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A review by rose_peterson
The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades by Judith C. Hochman, Natalie Wexler
3.0
My first thought when I picked up this book was, "This is the complete opposite of how I was taught to teach writing." My second thought--quieter, reluctant--was, "And the way I was taught isn't working."
TWI demystifies what can often be an amorphous writing process, based on what "feels" right, leaving many students in the dark. It presents ideas of how to teach writing from a skills perspective, from the sentence fragment level up.
I did take away some useful things:
- using dotted lines to indicate planning/notes and solid lines to signal drafting
- how to embed writing instruction into other content areas (and the necessity of it, as it boosts rigor)
- sentence activities
- reminder that outlines reduce cognitive load
- GST introduction-writing strategy
I had frustrations, though, too. After the opening chapter on sentences, much of the information felt like things teachers already know but struggle to teach, and TWR didn't give ideas for how to actually present the content to students--which, for me, is the struggle of teaching. For example, the authors write, "Introduce each of these steps by guiding discussion and then model the strategies and activities--in a way that students can observe--and provide feedback," but don't give creative, engaging suggestions of how to do that.
I was lucky to have read someone else's review prior to beginning the book that advised the activities were not clearly marked, so I made it a point to star all activities in the margins for easy future reference.
In general, I'm skeptical of the single-minded focus on college readiness and formulaic writing instead of authentic, lifelong writing. And, I'm still struggling with the idea that all writing must be planned and calculated from the outset...but the bottom line is that most of my students aren't writing at all, and I need to figure out what to do about that. Maybe TWR has some solutions.
TWI demystifies what can often be an amorphous writing process, based on what "feels" right, leaving many students in the dark. It presents ideas of how to teach writing from a skills perspective, from the sentence fragment level up.
I did take away some useful things:
- using dotted lines to indicate planning/notes and solid lines to signal drafting
- how to embed writing instruction into other content areas (and the necessity of it, as it boosts rigor)
- sentence activities
- reminder that outlines reduce cognitive load
- GST introduction-writing strategy
I had frustrations, though, too. After the opening chapter on sentences, much of the information felt like things teachers already know but struggle to teach, and TWR didn't give ideas for how to actually present the content to students--which, for me, is the struggle of teaching. For example, the authors write, "Introduce each of these steps by guiding discussion and then model the strategies and activities--in a way that students can observe--and provide feedback," but don't give creative, engaging suggestions of how to do that.
I was lucky to have read someone else's review prior to beginning the book that advised the activities were not clearly marked, so I made it a point to star all activities in the margins for easy future reference.
In general, I'm skeptical of the single-minded focus on college readiness and formulaic writing instead of authentic, lifelong writing. And, I'm still struggling with the idea that all writing must be planned and calculated from the outset...but the bottom line is that most of my students aren't writing at all, and I need to figure out what to do about that. Maybe TWR has some solutions.