Atwell- Chapter 1 (Always Beginning)

What I love most about Atwell is that she gives her students "freedom of choice." I'm learning how important that when working with 7-12th graders. In our class, when we did that rubric activity with cookies, we discussed why we should do that activity with students: to give them some power and some choice. Before Atwell dove into the writing workshop process, she asked her students: "Could you do this? Would you like to?" I think that giving students that kind of power helped the workshops to succeed.

Atwell states: "We found out that in-school writing could actually be good for something--that it could serve kids as a way to solve problems and see the world." That is the ultimate goal! I would love to do in-class writing that results in this way. However, Atwell explains that this was sort of a honeymoon phase and that it eventually gets more difficult. That's when she would ask them what they care about and I think my students at Erwine would really respond well to that. I'm sure many of my students have something to say to their reader and I think that they would tend to their editing so that the reader paid more attention to meanings.