Comments in the Middle

I got to school today and realized I had not posted anything last night. I am sorry. Here is what I wanted to write about yesterday but just plain forgot.

Over the last week I have been looking at the first drafts we turned in last week. These first drafts were amazing. I read I am From poems with lines that stopped me cold. These poems were filled with amazing little nuggets of writing that I could not believe. Some of the lines made me jealous. There were stories about fairies and birds and dogs and so much more. There were claims about the best ride at Kings Island or the best holiday or the best current Cincinnati Reds or the best cars on the road. Each project was filled with such amazing writing. Reading this writing was worth every second.

On Monday I passed back these first drafts. In the folder that held the first draft was a piece of paper filled with my comments. I love this idea of giving students comments in the middle of the writing process. I remember when I was in school the only time that I got comments on my writing was after the project was complete and graded. The comments that my teacher gave me were lost because I had already moved on to my next piece. I also remember writing a second draft and never knowing what I needed to work on in my piece.

I started to write comments after the first draft two years ago. My hope was that students would get these comments back with an opportunity to use the comments. Hopefully students will use my comments to help them make their writing on their final draft better. Working to make your writing better is hard. There is a quote that I love from X.J. Kennedy about revising writing, "The world is full of poets with languid wrenches who don't bother to take the last six turns on their bolt."

The work that our students are doing right now on their writing pieces is those last six turns. Our class has done all this amazing work on their first drafts, but now they get a chance to make them even better. Hopefully through my comments and through practice the rest of the year students will get better at these "last six turns." Hopefully they will start to see the value in working hard to make their writing as good as it can possibly be when they share it with the world.

I hope you are all having a great start to your week. Second post of the night will be coming soon.