After The End by Barry Lane

This book, like others by Barry Lane, is developed around the idea that writing is revision. He also claims that revision is the source of the whole process that cannot be broken down into a series of four, five or even seven steps! If this is true, and if teachers want their students to feel this way about writing in the classroom, then the teacher would need to develop a sense of "discovery" in the class, freeing the child to make choices about making their own writing better. In order to accomplish true artistry, a common language or vocabulary is essential. Barry Lane offers up such a "language of craft" that simplifies what sophisticated writers of fiction do well.

The book is divided into two parts: "Creating a Language of Craft" and "The Writer's Struggle." The first part gives specific techniques to use in the classroom and to empower students; the second part helps teachers to identify and to teach to the individual revising needs of their students. Each chapter is designed around several central exercises that teach concepts of craft such as: details, leads, snapshots, thoughtshots and scenes. Throughout the book Lane includes supplemental exercises called "spin-offs" which could be used as follow up activities. Although the text is designed for elementary and middle school students, I feel that high school students could also benefit from applying Lane's simple but enlightening vocabulary to their own writing.

In teaching the concept of using sharp physical detail to enhance writing, Lane invents the term snapshot. He tells his students that they have a magic camera that they can point at the world to created snapshots that contain smells and sounds as well as color and light. Then he reads them examples of snapshots from literature, in particular, a great example from Laura Ingalls Wilder. This exercise teaches students to observe moments in closer physical detail. Another concept that Lane creates, and which I particularly like, is the thoughtshot. This is a contrast to the snapshot because, instead of expanding the external, physical details, the writer expands or blows up the internal thoughts of a character. An internal monologue but with a much simpler term! Again, Lane uses examples from great literature to illustrate how authors use this technique before his own students try it with their own papers.

I enjoyed reading this book and found many of the exercises helpful and concrete. Lane's emphasis is on teaching creative writing but is not genre- specific. This is not a fault; all of the techniques taught and modeled are simply those typical of good writing, regardless of the genre.

The one chapter which was distressing to me was Re-entering a Draft. In this chapter Lane maintains that a teacher should "never grade an individual paper" but only grade a "student's overall progress." In other words, the portfolio concept. Lane claims that "for a writing teacher who believes in encouraging revision, graded papers are nothing less than a curse. Low grades discourage and high grades imply that a piece is done. Even worse, students begin writing to improve their grade instead of finding out what they have to say." (129) Well, as an experienced high school English teacher I must disagree with Lane on this?even though I agree with him in principle. I am not going to throw out grades and I am not going to base a student's grade on "risk-taking". Until the entire educational system does away with grades I will use them. I will not be the only English teacher using a workshop/portfolio/grade-yourself ideology in the building! I agree with him when he claims that students become empowered to assess their own progress when they wean themselves away from external motivators (like grades)?.and that they begin to understand that learning is its own reward. However, it would be a contradiction in terms for one maverick English teacher to create an authentic learning environment and then send the students on to finish their day at the mercy of extrinsic evaluators. This whole philosophy, in order to be successful and not confuse students or set them up for disappointment, needs to be the foundation of an entire school, building-wide, even district-wide, nationwide! If grading writing is an error in logic, an aberration, then everyone needs to acknowledge it. If not, it looks like foolishness, one lonely island of sense in a sea of lunacy.