Student Writing
Essays, Poetry, and Fiction
~Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
Writing Portfolios
Paul Graham, in 2004's "The Age of the Essay," notes that "[a]nyone can publish an essay on the Web, and it gets judged, as any writing should, by what it says, not who wrote it." Almost fifteen years later, that "golden age of the essay," as he puts it, is even more evident.
One site that enables students to publish their work for a larger audience is Medium, which encourages exactly this kind of ownership and sharing. It's even used by the makerspace itself to explore new ways of teaching.
Below are two students who compiled Medium portfolios in order to share their writings. More will be added, and feedback is welcomed by the writers.
This end-of-year prompt draws inspiration from Joan Didion, whose perspective on why she writes deals with the building of the self and the understanding of the world around us -- the stuff of a Humanities makerspace, in other words.
The prompt, which was one of three end-of-year assignments, asked students to develop a writing life retrospective. Some of what they produced is personal and shouldn't be shared or showcased, and that, too, is an excellent reflection of the space; some writing, however, has been graciously shared here.
Below are quotations pulled from student writings to demonstrate the power of this sort of prompt.
"Going back and looking through my old writing, even the parts I didn’t put in here, have affected me so much. I didn’t think I had changed at all but when I read it I realized how much I actually changed. Some changed were little, and others were big but I would have never guessed that that’s what changed about me. I think my writing life has been formed by my personality and everything I have went through over the years. I think my writing life has also affected my life as well. I hope that in the future I can still look back, maybe even on this work, and see how I have changed and improved."
"This year I learned to be critical of myself and [be metacognitive] in ways that will help me improve my writing skills all around. I am proud of where I have gotten to with my writing skills and I can truly say that I feel prepared to take of the task of writing my college essay and applying to college. As I have discovered more about who I really am this year I have also discovered the best ways to convey that to other people both in person and through writing."
"I’m grateful that I got this breath of fresh air from traditional english classes. I hope that those that take this class next year realize the opportunity they are given to write freely, and do the work; not bs it, but actually do it. I know in the english class that I’m taking next year I will have the opportunity to write about superheroes, comics, and an abundance of “fun” things. Much different than what I’m writing now. But as I’ve gone from middle school to high school, I’ve seen the change in my writing, and I embrace that next year things might change again, and that, to me, is the beauty of writing."
"[T]his course has changed me as a person entirely. Applying these traits and skills in my real life. The most important trait that has been noticeably applied to my life is empathy which is a good thing. Colleges, jobs, etc. are looking for more empathetic people and people who use these traits... I think that classes like this one should be brought to the children at a younger age and all english classes should use this type of class because it improves the children’s writing and them as a person."