How to teach/learn heart
One of the first things I realized, when encouraging my students to write, is that that my students need something to focus on. I can't say "Go write about how you feel today." That is way too open of a topic. But even more importantly they need to know that no matter what they write about, it wont be "good" if it doesn't have "heart." This doesn't mean that it has to be mushy and overly feeling. It means that there is a kernal of truth, something that drives the writing, some essence or point that makes what you write intriguing, interesting or thought-provoking. How does one teach "heart?" I do this through modeling. I was gave all three of my classes the same prompt to write about a word. The word I choose was courage. I wrote a piece in 2nd block, then 3rd and then 4th. I realized that as the day progressed me pieces got better. That first piece, as I told my 4th period class, was trash. I was able to show them what something ...