Youth Scribes: Teaching a Love of Writing

“Let me just write already!” says one student to another.

What makes a student want to write?  How can we help students with long-held aversions to writing come to view writing as an invitation to create, to become, and to belong?

In Youth Scribes: Teaching a Love of Writing, R. Joseph Rodríguez argues that when we build adolescents’ scribal identities―writers with diverse abilities, backgrounds, cultures, and interests―we reveal the power they hold to practice writing that is meaningful and relevant to their lives and the world. Once students come to view themselves as scribes, they understand why their writing matters. The word scribe refers not only to the ancient practice that predates the printing of writing and the creation of manuscripts and maps, but also to modern forms of communication that call for editing, transcription, and interpretation to show understanding across various audiences, cultures, disciplines, modes, and situations.

Five guiding principles for writing as a scribal act provide a framework that includes:

How to help students understand their scribal roles

How to support youth scribes to tell their stories

How to maintain scribal cultures of writing with inquiry

How to teach students to write forever and across audiences

Youth Scribes includes selections from literary works that complement the habits of youth scribes, while “A Scribe in Action” microessays by master teachers and authors demystify scribal identities, acts, and behaviors.

Adolescents want to write from their lived experiences.  They want to serve as interpreters and translators of their cultures, expressing themselves on the page to hear themselves and to be heard, seen, and understood.

As teachers, we can guide our students to a love of writing that is essential, just, necessary, and timeless.  Youth scribes.  Write on.