This video will talk about the value of writing territories. Writing territories help us as teachers to get to know our students. It's important to get to know every student because each individual students, especially each individual, reluctant writer, has his or own individual needs and challenges. Too reluctant writers are likely reluctant for different reasons, and as a result, the same strategy may not help both of them. The approach needs to be individualized for each student. It's also important to build relationships with students. The more students trust us, trust that we mean what we say and trust that we really do want to help them, all of our chances will be to succeed. Writing territories help us share who we are with our students through modeling. Modeling is important from a practical standpoint, so students can see us doing what we are asking them to do, and they can learn how to do it by watching us. Even more important is the sense of community that arises when we open ourselves up to students in some of the ways we are asking them to open themselves up to us. If I'm asking you to tell me about your family, shouldn't I tell you about my family, too? If having you share stories of your family is important, then isn't stories about my family important also? The idea is I'm not asking you to do something that I won't do myself. Writing territories show that we are co-writers and co-learners with our students. That idea of co-writer is critical. I mentioned previously that Ernest Hemingway set of writers that we are all apprentices in a field for which there are no masters. Your students experience writer's block, you experienced writer's block, I experience writer's block. [LAUGH] We all experience writer's block. We're all facing the same challenges, the differences in degree and in the amount of experience we have versus what our students have. We have faced most of the challenges that they are just beginning to face. I tell students in my graduate writing classes that the biggest difference between them and me is that I've already made most of the mistakes that they haven't made yet. Writing territories help us maintain a growth mindset in working with reluctant writers. The more you get to know your students, the more individual attention you are able to give them, and the more noticeable their improvements will be to you. You'll be able to see students growing, even if that improvement happens over small steps. For students, writing territories can help defeat the fear of writer's block. If you have a long list of territories you could write about, you can draw in one of them whenever you feel blocked. Because these are territories that you chose, they will more likely be easier for you to begin writing about than something that was chosen for you, and you'll be more likely to care about what you're writing. Writing territories take advantage of the value of student choice and student voice. Students write better and come to writing more easily when they are interested in and care about what they are writing. When they can choose what to write about, they're more likely to be interested and to care. Having that choice also empowers student voice. Because I have been able to choose what to write about, I am more likely to feel that I can write about that subject in my most natural voice. And finally, writing territories help students realize that they can be writers. I mentioned earlier that writers write and the response that you might get from some reluctant writers is, well, I'm not a writer, and they don't think of themselves as writers. In part, many of them don't want to, again, because they struggle so much. But many of them also just can't conceive of it because they don't see themselves sitting down to write and enjoying it and doing it with a certain amount of ease, or at least without a lot of struggle. But the more they are able to write in ways that proved doable for them, the more they're going to see that, yes, they can be writers and in fact, they are writers because they're writing.
