I teach through the back door on the stoop. Or maybe under the radar if you prefer a war metaphor. Kate, have you looked at their sat;/act verbal scores? It helps to know what you are up against and to remember where they come from.

I write along with my students. I have assigned a narrative essay first. I have asked them to come up with something they feel is worth writing about. I model that by always bringing in my little daybook where I write down potential writing ideas. I share those ideas and show them which ones I think I will work on. Today they had to have a first draft plus two copies for the students in their workshop group. I knew we wouldn't get to the workshop, but I made note of who had it and who didn't. I found out who would take enough rope to hang themselves. Mental note: email those with a gentle reminder if I have time. I had copies of my first draft--really crappy and sketchy like all my first drafts are. Took me all of ten minutes to go from my little daybook entry to my first draft (very loosely defined). They see my process for luring words out into the open so we can kill them.... er um I mean revise them. Then I show the second draft which is built on top of the first. That's all of two pages that I wrote this morning from 7:00 to 7:40. I deliberately leave it incomplete. I leave question marks in it. I leave brackets in it with stuff I want to flesh out later written down. I want them to get the idea, the radical notion, that their writing at this stage is fluid, that the ink ain't dry. I make mistakes when I write at this stage and they see it.

Before I read this draft I divide them into workshop groups of three. I introduce them to the idea of being a "responsive" reader and how to do that. while I read my second draft aloud to them I model the kinds of responses I am looking for. I ask myself questions, I tell how it makes me feel, I describe what I am reminded of as I read, you know, all the thinkings that come up when you are reading well. I lead them to ask questions. It is slow go, but as we read, responses pick up. When we are done, class is nearly over and we have accomplished several things: 1. we have read an essay together, 2. the word 'draft' begins to have a different, less daunting meaning (it's all about feeling at this age), 3. you demonstrate how to make the workshop function properly (they have a long way to go , be patient) and 4. you begin to have a new identity and competence to them--that of writer. I cannot overemphasize how important I think it is to help them feel they are part of the game. And that it is the best damned game in town. (Show don't tell.) On Friday I will review and ask them to mimic what I modeled for them in addition to one more task: each reader has to indicate what "point" the writer is trying to make. I try to steer away from the word "thesis" at this point, it has a connotative stink to it much like "portfolio" does for Kentucky high school grads., but all I am asking them to do is to state the thesis. That's what I mean by coming in under the radar. Results? Depends. That is the answer you will always get to that question in education. I know this is long-winded, but I hope you will begin to trust your instincts. This is very hard to do when you first start, but if something isn't working it's OK to stop, count to five, and honestly ask your students, "This isn't working, is it?" The look of surprise on their faces is worth the risk you take in asking it.

---(darn old piece of shit that won't let me italicize to differentiate)---I guess I'm just feeling a little lost. I know what I want to happen, but the precise details of getting from point A to point Z elude me. I need to just get over that. Control freaks make bad profs. I can't write their papers for them, so I need not hold each ones's hand through the process. I'm in search of more general ways to get them on the right track. Thanks for the advice, Terry. -- Kate