each.

    Two of my favorite authors describe their processes in radically different ways.  Stephen King compares his journey through his story writing as an excavation; the story is there, hiding below the surface, and his goal is to get it out of the ground without damaging it.  He rarely plans out plots in advance, and likes to see where the story takes him.  Orson Scott Card, on the other hand, spends an inordinate amount of time intricately mapping out the multiple plot lines and story structures he desires before ever putting a pen to paper.
    Students and educators need to be made aware of all the different ways that writing writers compose, and begin to demand that they are given the same opportunities.  As authors, you have a great deal of credibility and validation that you can add to that discussion.  Let’s be publically vigilant about the authenticity of writing as something that must be gifted to all students, not simply the ones who have mastered compliance in classrooms devoid of the love of composing essential in becoming a writer for life.

Matt Daly is an 8th grade teacher and Instructional Leader in New Jersey.  If you are interested in his thoughts on education, please visit The Educational Arsonist at www.edarson.blogspot.com . If you are interested in his writing, you can check out www.CountryOfGhosts.blogspot.com .