Drafts and Intentions
Last Friday, I collected all students’ drafts and brought them home to read over the weekend. After four weeks of (almost) non-stop charged sessions and lots of conferring, I was eager and a bit nervous to see the result across pages. What I encountered was pure creation, agency, and growth. What I taught—and didn’t—showed on each page as clear as day. For example, I knew from day one that transitions needed to be taught and reinforced often, so I intentionally planned those mini-lessons and small groups. As I read their drafts, I saw a fun mix of “for instance,” “one time we…”, and “another reason I…”
Throughout this unit, I’ve enjoyed the flexibility of adjusting lessons to my writers’ needs, tapping on specific areas that needed more explicit teaching (e.g., word choice and endings), even when time kept starring at me from the corner of my office. I know and value the reason to keep units short, and when I realized this project would take six weeks, I made it my goal to not go past those six weeks. Each time the thought of reteaching a strategy flirted with me, I whispered back, “Reteaching would lower expectations. I believe they can, so they will.”
Don’t get me wrong; I know how important it is to give students ample opportunities to practice newly acquired strategies. And just because we don’t get to do it right now, in this cycle, doesn’t mean they won’t—This won’t be the only unit in which they practice making deliberate word choices or invite their readers to take action. Also, we are about to go into our third and last Bend, which will be the time to roll up our sleeves and apply everything we’ve learned. I trust what I know, and when my gut tells me reteaching is for my peace of mind and not for them, I stop myself.
A Writer’s Mindset
Besides the high rigor in each session, I invited students to think like writers. Writers aren’t people who happen to have a talent for words or creative ideas; writers are people who care enough to learn about new ways to improve their craft. I often said, “I can spend hours creating charts for you, conferring with you, and explaining how to apply a strategy, but change will only occur if you choose to revise your words.”
We went back to the checklist almost every day. We tallied each time we tried a lead or added new evidence; we underlined words in our drafts that made our claims valid. We even dared to cut stuff out and cut our drafts into pieces to reorganize different parts. That’s what helps a writer improve, the choices they make each day.
Those students who took what I said seriously wrote from their heart with more vulnerability than those who wrote from a place of confidence. There is pure gold hidden between lines in their drafts and certain entries in their notebooks, and I pray that they have also seen the birth of their writing voice.
Documentation
Working on this unit, even at 1 AM, when the stream of ideas flows freely and aggressively, has been a process I wanted to document thoroughly. I have tried to capture every thought, question, issue/solution, management system, sign of self-doubt, and much more in a place where other teachers can benefit from it. Organized and comprehensive teaching plans move me, and I hope to help other writing teachers (wink, wink, Amy) deliver this powerful unit with as much ease and joy as possible.
Next, my students will face the most significant challenge working on this project:
- Carry everything they learned in four weeks and apply it to a new idea.
- Go from personal essay to persuasive opinions.
- Do all this in four days.
My challenge will be to deliver quick and helpful feedback in brief conferences before reaching the publication date. I planned for all mini-lessons, and I wrote several entries for explicit teaching, which was another plus of this unit: I got to write almost as much as they did! Maybe I’ll share my final draft here once we reach the finish line.
Start with a Story 