Friday, May 28, 2010
Writer's Workshops
I am looking for some feedback regarding the writer's workshops we did this last school year. I really want to get your honest opinion of the whole process. Did you like total freedom to create your own piece or would you rather have some guidelines/prompts? What about the distance workshop groups with the students from Kit Carson - how did that go? Tell me some of the problems you encountered and how you solved them. Explain how the reflection letter helped you work through or justify your writing and numerous revisons. Finally, how do we make this process better next year? Blogging with Kit Carson is always an option. We could think about a book study. Anything else?
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Kelly, obviously I was not in your class, but I wanted to say what a great VARIETY of experiences you have given to the students. Variety speaks to the variety of students at our school. Letting the students use a prompt sometimes and require that they use entirely their own creativity other times is a great exercise in growth. Having them work with students from another school is a great exercise in real cooperation - the stuff of employment! They don't KNOW all of those students so they need to exercise all the manners that they have been taught and then some. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
ReplyDeleteI think one of the most positive outcomes of the distance workshops with Kit Carson was that our students were forced to verbalize their thoughts with an unknown quantity. They couldn't rely on the old, "You know what I mean" comment - these new kids were not their same comfortable group of classmates. I also like that the workshops let kids experience how others perceive their words. They were used to my comments as a teacher, but to hear their peers say things like: "You need to be more descriptive", "This is confusing me", or even "This part is good, but this part is really boring" helped the kids flesh out their writing skills. They had to take a critical look at their writing and be harsh in making decisions that led to a better piece of work.