I find if rather curious that once I become familiar with something or someone that it often turns up again. For instance, say you go to the same school as someone. You may pass them everyday in the hall, but you never notice them until one day you are introduced to them at the library by a mutual friend. Now that you have formally met that person it seems that you see them everywhere from that point on. The same connection seems to be true between chapter seven, Best Practices in Teaching Evaluation and Revision, and Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools, the book I read for the independent reading assignment. Both texts state that revising is often a step in the writing process that students are reluctant to complete because they have not been completely familiarized with the jargon and process of revising.
“Writing is revising, and the writer’s craft is largely a matter of knowing how to discover what you have to say, develop, and clarify it, each requiring the craft of revision” (p. 141). Not all students will be naturally talented writers. Even those who do possess a talent for writing will need to be shown ways to improve their own writing as well as how to give and take constructive criticism from teachers and peers. I believe this is where modeling comes in to play. Both texts seemed to strongly support the practice of modeling in order to teach students a process rather than just expecting them to automatically know how to do something. With the guidance of teachers, students must “read as readers” to identify issues of clarity (p.143). In other words, students must detach themselves from a piece of writing and put themselves in the shoes of an audience member.
The author of chapter 7 in Best Practices in Writing Instruction states that “one approach to improving revising skills is to teach students to evaluate their writing or that of their peers using specific criteria,” such as content and organization, and “then to revise their papers based on the evaluation” (p. 144). This is wonderful in theory, however, in order to reach this step teachers must first take the time for “extensive practice” by modeling the processes of editing and revising with students. This process teaches students how to recognize errors in organization and clarity, confusion in characterization and plot, etc.
I believe that Blasingame and Bushman would agree with MacArthur’s (the author of chapter 7) statement that teacher’s should teach the writing process in a step-by-step fashion. He also says that different parts of the writing process should be taught within a particular genre. For instance, voice could be taught using song lyrics in which two different artists sing the same song. This would allow students to define and identify voice and how meaning can change based on how something is said and by whom.
