I could not help but make connections to Atwell and to Ray as I
read this chapter. I, too, love what Hale says about teaching
voice. She talks about the fact that while you can’t teach
voice directly, you can provide specific techniques that will
help students develop voice in their writing. She says
that ‘voice’ may be the result of “several years of independent
reading and taking in the different rhythms texts can offer”.
Ray also makes this reading/writing connection when she suggests
that we ask our students, “What have you read that is like what
you’re trying to write?” I think it is the more than the
structure of a piece that Ray is pointing at with this question;
it is also ‘voice’.

I think Atwell provides this type of specific skill or technique
in ‘Lessons that Change Writers’. For example, in one of her
lessons on free verse poetry, she asks students to ‘begin
inside’ – to be IN the setting and the action of the poem in the
lead in order to draw the reader into a particular time and
place. And, in another lesson, she invites students to become
aware of ‘the power of I’ – give the reader someone to identify
with, somewhere to be in the poem, something to experience
vicariously by using the first person perspective. These very
specific skills are transferable to all kinds of writing, and
practicing them, playing with them in free verse poetry, allowed
my students to really see how they could contribute to and
change the feel of a piece of writing. Judy, this type of
lesson reminds me so much what Hale is describing when she
says "show students one particular way to write at a time so
that each one is small enough to hold in their hands and own."

Dc, I do like the idea of ‘charting’ the craft skills taught –
like an anchor chart of possibilities. Atwell ingeniously uses
the titles of her lessons to ‘name’ the skills (e.g., ‘The Power
of I’) and this works when the concepts are more general,
like ‘using first person’. I can see that the type of chart
that would emerge from Hale’s ‘Crafting Writers’ might be more
detailed (like the tables in the book).

Knowing how much these ‘craft lessons’ helped my students, I am
very excited about the prospects of learning more in the coming
chapters. Hale is so right! There are lots of proflit books
that teach us how to teach ‘genre’ in terms of the overall
structure of a piece, but there are few that actually get into
specific craft. Again, this fits so perfectly with what Ray
says when she points out the difference between ‘mode’
and ‘genre’ and when she talks about using as many words as
needed to describe ‘exactly’ the type of writing you are aiming
at producing. The more ‘specific’ we get in our definition of
the ‘genre/type’, the more we are really talking about craft, I
think.

How wonderful it must feel to be able to confer with a student
and KNOW what specific skill they need to consider! Like Terry
said, I feel like I’ve been teaching the ‘writing’ rather than
the ‘writer’, even in my one-to-one conferences. And, even
though my ‘Atwell’ lessons have been a boon for my students, my
own repertoire of craft skills is limited.

I love what Hale says about ‘asking questions’ during
conferences, and how it is not enough to just ‘help the writing’
by asking questions that lead to more specific details. You
want, instead, to leave the writer with some specific skills
that can be used in future writing endeavours. (Of course in
order to do that you need to have identified the skill and
understand why and when it is useful. The more I read about
teaching writing, the more aware I become of the limitations of
my own knowledge base of writing as a craft! So much to
learn . . . so little time . . . . )

On 7/03/08, Terry (again after reread) wrote:
> Chapter 2....
> I went back and reread today, taking notes, and reflecting.
>
> I again really like the reference to swimming lessons, we
> can't just show the whole, we need to break it into parts.
> When I first started at my school, the prof. dev. (if you
> can call it that) was all about looking at things at a
> whole. Our state test is scored in that way, so many
> teachers are geared that way, and we must assess this way.
> But, we do not need to teach this way! But that is the rut
> many get in.
> I love how it was said, we can't have an expectation,
> without guidance on how to get there.
> The discussion on voice was interesting, the fact that we
> need to teach them steps to reach voice. This is true, and
> it also true that it takes time. The students need to
> be "exposed, learning and experimenting" and it takes years
> of this.
> I have been fooled by the thinking when they do it in the
> lesson, they must be getting it, so why aren't they applying
> it? It is because I am still teaching the writing, not the
> writer, though I have stood by that quote, I still don't
> think I am there. I am not teaching them the small skills
> that they can "use tomorrow and the next day". I am teaching
> in the moment.
> I am still not quite getting the craft skill, and specific
> craft and umbrella thing yet. I think I need to read more. I
> understand the examples, but I am still trying to see what
> it looks like in instruction. What will be the organization
> of my instruction of specific craft look like? I love the
> idea of giving them techniques to choose from...but not sure
> how to get them to apply it just yet. I do believe my
> questions will be answered...and I am glad I am hungry for
> them!
> I can see where Study Driven will fit in with the noticing
> and gathering of specific craft...so it is coming on the
> plane with me RD...I don't think we need to wait. That book
> is a slower read for me.
> Okay, I think that covers most of my thoughts,
> Terry
> PS Oh yeah, one more question for all of you: What do you do
> to increase volume in your student writing?

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