5.9 Becoming Your Own Teacher

CONNECTION Teachers won’t always be available to conference with you about your writing—like in college. So what do you do???

TEACHING POINT Today I want to teach you how to be a writer but also how to be a writing teacher so you can tackle writing when you are alone.

TEACHING SAMPLE CONFERRING “How is your writing going? Last time, we talked about writing big but also writing small about your ideas?” (big question and checking in on goals) “You said you are working on supporting your claim with a variety of evidence. Can you show me some of that evidence?” (dive into the text) “I like how you…”(Give compliment) “So you’re going to work on…?” (recap next steps)

QUESTIONS WRITING TEACHERS ASK TEACHING QUESTIONS WRITING TEACHERS ASK What was the last thing you decided to do, to work toward? How did it turn out? Can we look at places where you did that work? What else have you been doing, and how has that worked out? Can we look at places where you did that? What are your specific plans for what you might do next?

LINK Many of you have been talking a minute or two at the beginning of each session to figure out your plan. I hope you realized today that it is important for you to take a little more time to act as a teacher to yourself and ask yourself the questions a teacher would ask. Remember to notice what you have done well!

MIDWORKSHOP Many of you have added a ton of details. Effective writing can’t JUST be a storm of detail. They need to be chosen and controlled. Does it matter to your story if the carpet is green? Is that important and something you would have really noticed? For example, if you are writing about visiting your mother in the hospital and how worried you are, should you spend time writing about all the details in an exciting video game?

SHARE Use the memoir checklist to evaluate yourselves. Are you doing everything you know how to do? Are you using all the strategies you know for powerful writing? Make an action plan for how you will transfer what you know to your current piece of writing!