I feel that this chapter had a lot of useful ideas for
bringing writing into the classroom. One subsection I like is “Using Model
Language.” Many times, students won’t introduce a quote in their writing as
they were never told to do so. They just jump write into the quote. I felt this
section was useful as it can show students not only that they have to introduce
their sources, but also how to do so.
Another section I found useful was Revising and Editing. “Rhetorical
Analysis of a Draft” had some great information and things students should look
for when revising their own and their peers’ papers. Often times, when students
hear “edit your papers,” they think only of surface edits: spelling, punctuation,
grammar, and conventions. This helps give students things to look for when
making revisions to their paper, which will ultimately result in stronger writing.
I recently taught a lesson that used many of these same ideas. Students had written
rough drafts and were getting ready to peer review them. Before students traded
papers, I had them look at a sample paragraph and discuss the changes they
would make to them. Most of the changes were stylistic errors instead of
helping to improve the content. I showed them some ways to help improve the
content of the paper and handed out a worksheet with questions on how to
improve the content of their peers’ papers. This made students look more
in-depth when editing their drafts.
Another idea this section presented that I felt would be
useful is both the teacher and student keeping index cards to track changes to
each draft. When many students edit and revise their paper, they do so to the
original document. Because of this, students are unable to see what they
started with, only what they ended with. By seeing how writing progresses,
students are able to see common mistakes they make and ways to improve them.
Writing will improve over time as students are able to cut out editing time as their
first drafts are of better quality.
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