I'm completely serious.
During Writers' Workshop this morning, my students tackled my literary essay in response to Sharon Creech's Love That Dog. It was amazing to see them take their pen to paper, labeling key items like the hook, thesis, transitions, use of quotes, etc. They also took notice of repetition, and some pointed out that I needed to replace Jack's name with a pronoun instead in some cases. (We talked a lot about balance.)
And I let them tell me everything - the good and the "bad." Then, one student proceeded to ask me if I meant to write it with those "mistakes" so they could find them. And, I told them all that no, I didn't. I wrote it as I wanted it, but even us teachers have room for improvement.
I think they appreciated the honesty and authenticity - as my coteacher so rightly put it, we critique their writing every day, so why should we be afraid for them to critique ours? [Plus, as I kept hearing over and over at the IRA conference a few weeks ago (see previous early May posts), students need to immerse themselves in models.]
Today's workshop was probably one of the best ones we'd had in a long time, especially since the students had plenty of writing time after the critique. (Some students have come so far this year!)
That whole "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" really resounded in my classroom today. As teachers, all of a sudden, we weren't just giving them an assignment - we became writers right alongside them.
And that seemed to mean quite a lot.
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