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Student writer Profile

I recently had the great opportunity to work with a 10th grade student writer attending Ypsilanti High School, while still an undergraduate myself. I corresponded by letter with her, in which she sent me two letters and three original poems. I also met her face to face to interview her about her writing and was privileged to attend her final presentation she presented to her class.

My student wishes to be called Maravilla. She is a 15 year-old African-American student at Ypsilanti High which is in a working class town with a diverse racial population. Maraville struck me as self-confident when I read her first poem and met her in person. She is outgoing and friendly. When we first met she immediately held my hand and we held hands for some of the tour of her high school. When teachers she knew would walk by she would call out very loud a friendly “hello.”

My first question during our interview was whether she wrote her poems for a school assignment or if she wrote them for herself. My hunch was right, she wrote them for herself. Maraville told me she has been writing poetry since the 4th grade and does keep a journal. Poetry is her favorite genre and doesn’t care for writing short stories or anything else. She said she likes to stay “in the box” when it comes to her writing, meaning, once she is comfortable with a style of poetry writing she sticks with it for a long time. The samples I read were influenced by her avid reading of Emily Dickenson and Nicki Giovanni. She mentioned she recently began exploring with writing sonnets, but they were difficult.

Maraville posts her poetry on Facebook but admits “no one really cares” about her writing when asked if her friends or family supported her desire to write. She has a couple friends that attend Washtenaw Community College, she met in a dance class, that like to write and she talks with them about writing, but none of her high school friends are interested in it like her. She is not big on texting or emailing. She said she would rather talk face to face.

When I asked Maravilla about her writing process, she immediately replied “cupcakes.” When asked to clarify she said she likes to eat cupcakes or something sweet to help get her into a creative space. She then said she does pre-writing by thinking first. Sometimes she thinks up one line and then writes a poem around this one line. In one of her poems she was inspired by a friend’s difficult time and wrote something in direct response to them. Maraville said writing helps her process what she sees, hears, and feels.

Maraville’s strengths are her confidence and her voice as a writer. The fact that “no one cares” doesn’t stop her from writing and sharing it with others which is fantastic. She shared a poem with the group when we were visiting her school. It was the most “sexually suggestive” poem she wrote and she was not at all embarrassed to read it to all of us and her class. This poem was really well written; she juxtaposed a weak powerless woman with a strong confident woman (see appendix) by calling the weak one “female” and metaphorically linking her to Eve in the Garden of Eden, to the strong one as “woman” who has the ability of self-love and respect as well as giving real love. Her attempts at writing were successful. She wrote the title as “Female vs. Woman” and then spent the first three stanzas describing “female” as a victim and always seeking a man’s approval. The next stanzas are about “woman” and how a woman has the ability of real mature love and personal strength and power.

“Beautiful I am” (see appendix) was the first poem I received from Maraville. In response to it I wrote I was not only impressed by her writing but her self confidence. It is a poem typical of how many teenaged girls feel. She writes how she has an “exaggerated waistline, crooked teeth, rebellious hair, etc.” The first four stanzas highlight the narrator’s “flaws” or imperfections. The writer then turns the tables and writes three stanzas that turn these “flaws” into strengths and attributes. The writer seems to like to have opposing views in her poetry, to create a tension and then resolve it at the end.

In “Never” the narrator writes about a recent break up. There is somewhat of a tension created because the narrator states the subject “Doesn’t know to love another” yet the narrator expresses their desire to have the subject back into their life. I feel this poem is lacking the cohesiveness the other two have. My guess is that this may have writer to close to an actual experience and if the writer came back to and revisited this piece some time later, it may be revised to be more effective.

My recommendations for this student would be to write an allegory because of the symbolism involved and how similar literary devices can be used as in poetry. Ms. Fossbender, the student’s teacher, did indeed assign the class to write an allegory and Maraville said she did enjoy it. I would also assign haikus for this student to write. I think the rigidness of haikus, the minimal use of language would help this student with the economy of her poetry. The student also expressed an interest in journalism, so I would assign her to write a “newspaper article” about an event that happened in To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the student’s favorite books. This will give her experience in an unfamiliar genre.

An interesting note I would like to make, the student, who otherwise struck me as confident, was very nervous about her final presentation I attended. They were assigned to make a Powerpoint presentation of what they learned that year in English class. Ms. Fossbender, her teacher told me she gave every excuse to the class about why her project wasn’t that good, her pictures weren’t right, her dress was all wrong, etc, before I arrived. Ms. Fossbender was surprised by this reaction from Maravilla. She did a really good job and her presentation was well done. I wonder if my presence made her nervous. This student also made a request to be my friend on Facebook, which I told her in a letter I didn’t think it was appropriate because of the possibility of me student teaching at her school in a year and a half. I did give her email address and told her she could email me. I don’t think she was intimidated by me, but maybe wished to have my approval?

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Interview Questions
What was your best worst writing experience?

What do you write? In school and out?

Where do you write?

What do you like to write about?

What do you read or like to read?

Who would you share your writing with?

Does anyone in your family read your writing? Would you like them to?

What do you think makes writing good?

What does it take to be a good writer?

What do you do when you get stuck writing?

Who has given you the best advice about writing?

What could be changed in school that would make you a better writer?

What are your strengths as a writer?

What experiences would you like to write about?

How do you get your ideas to write?

Under what conditions do you do your best writing?