In Clearing the Way,  this quote really captured my attention. "As English teachers our major responsibility is to enfranchise student in our classes to such a degree that they think of themselves as writers, as those who use written language to both discover thinking and communicate thought, who boldly try varied forms of writing, using them to meet their needs." I thought that it was a little overwhelming... Like who am I to influence students in a way that makes them want to think of themselves as writers. What if I fail and turn students away from reading and writing. What if I don't equip my students with these 'varied forms of writing' in order to make each of them successful?
As I continued to read, these thoughts calmed. Romano gives plenty of ideas to begin to give these varied forms of writing... He says we are responsible to allow the students to engage their creative side throughout their writing processes. The many ways he discusses need to be incorporated in lesson plans about the reading you are working with. He talks about how writing about a dramatic encounter leads students to creative and realistic thinking. Prose is also another way, which takes many forms such as journal entries, profile of a character, editorials, prequels or sequels. Songs can be written to be more engaging and fun. Poetry gives students a chance to write in a way that they may want to- many poetic forms. This LINK shows many possibilities for poetry writing, and some books that you could use while teaching poetry.

I realized that there are endless possibilities when it comes to writing; I will just have to learn as I progress with each student. Using a variety of writing styles aside from essays will help to engage students in their work and make them excited to do more. You just have to keep them on the edge of their seat!