The two pieces I chose to read for this post are “Why Should they Do It If You Don’t” and “School Writing vs Authentic Writing” and they both go hand in hand. “Why Should they Do It If You Don’t” focuses on the idea of teacher modeling. This does not mean showing students correct and incorrect papers, but actually digging into the assignment and writing it from the point of view of the student. This shows students that you are in the assignment together and behave as peers rather than teacher and student. It also helps teacher determine the difficulty, effectiveness, and realistic the assignment and the outcomes are. Uriarte noted that her assignment was very difficult and there were more components and roadblocks for her students than she thought. Once she noted this and modified the assignment, students created profiles of a homeless man, cancer survivor, etc. rather than just a teacher who had the time to talk. “School Writing vs Authentic Writing” focused on the differences between school writing and authentic writing and why authentic writing is more beneficial to students. Lindblom states that school writing gives the teacher absolute authority (Does spelling count? How many sources do we need?) while authentic writing makes the teacher a guide and advice giver (Is this spelled correctly? Can you help me find more sources?).

            After reading these two blog posts, I discovered that writing with/modeling for students helps develop authentic writers. The more work students see you putting into the assignment, the more credibility you gain. In other words, students begin to see your assignments as interesting and worthwhile. They will take the time to plan out what they need to do, find sources if needed, and ask questions of you or their peers. They become the authority figure in their education and work for their own self-gratification. In my experience as a student, my classmates have always done better if we knew the teacher was writing with us. We felt that she would be able to recognize and understand the problems we face and change what doesn’t work into something that does. With everything that goes on in students’ personal lives, it is important that teachers value modeling and authenticity in their classrooms. Without them the classroom becomes a dictatorship, robotically going through writing motions and turning in things less than authentic.

Links for these two blogs are below! Enjoy :) 

https://writerswhocare.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/school-writing-vs-authentic-writing/

https://writerswhocare.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/569/