THE WRITERS‘ MYTH AND TEACHERS‘ REALITY OF WORKING IN ISOLATION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON WRITING INSTRUCTION REFORM

Abstract

Writing and teaching have this in common – popular images of each foreground isolation and art and obscure community and craft. These images play a role in shaping writing instruction in the public schools, particularly influencing the status of community among writers in a classroom. While there has long been advocacy for a move toward including collaboration in writing classes through peer and student–teacher conferencing, and more recently for collaboration in teachers‘ professional lives, through peer mentoring and study, the strength of the image of teachers and writers working at their art in isolation stands against these reform efforts. As a first step in reclaiming the grade school classroom as a site of genuine writing instruction, the role of isolation as a presence in the schools – in writing instruction, as a management strategy, as a narrative of the working lives of teachers and writers – should be examined and challenged.