Introversion and Authentic Writing

The first blog post that I read, "The Energy Cost and the Power of Empathy," came from the becoming radical.  The article addressed how introverted students have an "energy cost" associated with the collaborative, project-based learning environments that most schools have implemented.  The post also urges teachers to be empathetic towards introverts and understand their need to "recharge."  I really liked the author's iPhone analogy.  He described how, just like an iPhone whose background apps drain battery life, an introvert's energy level is drained by things that cannot be seen on the surface.  He also related that to sufferers of anxiety, who have a constant sense of impending doom that drains them from the inside.  I really appreciated this post because I consider myself an introvert. In high school, I can remember being so exhausted at the end of every day from all of the social interaction and cooperative learning.  Now that I am older and in college, I have grown to like working with others, but when I was an introverted high school student having to work in groups in almost every class, I dreaded it.  I especially understood the point about asking students about their introversion.  Constant comments like "you're so quiet!" or "why are you sitting alone?" can seem harmless, but for a young introvert, it just further depletes their energy to have to explain their preferences to someone over and over.  When I was in school, many people said I was "quiet," which to me seemed like something negative.  Even though I went to a small school, I still felt that I was sometimes lost or hidden behind more extroverted students.  At conferences my parents would get many comments about how "quiet" and "well-behaved" I was, which is nice, but doesn't mean that I didn't need support sometimes.  I think it's important for teachers not to brush introverts off as students they "don't have to worry about," because they often have unique, but important needs.

The second blog post I read was called "School Writing vs. Authentic Writing," from writers who care.  It echoed a lot of what we have been talking about all semester.  The part that I really was drawn to was the mention of social media writing.  I think that some teachers and parents hold the assumption that students "can't" or "don't" write anymore.  What they do not understand is that students have grown up in a social-media centered time, and the blogs, tweets, emails, Facebook posts, etc. that they make every day ARE a form of writing.  The author of this blog argues that social media writing is real writing because it is written for an authentic audience.  He goes on to describe how school writing is focused on the teacher as the only audience, and that any clarifying questions about the writing are answered with 'yes' or 'no' as determined by the teacher only.  In authentic writing, the teacher is a guide.  He/she is there to give advice because he/she is not the only audience and therefore cannot have the final say.  I loved how the author talked about authority, meaning that the writer (author) has the ultimate authority over their piece.

I chose these blogs because they both discussed interesting topics and put a new spin on them.  The first post spoke to me personally, and reflected a population of students that is often forgotten about.  The second really made some great points about a topic we have discussed a lot in this class, and I really liked how the author incorporated social media, which is something unavoidable in the modern age.


Here are the links:

https://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/category/introversion/

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