Writing Teachers Gather Round

[lunabee34]

I know a lot of my flist is in academia, and zulu and I have been talking about teaching and teaching writing specifically, and I decided to host a post about teaching writing.

So, if you teach or have taught writing at any age level, what are some of the strategies you use? Specific assignments? General thoughts about writing instruction?

If you have ever been a student of writing, what are some things your teachers did that worked? Failed abysmally? General thoughts about learning/teaching writing?

Recs for books, essays, or websites also appreciated.

Please feel free to share this around.

I'll put my thoughts in comments rather than the top-level post.

Comments

Re: Peer Review

[lyr]

I've never been able to make it work, but I plan to try again someday. I think it would be easier and more valuable in upper division and grad courses, but at the freshman level it's like the blind leading the blind. I feel like it theoretically might help them at least figure out what to look for so they can see their own writing more clearly, but I think I would have to make it a much more structured, guided process with a specific set of steps to follow and questions to answer as part of the review process. One of these breaks I'll try to plan that out and experiment with it.

Re: Peer Review

[lunabee34]

I've experimented with having different worksheets with specific things they have to look for which helps. I had a colleague who used to have a lot of success with peer review, and she had them do a specific checklist and then they had to write it up and then the reviewee had to respond and etc. She's gone now, but I wish I had gotten her exact process from her before she left.