Teaching Authentic Writing

                Before I read Pahl and Roswell I never really thought about literature as artifacts but after reading about it, it made so much sense to me especially when they mentioned letters and mails. I began to think of all the ways in which I have literacy artifacts in my own life. In box somewhere in my room I have letters from my best friend from high school. My friend and I would write long letters to each other every day. And even though we were being distracted from real writing and reading we were still doing some form of literature. But I also remember not writing so much in high school. The only times I would write was if it was for an essay assignment or for a letter to my friend. I am glad to have those letters and have artifacts of my life. I think it important to view literature as historical or social artifacts because without these artifacts a lot of knowledge we know today would be absent. All of the ways in which we collect information from people and educators comes in the form of literature. Pahl and Roswell made a good point when they said that literature is a piece of history because whatever is written in the present time will be a reflection of the moment in that time.

I agree that teaching authentic writing is important because everyone has a different story to tell and many have the same story to tell but in their own way. It is important that we embrace students to write in their own voices if not then they are not authentic literacy artifacts. The word facts is a part of the word fact and so what good is writing if it is not factual or true to the person who wrote it. I think about all of the ways in which I have conformed as a write sometimes being someone whose first language is Spanish. I feel like often we are stripped away of our identity and our way of writing whether your first language is English or not. What better way to embrace each other’s identity and culture than to allow each other to write authentically. When we write authentically it rings true to someone out there that feels the same way or has the same perspective. Also it is important that we teach students to write in their own voices skillfully so that it is valued. The power of literature is that it comes from a perspective in which we can identify with and if we do not teach student to write authentically then where does that leave our stories?