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…
Okay okay okay! So, we’re going to play a little game with ELA standards for a minute. I don’t care whose standards they are. Could be the ones from my state or your state or whoever’s state. Now, I’m wondering what would happen if we took the real work of kids, the work that they do outside of school, on their own time (because they love doing it) and we introduced them to the standards and asked…
Image taken from: http://users.moscow.com/rickf/images/writingprocess.gif Yesterday, I began a series of posts on the writing process and the Traits of good writing. I’ll spending the remainder of the week exploring each phase of the process and the Traits that are embedded within it. Today’s topic? Prewriting. Prewriting is all about idea-gathering, and as we idea-gather, we’re often inspired to do some great pre-writing. This phase of the writer’s process is about considering what you want to…
I know how I would answer this question, and I’m sure that the definition would shift a bit depending on who you asked, what they preferred to read, and how many essays they were responsible for providing feedback on over the weekend *smile*. When I think of what good writing is, I think of this book, this post, and these videos. I think of the work that Noah does. I think of her. And her.…