A Site and Service Dedicated to Secondary English Teachers
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Practices and Pedagogies


 

 

Frequently Asked Questions...

The following are some quick tips and suggestions, thoughts and ideas about teaching practices in the middle and high school English classroom. I started by answering those most often asked about in workshops that I present. I would love for this page to be an ongoing collection of your questions.  So, submit a question and I can post the question and answer on this page.

 

 


 

What the experts say...

"The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile." --Robert Cormier

 

"Poetry: the best words in the best order." --Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 

 

 

But, I'm Done...

I had a banner that spanned the length of the classroom. It read: Your Work Is Never Done, Only Due. This became a mantra in my classroom afYouter I stole it from Jeanie Leiby, one of my writing professors. No more "I'm done," with pencils put down. Within two weeks of school if someone tried to finish early I wouldn't even have to say anything...all the other kids would chime in... (with a heavily sarcastic tone) "Your Work Is Never Done, Only Due." This means we keep writing until time is called, until the assignment is due. Even if you are only turning in one sentence, that sentence can get better and better.

No word counts

I try to leave out the parts that people skip.  ~Elmore Leonard

What happens when we tell our students that their work needs to be a full page, or 5 paragraphs? Many times we get repetition or useless material that simply fills space. "But if we don't," teachers say, "they will only give me a sentence or two."  That seems so much better to me--a lot less time for you to weed through repetition and nonsense.

If they give you a two sentence essay and it works, then it works. This is rarely the case though? Why? The ideas are not developed. A main idea is no present. There is no support for the points the author wants to make.

Now you are giving the paper back to the writer having focused on the writing and not the rules of the assignment.


 

Student: Did we do anything important when I was absent yesterday?

Teacher: No, no. We just mourned your absence and pined for your return.

 

  

  

 

 

 

But my struggling kids NEED the 5 P structure?

Yeah, not really. I will gladly take students who have no concept of the 5P formula essay over those who have been writing it for 5 years. They get stuck in a rut. The reason we have relied to heavily on the 5P essay is because it is a realtively easy and quick way to teach an acceptable form. But it is not real writing. And students CAN and WILL write in a way that is organized when they are given the opportunities. They simply need more time to explore all that their writing can say.

We tend to focus more on organization than we do on ideas. The 5P formula essay assumed 3 points for each topic with little room for expansion (especially in a timed writing) but if we let them discover their point--it might only be one mode of support. That support, however, might span two or seven paragraphs and will dive deeper. Writing is NATURALLY organized. Once in a while scattered, off topic thoughts cloud the writing, but those are easy fixes in general.

The formula is not a rung on the ladder to better writing. It is a method that heads in one direction while real writing heads in the other. Give your students more time and opportunities for writing. You'll see the difference.