I have been following the Two Writing Teachers blog for at least 6 years. At NCTE in 2014, I sat next to Melanie Meehan at the Slicer dinner. Melanie was not yet a member of the TWT team. We talked about writing, and she asked me to join her online critique group. At the time, she and I were both writing middle grade fiction.
Fast forward a few years and now Melanie has published a professional book. I won her book Every Child Can Write from a TWT blog giveaway. I’ve been reading and marking it up ever since it arrived. I am so impressed with the attention to detail and practical advice for our most challenged writers. Melanie calls them striving writers. In my opinion, all writers are striving writers.
I teach gifted kids, but that doesn’t mean they are all efficient writers. They struggle with many of the things Melanie covers in her book, idea generating, making transitions, adding details.
When reading a professional book or attending professional development, we look through the lens of our own experience. My students write a Slice of Life each week. I have been grading these posts using a rubric. Melanie made me look deeper at what I was asking my students to do. Were they authentically involved in the process?
Melanie asks her readers to consider designing writing checklists with kids. “Just as we need to understand the concepts, so do our students. Additionally, using their own language is powerful because students are then intrinsically involved in the self-assessment process…Student involvement in creating checklists leads to understanding on their part, and when they understand, the are better able to move along the ladder of mastery.”
I decided today to ask my students what they would include on a checklist for their SOLs. This is the list they compiled:
- Details: Details help the reader imagine the scene
- Your story: First person POV
- Voice: Unique, humorous, new, emotional, have personality
- Defining unknown words for others
- Stay on topic
- Imagery: Use the senses
- Grammar
- Paragraphs: Change with new topic or new speaker
- Spelling
I found a few of their ideas interesting. They have really internalized the importance of using paragraph structure. They also see the value of using their own point of view as well as writing in their own voice. I appreciated that they added “stay on topic.” So often students will not know what to write about so their posts ramble. They do know that keeping to the topic is important to their readers. And their readers are each other.
This conversation inspired by Melanie helped me show my students they are writers and value their input into the whole process. And I’m only on Chapter Four!
Reflections on the Teche 
Okay, Margaret, I’m a little teary reading and writing a response to this. So much in here to squeeze my heart. Thank you for taking the time to write about how you’re using something in the book– and I’m so happy and humbled that you are! I can’t wait to see you in a couple of weeks! xo
What I notice here is that as the students created the checklist you learned quite about about their understanding. That’s a great thing for me to remember. As a high school teacher, I don’t usually pick up books for this audience, but from what you’ve said, Melanie’s book might have some great tidbits for me to use with my own striving writers. Thanks for sharing.
I wasn’t sure I could use it either. But there are some good tidbits that can be applied across all grad levels. She is especially helpful in dealing with students who have gaps.
Margaret, your point about your gifted students being efficient writers is very important. All students and teachers need to evaluate how to improve their writing craft. I have used learner-made writing checklists for years. They are valuable tools that honor the ability of learners to self-evaluate. Thanks for the review of Melanie’s book. It sounds like you are enjoying it.
Oops, I think I violated one of the items on the list your students created. My slice started out about books with tough topics, and then before I knew it, I had rambled along to graphic novels. Maybe I can should change my topic to current reading thoughts instead of tough topics! Love that your students created the checklist.
Making sure that students are authentically involved in the process – that is the priceless golden key to writing. It has to matter, the process (for all of its challenges) matters. I thought, while reading, of how authentically involved you and Melanie are in the process of growing young writers – and how deeply grateful I am that you both share these details and experiences.I loved knowing a bit about your meeting and your own growth, too.
Oh, I love the idea of asking students to create their own checklists. It’s a great way to get them invested, yet also gain some insight into their understanding. Thanks for sharing!
I absolutely love Melanie’s book as well. So many practical and approachable shifts I can make as a teacher. So glad you won a copy and have found it so useful too!
I’m not surprised Melanie’s book is so helpful. The process of creating a checklist shows so much about what your students have internalized. It’s an assessment and a guide for them. Thank you for sharing.