Students are writing more now than ever

Students are writing more today than ever. In fact NCTE the Age of Composition according to Kathleen Blake Yancey, past president of the National Council of Teachers of English and Hunt professor of English at Florida State University. Evidence of increased writing is all around us in text messages, blogs, emails, and Wiki's. (In fact, my husband was just fussing at me last night about our cell phone bill as we got charged .20 cents per my text messages above 200.) Why would I need to write so many text messages. Simple. It serves a purpose. It connects me to other human beings. It conveys my meaning in an efficient format. It saves me time. It allows my vote to be heard along with so many others as I vote for my favorite American Idol contestants. It allows me to respond to surveys on radio and TV as I connect to others.This is exactly where are students are. They are using writing to serve the purpose of connecting to others The bonus for writing as an art form it that the more we get people to connect with us through this medium, the more we use the medium. The more students find a willing audience for their writing, the more they write.Is this the 5 paragraph essay kind of writing? Well, duh. That's a fake writing style. Don't they need to know how to write a 5 paragraph essay for college? The writers of this article state that that's "fake writing for a fake audience" and kids who are used to real responses from the real audiences to whom they are constantly writing know this and are turned off by it. Sure we can provide guidance in this kind of writing, but shouldn't we as educators be focusing on teaching students 21st century writing skills? What if we focus on teaching them about voice and audience in no matter what writing venue they choose? What if we model for them how creativity generates a deeper response from a larger audience? Won't that still be teaching the foundations and structure of writing? What if we share with them the intensity of a creative moment and how it feels like the inspiration for it came as a gift from a greater life force? Wont's students be able to relate to all that's powerful about writing because they are now getting closer to experience its power in real time, in their real lives and not just by hearing about "famous" authors' works? We have such an opportunity at our fingertips - to build on what the students find worthy about writing. Let's not isolate their real writing experiences from what we do in classrooms.(Watch the TED video from Elizabeth Gilbert the author of Eat, Pray, and Love, a recent best seller, as she speaks about how creativity comes into one's life much like the Ancient Greeks believed it did. Go to: http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/elizabeth_gilbert.html