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11: Celebrating
Writing
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 Overview
A kindergarten teacher I knew pinned students' writing
to her clothes. "I like your writing so much I'm going to wear
it today!" The final stage in the writing process is publishing. Publishing happens when a writer has
finally wrestled a piece he or she cares about into a shape that seems just right, and is
ready to send it out to the world and let it do what it will do. If our students are to be
real writers, their work must reach the world, the audience, for which it was intended. In
other words, they must publish, and celebrate their work and words.
In Lesson 10 you read about the importance of real audiences for student writing and of the
importance of publishing. In this lesson you will investigate the many ways students can
publish, in and out of the school.
1. Read Z&D 15
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2. Interview your mentor teacher
and/or other English teachers.
 | How do students publish their writing? |
| Do you encourage students to submit work to journals, newspapers, or other places
either in or out of school? |
| Does the school have a literary magazine? What are its policies for accepting
submissions? |
| Does the school have a newspaper that accepts submissions or solicits students
opinions, essays, letters? |
| Do teachers post or display writing? Where? How? |
| Do teachers hold public or school “readings” of student writing, such as “Open
mic” nights, poetry slams, or other forums? |
| Does the drama department or English classes
perform student-written plays or show student-produced videos? |
3. Discussion:
What kinds of publishing exists in your school? Share, on the
discussion site, what you’ve discovered. Are there other ways of
publishing you can think of? Let us all know in the "Lesson 11" discussion
in
Blackboard by mid week.
4. With help from your mentor teacher, plan a way
students may publish and celebrate
their writing: a display, an evening of readings for the community, a class anthology.
This event may take place now or in the future. Describe your plan in your
reflection paper.
5. Reflection paper: What strategy or strategies for publishing will you
integrate into your intern classes (#4 above)? In your future classes, how will you ensure that students’ writing is
for real purposes and goes to real audiences? Base your comments on your in-school research
and on your reading of the chapters for this lesson and Lesson 10 also. Turn this
one-page paper into the assignment Dropbox on Blackboard
under
"Lesson 11 Reflection" by the end of the week. The document
should be a Word97 or higher format, 12 point legible text.
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