Another day, another post.

In working with students, it is so important to ask the right kinds of questions to get them thinking about their thoughts and opinions- or in the case of writing, their work- without giving them the answers that the teacher thinks are correct.  This is why I liked Atwell’s reading on conferences.  It was simple and straightforward, just how I like it.  Atwell’s work gave names to the type of strategies I see Tara and Elizabeth using at Edison, and they proved their worthiness to me as I work at the Minneapolis Writing Project at the Young Writers Conference. Today, at MWP, the students worked on their piece drawing from inspiration they have acquired while at the Bell Museum.  During quiet writing time, I offered that if the students would like to talk to me about their work that I would be more than happy to do so. Three of the five students wanted to talk with me. However, I unfortunately only got to the first student.  Although I had read this article this morning before going to the Bell Museum, and was excited about potentially using some of its tactics, the space provided did not allow for the particular one that would have been helpful.  Atwell suggests going to the student’s desk to do a writing conference because if they come to you, it may be difficult to get rid of them (I mean that in the nicest way possible).  I found this to be true today at the conference. Seated at a table with the five students surrounding afforded no opportunity for me to circulate. Although I was completely content discussing Eleanor’s paper, it was hard for me to move on because there was nowhere else for me to go. At Edison, I see Elizabeth and Tara doing these types of conferences and I am excited to have this strategy in my toolbox! Leigh, since you are my blog partner and I know you will be reading this, I find this a good opportunity to tell you how good you are guiding students through asking open ended questions that allow for the students to elaborate and expand on their thoughts with more than just a “yes” or “no.” Kudos to you! Sometimes I feel that I may ask students questions that are too closed-ended or leading.  I was happy to see Atwell list some of the questions that would be helpful in dealing with me closed-ended question conundrum.

I also really appreciated VanDeWeghe's article (mostly because his last name is fun to type) because he touched on a point that I think some teachers fail to realize all too often--that students know how to critique and give useful feedback on peer papers.  At Edison on Monday, the students were to write down their thesis statements in regards to an essay question on "Lord of the Flies" on a a worksheet and pass it to a partner who then had to check off that it contained certain phrases or words. Included at the bottom was a space for students to leave any other comments--and they were told that this was mandatory.  The check off boxes went well, it obviously wasn't that difficult to see if their partner's  thesis contained the words "Lord of the Flies, book or novel, William Golding, Imagery and Mood" but I found that the comments that students wrote in the space at the bottom were things such as "Good Job" (with a smiley face and heart next to it, of course) or "You forgot the word Imagery."  The comments were never specific to the content.  I wonder, though, is this due to lack of understanding on how to critique, or just laziness? I think that peer editing is only effective when you have a committed editor that is genuinely concerned about the success of another students paper, rather than being concerned with getting it over with.  Your thoughts???

Here's a cool link that I am totally jacking from Jack (haha). He showed me this yesterday in Tracey's class--it has a Teaching Writing sub tab that includes a plethora of teacher-suggested activities for writing! Check it out!