With the new school year beginning, I've listed what I’d like to see students accomplishing in the writing classroom.
I’d like students…
To participate in a writing workshop with students and teachers writing and learning together.
To feel good about being in the writing classroom because it gives them an opportunity to explore and shape their own thinking.
To understand that improvement will come if they regularly put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard.
To interact with, and feel comfortable around, one another in the classroom.
To feel that their presence matters, that they have something worthwhile to add to the class.
To appreciate what it takes to produce quality writing.
To research and write about topics that truly interest them.
To know what is of foremost importance in writing—the development of ideas.
To understand the value of pushing their thinking to the brink of confusion, if need be, to form their best thoughts.
To know that writing can help them make sense of the fears and uncertainties associated with adolescence.
To discuss writing using terms such as sensory details, clarity, focus, and so on.
To acquire a writer’s ear for good writing and a writer’s eye for potential writing ideas.
To produce one extended piece of writing that requires authentic research.
To feel excited about the creative opportunities that writing offers them.
To never be without a good book.
To discover a new favorite writer, and to know why they find his or her books so appealing.
To appreciate the many online writing opportunities that they have.
To publish some of their writing—in print or online.
To compile a portfolio that truly showcases their abilities as a writer.
To realize, by the end of the year, that writing is not a school subject to master, but an activity that can truly enrich their lives.
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