When I was in 7th grade, my English teacher, Mr. Z, provided us with a monthly assignment called Free Choice. Its purpose was to encourage writing and teach its processes. Every month we had to turn in a piece of writing - story, poem, song, a few recepies or haikus - with all of the steps of the writing process attached. You could submit anything. This freedom led a lot of students to create things they would not have otherwise. A soft-spoken classmate Sara later said that she was really able to express herself through this assignment. My friend Max, who may not have written anything since then, wrote these stories about the Spoon Empire. I (and some followers) wrote song parodies. Max and I would discuss our work at recess, replacing a normal ritual of trashball. Our collaboration lead to a
website that sparked my interest in claiming my spot on the internet. I performed a
parody for the talent show and that undoubtedly helped launch my theater career. We all learned the steps of the writing process and learend them well, but the reprecussions of our writing are what stuck with us long after some of us forgot what PQS or FATP means.
My middle school later cancelled Free Choice shortly after NCLB spread itself across the country. There was a unique teachable moment in each one of those projects that each student submitted. I might be overdramatic by saying that Free Choice changed my life, but then again, the evidence is before you.
