Among those ideas expressed in Chapters 14-14, I thought that the author's insistence that students be their own critics, that they trust their own judgment, was the most valuable to me.
Students naturally want to please their teachers. This desire to please can be counter productive when it comes to their writing. If they are always looking to their instructor for affirmation, they never learn to trust their own intuition, their own visceral reaction to their writing. They will always be second guessing themselves and, eventually, stop writing for fear that their writing has no value.
Likewise, writers need to learn to spot their own errors. They need to be aware of their own pre-writing and drafting strategies, and their own approaches to revision.
Such awareness should come as a result of an ongoing conversation between the writer and the teacher, and the writer and him/herself.
I appreciate the kinds of questions the author suggests to use, questions that help the reader develop such awareness. The questions are as much directed at the writer as at the writing. (Other authors have pointed this out.) This concept is a new one to me. I hadn't thought so much about the writer in the way I understand it now. In fact, it seems to me that the writer is far more important than the writing. I will modify my own approach to conferring with this in mind.
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I really liked this concept that Caulkin goes over. I find it really sad that students, even when they are editing themselves, are actually editing through the eyes of past teachers. I don't think I stopped doing this until college.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Kell9582. having a conference with ourself is always helpful.
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