Okay, turns out I don't have as many brilliant thoughts as I'd hoped, but your point about self-projection in a variety of situations is definitely borne out by what I've seen in student work.
I had one eighth-grade boy tune me out in class, then turn in a writing assignment that amounted to a first-person narrative self-insert Narnia fic. It was great. I scraped up every imaginable gradepoint I could find for him, given he'd obviously totally disregarded my actual instructions, and made sure he knew the story itself was very well done even though his mark could have been better (best line ever had to be when Father Christmas looked at the student's in-story persona and said "I don't have a gift for you, because you aren't supposed to be here." I loved it)
Next time I use that project, I'm going to adapt that aspect of the assignment to allow more students to write self-inserts if they like. It's probably much likelier to engage them in the story overall, and their writing, rather than their lack of motivation, can become my main focus in teaching and marking.
no subject
I had one eighth-grade boy tune me out in class, then turn in a writing assignment that amounted to a first-person narrative self-insert Narnia fic. It was great. I scraped up every imaginable gradepoint I could find for him, given he'd obviously totally disregarded my actual instructions, and made sure he knew the story itself was very well done even though his mark could have been better (best line ever had to be when Father Christmas looked at the student's in-story persona and said "I don't have a gift for you, because you aren't supposed to be here." I loved it)
Next time I use that project, I'm going to adapt that aspect of the assignment to allow more students to write self-inserts if they like. It's probably much likelier to engage them in the story overall, and their writing, rather than their lack of motivation, can become my main focus in teaching and marking.
Win-win-win.