Checking In

I alloted much of the classes this week to writing. I had to do some coaching about the Writing Process and some strategies for effective writing, but the kids are keen to tell stories. They were discussing character names so I sent them to thinkbabynames.com where they had great name searching for meaningful names. Should make for interesting reading.

For my homeroom in particular, the terrific buzz in the room whenever they were sharing their story outlines, and first and second drafts. There is a wide difference between classes, as my other group is every bit as thoughtful, but with less sharing. My homeroom is loving it, really taking social advantage of peer review, but writing nonetheless. I wonder if they will take as well to the impersonal blogging? Then again, some are passing around their laptops, asking for reviewers to read and comment. How blog like.

This is the scaffold I provided to help make reviewing productive. I'll repeat the same when they write next time and review on the blog.

Outline: Ask two specific questions of your assigned reviewer, then choose two others to share with.

Day two: Reviewers should answer:
1. Something I like...
2. Something I'm not sure about...
3. Tell me more about...
4. You might try...

Day 3 of 3: I made each writer come up with a specific question to put to their reviewer. What specific thing do you want feedback on? This was a struggle for my homeroom, as they kept asking, "What should I improve?" It took awhile to get them to consider where their concerns were, but they came up with, "Where can I improve my sentence fluency?" and "Are my descriptions of the time machine clear to you--please say in your own words what you think I'm describing."

Monday they'll hand in hard copies of the outline, the first draft, and the final, so I can see how much revision went on.

One advantage of blogging for me will be my access to the revision notes. I walked around the room while they talked, but what I didn't overhear is gone.

By the way, I cut back my timeline from three writing assignments to two. There's always something cutting into class time, and I need time for grading!

Hope all is well on your end.

Cheers.