“Responding to students’ papers is like composing, like looking at the mess of my experience and ideas and trying to tease some patterns and order out of it. When I’m responding, really responding to a student’s mess of a paper, I’m thinking like a writer: figuring out what I have to say about the paper, and what the audience (the writer) likely will think/feel/do if I say it like this. Or if I say it…
Several years ago, Georgia Heard was visiting our area. I was one of a handful of teachers who found themselves graced with the opportunity to spend an afternoon with her at Canisius College. I’m reliving that experience this week as I reread Writing Toward Home: Tales and Lessons to Find Your Way. It’s one of my favorite books about writing…right up there with Bird by Bird and Writing Down the Bones. This week, I’m discovering…
Hats off to Lee and Sachi LeFever, who recently pulled together another gem of a video that I know many teachers and students will appreciate. If you like the engaging simplicity of this brief “how-to”, be sure to visit the Common Craft website, where the perplexing is made plain on a regular basis.
Tom Romano moved the hearts and minds of many writers and teachers with the release of his book Blending Genre, Altering Style nine years ago. As a teacher, I was drawn to multigenre writing because it challenged my students’ traditional notions around style, organization, voice, and theme. Multigenre writing is disruptive in nature, and as a result, it’s incredibly engaging to read. Creating multigenre pieces requires an appreciation of each genre’s effect on a reader…
This just made my day last week. My friend Monika and I were chatting about writing and kids over coffee last week when she shared some concerns about her own little boy, whose name is Luke, and his disinterest in the whole process. Our conversation wasn’t long, but she picked my brain a bit about how to engage him as a writer, and I tossed out a couple of ideas. Mostly, I just suggested that…
The very first time I submitted myself to any sort of peer review, I was a freshman in college. For weeks, I poured my energy onto the page, pushing and pulling at the plot of my short story with such terrific angst that by the end of the ordeal I barely had enough energy to cross the campus and turn the thing in. My professor greeted me at the door. It took thirty seconds for…
Once upon a time, publication was seen as the “icing” on the composition cake. Providing kids the chance to publish their work was a nice idea, but it was hardly any teacher’s top priority. That was yesterday. In today’s world, kids are not merely consumers of content, they are creators as well. And writing isn’t merely about getting a grade or even entertaining an audience. Writing is about connection. It’s about conversation. Collaboration. Synthesis. Publication…
Is it your perception that your students are incapable of editing their own work or others effectively? Have you given up on peer editing entirely as a result? I’d like to invite you to change up your approach a bit, and try again. Maybe the writers you are working with aren’t the problem. Maybe your peer editing protocol is. Two Quick Steps Toward Powerful Peer Editing Experiences: Identifying what kids can do and placing them…
Admit it. You don’t spend nearly enough time allowing students to give and receive feedback on drafts of their written work because you feel the need to maintain some level of “quality control” around what happens during these exchanges. You’re guilty. All of us are at some point, I think. New writers are not often able to provide the sort of feedback that is helpful to others for a number of different reasons, including the…
Drafting is the stage of the process where voice begins to emerge. As a writer’s work begins to take shape, voices are heard with greater clarity. They become distinct. Refined. Identifiable. I think this requires something of an evolution though. Drafting delivers voice when writers are provided time and a safe environment to create in. Too often, we ask kids to attend to organization first and foremost, and as a result, they produce writing that is formulaic and…