Sondra Perl's "The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers" was an intriguing one to read.  Not a great title, but a thoughtful study with interesting findings.  And to think of her attempt to examine these "unskilled writers" and their writing processes in a more methodical, less anecdotal way is especially intriguing, if not revolutionary - especially in 1978.  Among the several conclusions that can be drawn from the piece are that unskilled writers are not tabula rasa.  They have ideas and they have strategies; as Perl notes, "they seemed to understand and perform some of the crucial operations involved in composing with skill" (330).  I see this in my own students.  Some of my previously-unsuccessful seventh graders have some of the same writing behaviors (observed in a highly unscientific, less-than-methodical way by me) as I see of those in the study.  They continue to return to their last sentences, to specific words, and grammatical issues, and when they read back to me or a peer their work, they miss word omissions.  And just as in Perl's study, they forget their readers.  Perl describes the writers in this study as egocentric, but I wonder if their lack of audience points toward something else.

Some of the students who find their way into my classroom describe themselves as "bad writers."  I ask them where they got that idea, and they say from their last teacher.  They always mention the terrible grades they have previously earned on their papers.  As I watch these students write, they show the same lack of faith in their ideas as Perl's writers.  They go back to the prompt.  They sit for long periods of time - even when I remind them that this is brainstorming time or drafting time...a time to let their ideas flow.  They seem to get ideas and then quickly discount them.  I don't profess to have all the answers.  To be perfectly honest, I probably don't have any of the answers.  What I do that sometimes works is to ask students to play with words.  We write playfully and with no grades attached.  Actually, that can never be entirely true in middle school.  There are students who would seriously not do anything.  But mere participation in my games earns grades.  So, we write in journals.  Yes.  Of course.  I love Peter Elbow too much to ever abandon freewriting.  But we also write from photographs - students' own and my antique store finds.  Writing about odd groupings of early or mid-century Americans is fun.  We try to find conflict.  Who or what is missing?  Why is one woman looking away?  I also use word association games that turn into poems.  Lists of songs, movie titles, games, and video games turn into collaborative poems.  This week my students were guided to write about their names.  I asked them questioned geared toward making metaphors.  This invariably leads to some surprisingly thoughtful poems from seventh graders.  We map out our bedrooms, using specific details to paint a picture of who we are.

After all of this, we must, of course, write academically.  But before students can write their literary analysis essays or persuasive pieces, they must engage in discussion with others, trying out their arguments and building their cases.  Sometimes this works well.  The more expressive writing reduces the students' affective filters and allows them to taste success, and they actually write more freely and more effectively.

In full disclosure, I must admit that there are days when I am lugging my large moving box of student papers to the parking lot at dusk and I feel sorry for myself, shuffling along, lamenting the weekend of reading that lies ahead of me...especially as I spot my math colleagues, laughing and barreling ahead with a thin wisp of scantrons under their arms, briskly and freely flinging open car doors, already flinging aside academic concerns as they plan happy hours and trips to San Diego.  Then I remember the fun of the games, the flicker of encouragement in students' eyes, and I feel differently. 
Jennifer