Writing+Intentions

Michigan Reading Association and National Writing Projects of Michigan. (2007). //Writing intentions: Prompting professional learning through student work.// Grand Rapids, MI: Michigan Reading Association.
 * //Treasure Hunt Ideas; Standerford//**
 * 1) **Teach the writer, not the writing**. Renee Webster (p. 11) discusses ways to work closely with your students as writers rather than focusing lessons on specific skills and sequences. She talks about having conferences with individual students and discussing what they are already doing well in their writing, giving the craft they are using a name. After celebrating what the student is doing well, find **//one//** revision technique or area to provide scaffolds for them to improve. Model for them, guide them, allow them to try it on their own. Here is where a framework such as 6+1 Traits can give a teacher the language and the focus for the conference.


 * 1) **Involve students in assessing and discussing their own growth**. Marsha Page (p. 25) shows how she has first graders reflect on their own writing growth and pieces by using portfolios. She prepares the students to talk about what they are doing well and to use their work to show the growth they have made. She empowers the students to show and tell their families what they are learning and where they are in the process.


 * 1) **Dance with authors you treasure**. Bev Matulis (p. 36) gives tips on how she uses the work of her favorite authors as models for her students. She identifies the traits of a writer that make her enjoy his/her work and she names these craft tools. She shares and names them with her students. They consider how and why authors might make the decisions they do. She supports students in knowing how to make their writing better through using these mentor authors and touchstone texts.