Some professional books aim to explain and instruct. Others challenge orthodoxies and hope to prompt readers to revise their thinking. In this book I hope to do both. In Part One, I stir the pot, create discomfort with established writing dogma, and suggest better alternatives. In Part Two, I introduce a new concept: greenbelt writing. We’ll explore writing that is low-stakes, informal, student-centered. We’ll see that it is an ideal place for students to:
• find their stride as writers
• experience the joy, pleasure, and passion of writing
• define/identify themselves as writers.
In the second half of the book, we’ll look at various kinds of greenbelt writing, some sparked and structured by teachers, others student-generated. I call this latter category feral writing, and I believe we have undervalued its importance in growing student writers.
Low-stakes writing is important because it builds muscles that strengthen other kinds of writing. But such writing is often tentative and represents a kind of thinking- on-paper. If we want to encourage it, we need to respond to it differently than we would to the traditional writing assignments.
What kind of writers do we hope to see in our classrooms? Will they flourish or languish, be engaged or bored? Can we provide the necessary conditions so they can develop a genuine love of the craft? Having them go through the motions as we check off the various genres—is that really good enough? No, it’s not. We can do better than that. I want to create the kind of writing classrooms where they can look down at the sentences they have written, and cherish every last word.
— From the Introduction
