Compare and Contrast: Writing UGP vs. Reading About UGP

Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone discusses writing in an unfamiliar genre to get kids to step outside of their comfort zones. Cathy Fleischer talks about seeing this project brought to life in class, and a lot of the things she noticed are things that I struggled with.

The worst fear that all students share is humiliation, which is exactly what I thought I would feel when I presented my project. I felt really good about it when I was working on my final draft and making it look all nice and shiny, but then came the time to present and my mind started playing tricks on me. Like it said in the book, I started looking at my mistakes and worried about sharing my project with others because I thought it was weird, and I thought it would look like easy work compared to what my classmates did. I was really uncomfortable writing in this genre because I didn't really know what I was doing. Making up the rules as I go along is how I live life, but it just felt wrong doing that for the UGP.

But after I started presenting I noticed something. All of us struggled! All of us were unconfident! We were all in uncharted territory. This made me feel better since I wasn't the only one who didn't know what I was doing.

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