The Myth of the Boring Topic

In Teaching Adolescent Writers, Kelly Gallagher mentions the need for changing student’s attitude towards writing. Gallagher is an advocate for offering students more choice in writing. He suggests guiding principles for teachers to utilize in a writing classroom. The principle that is the focus of this strategy is, “Sometimes we have to take a step backward before we can move forward” (p. 92). Gallagher believes that before we, as teachers, begin teaching the discourse, we should work on breaking down the negativity students feel towards writing. The first way of breaking down negativity is getting students interested in writing. “The Myth of the Boring Topic” is one way in which you can build students interest and motivation in writing.