Donald Graves: A Fresh Look at Writing – Response to Writing

I first met my friend Donald Graves in 1992 when I attended the University of New Hampshire Writing Program. Donald has had a greater impact on my teaching than any other mentor. When I visit writing classes to see if they are successful I always use his chapter titled, “The Seven Conditions for Effective Writing, from his book, A Fresh Look at Writing, 1994 , to determine if that teacher is on the right track. He writes the following on response to writing in the writing workshop:

It is important that you take children’s choices seriously. Your response to a child’s text helps him to realize what he set out to do when he started to write. When I began to teach—and for many years afterward—I only responded to students’ work when they had fin­ished writing. At that point I corrected their papers and made a few comments lauding or condemning what they’d written. But that wasn’t teaching, and what is worse, I was the only person responding to their texts. The students wrote for me, and only me.

Students need to hear the responses of others to their writing, to discover what they do or do not understand. The need to help stu­dents know how to read their own work and the work of their class­mates provides further teaching and demonstration opportunities (see Chapter 2.3).

How well I recall my first attempt to initiate peer response in my seventh-grade classroom. I simply said, “Okay, I want you to exchange papers and respond to each other’s work. Listen carefully, take the paper back, and return to your writing.” What I got was a massive blood-letting: first wails, then silence. My students went into shock. Their responses were not helpful. At the time I couldn’t under­stand why peer-response didn’t work. In retrospect, I realize that they responded to each other as I responded to them—with nit-picking criticism. My approach in those days resembled an old-time, New England hell, fire, and brimstone method; I tried to stamp out the sin of error.

My first response to student work comes in the form of short con­ferences (see Chapter 5) as I move around the classroom during writ­ing time. Each class session I rove among the desks, connecting with perhaps six to ten students while they are engaged in writing. Stu­dents axe constantly writing; as soon as they finish one piece they begin mother. Some may be just starting to write, while others are beginning a second draft, and still others are considering final copy. I recognize that since students are constantly writing, it is not possible to respond to all of their work. I keep careful records on which stu­dents I visit so that each student, over time, gets a response.

At the end of each class, time is set aside for sharing students’ writing and their learning experiences during their writing. One or two students share a piece while the rest of the class listens carefully,  first stating what they have heard and remembered from the piece, then asking questions to learn more about various aspects of the piece. This general sharing can also include talk about practices that worked and those that didn’t, new verbs, quick profiles of the genres in which children are writing, and brief introductions to fictional char­acters. This end-of-class experience reaffirms the essential conditions for writing: in this class we experiment and learn.