The power of workshop teaching is the focus on individuals — not products. It’s an essential shift for us to make as teachers of writing. Our energy is behind students — where they are today as writers and helping them to get better. (Our energy is not on posting perfect pieces in the hallway.)
We know our students are not perfect, nor will they ever be. Hey, I’m nearing thirty, but not nearing perfection. And that’s okay.It’s okay that our students are not catching every single grammatical error. It’s okay that their spelling is slightly phonetic. It’s okay that supporting quotes in editorials aren’t quite making the point.
Because the important part of education is the growth in learning. Our students are better writers, better spellers, better composers, better readers today than they were a week ago. And they will be even better in a month. It’s about the process of becoming great and embracing the imperfection along the way.
Originally posted: November 8, 2006
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I’m so glad you shared this again. We all need to be reminded that it’s not about perfection, but continual growth and the opportunities for new learning that come with mistakes.
Thank you for pulling this one out again!
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This is such an important reminder. We are under such
pressure to have products that impress that we pass this onto
students. Problem for me is that many administrators want us to
post student work, but don’t want the mistakes.
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In his book, Mechanically Inclined, Jeff Anderson talks about loving the errors. The errors tell us where to go next with teaching and errors show that writers are taking risks. Risk-taking is central in both reading and writing workshop. I wonder how many struggling writers are struggling because they have had the “risk-taking” pounded out of them.
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I am so glad that you have been reposting some of your older thoughts – we get to benefit from it, and I imagine it is also very beneficial to you as well. I always love to revisit my previous thoughts.
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