Endorsement

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday yesterday, my classes read ALL DAY LONG! And I read with them. I finished Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing. Honestly, it is the best book on writing workshops that I have read. Not only is it positive and optimistic, it's practical: there's a DVD that actually shows how her strategies and procedures work.

It's not perfect, but then again, nothing is. However, I would strongly encourage all those interested in the teaching of writing to search out this book and devour the contents, taking time to digest each page thoroughly as you would a post-Thanksgiving-dinner-belt-undone-belly-scratchin'-football-watchin' knock of pumpkin pie. It's too much to handler at once, but in order to feel the full impact, you just have to dive in.

Here's a sample:

Reading Like a Writer
• What do you notice about how this text was written?
• Underline repeating phrases or repeating ideas or images.
• Notice how examples that support ideas are written. Underline evidence to support a position.
• Where does the writer show not tell?
• Why do you think the author close to organize the piece this way?
• Why did the piece open the way it did? How would you define the lead?
• What do you think the writer left out of this piece—or cut in revision?
• What did you notice might try in your writing?