Response to Bonnie Warne

Writing Steps: A Recursive and Individual Experience
Teaching Conventions in a State-Mandated Testing Context
Bonnie Mary Warne
Writing is a recursive adventure. It goes around and around.
Fidelity is the new F word.
She takes issue with the writing prompts in published writing series. They are not successful with teaching students how to write because they do not have ownership with the topic.
There has to be enough structure to nurture the learning but not stifle it.
She uses a different rubric with each assignment.
Students can get a higher grade with revision.
She fosters a community in the classroom so that students can help each other. They read for each other and read to see if whatever components were required are there.
She does not care as much about the finished piece as she does about the process. That is where the learning is happening.
She pulls good examples from books her students are reading to share with her them. This gets them interested in reading the books and teaches them about how to write. She teaches from where they are and what they are interested in. Use the good stuff.
She uses rubrics to grade her students. She grades them on their ability to see what they need to do to improve their writing and then doing it: their growth.
She also uses good examples of student work (not always students at her school).
Journals: She made bound journals with writing prompts she developed on each page. She also made around the year journals to write in after vacations or special events.
Implication for my classroom:
I enjoyed listening to Bonnie as she shared her philosophy of teaching writing. In my mind she really gets what is important in teaching writing and it starts with her students and their needs. Isn’t that where all good teaching starts? Her focus on writing as a process really struck home with me because it is during the process where learning occurs. Also, I applaud her for grading on growth—such practical thinking! It has long been my “gripe” that the A student will always be an A student, and the struggling student will always fail, if we grade just on benchmarks. After listening to Bonnie I felt as if my thinking on writing and assessing writing, had been validated.