Yes, Writing Does Matter!
I love this book, Because Writing Matters, that I am rereading for the umpteenth time. I know I have talked about it before but I wanted to share a few things I read today. First, two quotes that are great:
“Teachers can have students write to discover, create and explore their thinking, dig up prior knowledge, to cultivate intellectual independence, to conjecture about possibilities, to struggle with difficult concepts, and to engage the imagination as an ally in learning.”
from Tom Romano, Clearing the Way: Working with Teenage Writers
“Many state writing assessments run the risk of undercutting good writing by scoring only for focus, organization, style, and mechanics without once asking judges to consider whether the writing is powerful, memorable, provocative, or moving (all impact-related criteria, and all at the heart of why people read what others write.)”
from Grant Wiggins, Educative Assessment, p. 67
Take a look at the key points in the book. This book is a must read for those interested in the teaching of writing. Any of you administrators out there - Chapter 6 - “What Administrators Can Do to Create Effective Writing Programs”- is really good. Hear, hear, Tim and Joe! 
January 8th, 2004 at 2:16 pm
I have the book and have read parts of it. I need to pick it up again. And, because writing and reading do matter, SuperThinker is going to post about your students’ blogs so that our 5th grade class can read and comment. This will be a great segue into their creating a class blog and begin blog groups. Also, I am teaching a professional development class on blogging this Saturday, and will have teachers look at your blogs–specially Idioms are Fun as that would be a do-able blog project.