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What I've learned about comp theory during my year here.

1.It is a theory (well, several theories really).I just taught writing like you teach anything else. You just do it. You show them thestructures, forms, and rules and let them write. Check that. You try to get them to write. Now I

realize, it's little wonder why they hated to write.

2.Teach the writer, not the writing.Batteries included. Individual assembly required.3.The students generate the text for the class.Don't waste your money on a textbook teaching students how to write. Get them to write. Buyone copy for yourself, if you must, and borrow things from it. But the students' writing is the text

for the course. They need to realize the importance their own work carries. They don't see this if

they spend the majority of their time reading essays from a book. Student-produced writing

should be the focus of the class.

4.Use a diagnostic essay at the beginning of the class.Give students a prompt and let them write. You can use this essay to gauge their progressthroughout the class. You can make copies of it, comment on one copy and return it. Save the

other copy and give it to them at the end of the class so they can see how far they have come.

You may even choose to give them the same prompt or a similar one to really illustrate how far

they have come. Of course, some may just try to reformulate what they originally did. I like this

idea because it seems to me that it allows students to see their growth as writers first hand. Their

growth is solely measured by the scores or grades they have been given.

5.Write every day.Studying grammar, style, and structure is not the most important detail. Writing is. Let themwrite. The more they write, the better they will get.

6.They get better without you.If students write every day, they will get better, even without the teacher. Practice makesperfect, right.

7.Focus on what they do well.There is a belief that if you focus on what a student is doing correctly, as opposed to focusingon what they do poorly, then they will do more of what they do well. Soon by the sheer act of

writing and realizing they can do something well in their writing, the things they do poorly willdiminish.

8.Process writing is important.Process writing is simply when students tell the story of what actually happened when theywere writing with as much honesty and detail as possible. I like this concept and used it often. I

was completely unfamiliar with this idea, even though I did it in my own writing. It works with

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the concept of 'metacognition' (thinking about how you think). This allows students to analyze

and interpret their writing and what happens when they write. Maybe they can pick up ways to

improve their writing through this. For example, maybe a student is given a prompt and writes

for ten minutes. She only gets half a page because she has constantly been going back and

revising as she was writing. After the initial prompt, she is told to do a 'process journal entry' on

her response to that prompt. Immediately, she realizes how little she has and how concerned sheis with revising. This may lead her to see the importance of writing first and revising later. At

the very least, she may become conscious of what she does when she writes.

9.Writing is a process.Okay, so I knew this all along, but it is a major component of the writing program as I saw it.The texts, discussions, and handouts all agreed: give students ample opportunity for prewriting,

writing, and rewriting for their papers. I cannot stress to you enough how you will encounter

high school students who will not comprehend that writing is a process. They have heard it, but

they don't believe it. They cling to the myth of the single, perfect first draft. This means that if

they think hard, take their time, spell and punctuate correctly, they only have to write the thing

once. Avoid that. To them revision or rewriting is punishment. I try to show them that writing

isn't a neat and exact science. It is dirty and messy. Sometimes in order to say what you really

mean, you have to write two drafts of crap, or at least a couple paragraphs.

10.Writing is a recursive process.Writing isn't simply a neat linear process comprised of "okay, I will prewrite to get some ideas,now I'll begin a rough draft, now I'll write another draft, and finally I will revise my final draft."

Quite often I start in the middle of the writing process. Sometimes I get stuck and need to go

back to a do some pre-writing. Then I jump ahead and do some revision. Then I'm back in the

middle of the process writing again. Then I stop and decide to not only revise, but change the

entire structure of my essay around. Writing is often a tug-of-war process -- back and forth andforth and forth and back again. Students need to know this and that it is okay. Teaching writing

like this isn't neat and you can't neatly evaluate it at the end of the class and you can't chart your

progress toward preparing for the state test, but, I believe, you are showing them how real writers

write.

11.Teach grammar in context.If student-produced writing is the center of your class, this is easy. When you hear or read apaper that has a striking adjective clause in it, stop the class and have a brief mini (as mini as you

can make it) lesson on adjective clauses. Show students how they workin their own writing.

Too often I have concocted grand examples of someone else's adjective clauses. Wrong. Wrong.

Wrong. Students don't care about anyone else's writing. Show them how and why this particular

adjective clause worked. Then show them how to identify them. Have them scour their papers

for them. Have them shout them out. If they don't have any, tell them "well this is what they do

and how to use them if you want." Then get back to reading their papers and writing.

12.Free writing is powerful.

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This is another big concept that I was introduced to. Free writing is a pre-writing exercise thatis quite powerful. In my opinion, it beats the hell out of brainstorming or charting or outlining.

Those things get students thinking, but they seem to be pulling the thoughts of out the air. Free

writing encourages students to write their thinking down, as opposed to reformulating their

thinking as a cluster or chart. In my class I want students to think via writing. It might be the

only chance they get. Thus, we free write. I tell them to write non-stop for anywhere from 5-10minutes. This is very odd to them at first. I give them non-erasable pens, so they can't go back

and edit. I tell them to write whatever comes to their minds, even if it is gibberish. I rarely get

gibberish though. I was surprised at what came out of their writing. For instance, one of my

students was free writing in her dorm room. She began describing her surrounding and what was

going on down the hall. She then began to describe how her neighbor always paraded around

with care packages that her parents sent her. Pretty soon the student was writing about how she

was battling homesickness and how big of an adjustment college was. We later talked about

where she could go with this in a paper. She ended up writing about a rite of passage in her life

(leaving adolescents behind and moving into the adult world). Not bad for a 5 minute free

writing session.

13.There are three levels of revision.Well according to Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff there are. I like this idea because it causesstudents to see that revision is not just going back and checking for spelling or altering a few

words here and there. The first level is "reseeing or rethinking: changing the bones." Here the

writer looks the change their essay or paper in a major way. Maybe their essay doesn't make the

original point they wanted. Maybe they have to change the purpose of their paper. Maybe their

opinion has changed and they want to change their stance in their paper. The second level is

called "reworking or reshaping: changing the muscle." Here the writer is satisfied with what they

have said, but not how they have said it. This may cause them to look again at their audience.

Maybe they can another example to appeal to a specific audience that the initial draft neglects.Maybe there is a piece in the paper that is redundant for the reader and can be cut. The final level

is "copyediting or proofreading: changing the skin." This is simply what most writers do the

hour or night before they turn their final draft in. I guess instinctively I have always done these

three levels of revision when writing, but now I am more conscious of what and why I do them.

14.Writing is a collaborative activity.Another concept that was stressed in lectures, discussions, and texts. Now this doesn'tnecessarily mean that student collaborate on papers and essays. Rather it focuses on the idea that

writing is not a solitary act because writing is a form of communication, which is never a solitary

act. Too often the writing classrooms that I have been a part of have students isolated from one

another and writing alone at their desks. I like this idea because it puts an onus (a very

dangerous word to misspell if you're not careful. That would make for an interesting typo) oncreating a writing community in the classroom. Students collaborate or share how they wrote

their papers. They discuss their writing rituals. They talk about what worked for them and what

didn't and why. They read each other's work in peer groups and offer feed back. They can peer

edit each others papers as well. Hopefully collaboration replaces competition in the classroom.

Plus, the more readers a paper has, the better. This helps replace the notion that the teacher is the

sole audience for a student's paper.

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15.Inquiry needs to be put on an equal footing with demonstration.This is the biggest enlightenment that happened for me. I used to teach my students to churnout the thesis/support form (which is part of the demonstration process) while I relegated the

inquiry process to brainstorming. This is backwards. How can a student propose to be an expert

on an issue and demonstrate their understanding of it when they haven't yet come to thatunderstanding? That is where the inquiry process comes in. Allow students to achieve a

personal connection with their subject. Then let them choose to demonstrate some aspect of it if

they must.

16.Put the personal essay on the same level as the thesis/support essay.Students will have to write a thesis/support essay. Fine. Show them how. It really isn't thatdifficult. But they also need to know how to write a personal essay.

17.The best writing teachers are writers themselves.I would have disputed this a year ago. I didn't write much (I am a teacher. Who has time towrite?), but I could show my students how to write. Wrong. I showed them how to not write. I

would have used the argument that great coaches necessarily might not have been the best

players, if they were players at all. Then I thought about this: all the great coaches I ever had said

this, "I would still play if I could." It doesn't matter if they were the greatest players. The love

for the game was in their eyes and permeated everything they taught me. The same is true for

writing teachers. You might not be Hemingway or Chaucer or Christensen, but if you love to

write, the students will see that and it will matter to them. From my experience, writing teachers

who don't write themselves tend to be too clinical about writing. I think this is because they

don't practice what they preach. I think the big danger here is that they stop seeing themselves as

a fellow writer or guru and they become a pedant.

18.There is no right way to do anything.If you think a theory or method is perfect, think again. Maybe it was part of my uprbringing inthe thesis/support form, but I would get hooked on a theory or method and think that it was the

best way to do something and stick to that method. Wrong. For any theory or method out there,

there are two or three other theories that contradict it or flat out rip it to shreds. This is why

keeping "alive" in the field via reading and writing is important to teachers.