The Teacher as Dostoevslcian Novelist by

This paper examines the teacher's role in elementary and secondary school writing workshops--the teacher as Dostoevskian novelist creates a classroom novel and takes up relations with student-characters. The paper focuses on: the rejection of traditional relations among novelist and character, teacher and student, and the embrace of new ones; how students ' freedom is imagined and achieved in writing workshops; and teacher authority and power in the writing workshop. The workshop approach outlined parallels that used by Dostoevsky in his novels: the creation of a world in which multiple voices coexist and interact. This environment, an adventure plot in contrast to traditional classroom plot, encourages freedom in students ' writing. By writing students into an adventure story, and by constructing the ' teacher's role as one of supporting student-adventurers, this workshop approach ha