There were two spots in Beth Hewett's The Online Writing Conference that were so significant to me I marked them with Post-its in addition to highlighting the passages. The passages prompted me to wish for a do-over in my own classroom--things about which I had the very best intentions, but which, according to Hewett, I should have considered more carefully.
Hewett gives teachers credit for doing an increasing amount of writing with students, but she also writes, "However, when it comes to students having the opportunity to view the actual unrehearsed act of writing at the basic, early draft stage, I suspect that it is rare for instructors to do much sharing" (65). I did quite a bit of showing my students my own writing, even showing them all the cross-outs and revisions I made, but I generally showed them a final product. I didn't let my students actually watch me write because I was afraid of writer's block and of doing less than my best. And that is exactly what my students should have been doing--observe a writer falter and pause and look for the write word or watch a writer pen something that stinks. What a missed opportunity!
Certainly once I had a computer and projector available to me it would have been very easy for students to give me several topics about which to write, and they could have observed me struggle. For it's very likely I would have struggled; I am not very good at off the cuff writing. I like to take the time to think, which is why I practiced the pieces I required of students at home.
Hewett speaks of direct and indirect speech on pages 106-108. She advises teachers to avoid indirect instructions-- "because they [teachers] communicated their 'commands' indirectly, students considered them to be suggestions at best and felt free to disregard them" (108). I used indirect speech in my face to face conferences, frequently asking "What would happen if..." or "Have you considered..." Students almost always accepted these queries as something they should try, but I am well aware that with my eyes and body language I was communicating that their piece held great promise and would only become better if they were willing to consider something they hadn't thought of before.
After reading Hewett, I understand that without body language an indirect statement can be ignored. The online writing teacher should aim for directness and explicitness.
Hewett, Beth L. The Online Writing Conference: A Guide for Teachers and Tutors. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2010. Print.
