PO Box 2013

Gearhart, OR 97138

Seaside School District #10

1801 S Franklin

Seaside, Oregon 97138

Dear Dr. Dougherty,

Greetings and happy summer from Eugene! As part of our final week of work in the Oregon Writing Project, I am to compose a piece that reflects on and synthesizes some of the new information I've been exposed to regarding writing in the classroom. I chose the "letter writing mode" and decided to send it to you. This piece comes after a four-week class in which four books, four reflections on such books, and four creative writing pieces were assigned. To the best of my knowledge, I have "completed most of them," and "the others are almost done, trust me," two familiar phrases I heard all too often while teaching in room 25 last year.

Perhaps the best starting point is to state the following: wasn't that fun winning the state title in May! And how about Rich's triple jump! As I'm sure you could tell through my calm and composed pacing and total sleep deprivation for three straight days, I was totally confident and certain it would all fall into place.

Anyway, back to the OWP. I've been convinced of several ideas that will extremely change and enhance my teaching of writing and literature. The genesis of such thought has come from the various books and experienced teachers I've interacted with on a daily basis. Having such a forum to discuss many educational issues has truly helped me crystallize my stance on many of them. I am excited about implementing such new-found strategies next fall.

We all value writing, but how do we make it authentic and meaningful for students to enjoy it and pursue personal improvement in it? The message to our kids must be that their writing is valuable, and not simply something to stuff in their CIM folders, overflowing book bags, or messy school lockers?never to be seen again. After reading a powerful book by Donald Graves, I strongly feel that students need a portfolio to save their writing assignments. Such a practice serves many purposes. For one, students develop a strong sense of pride and ownership for a file that slowly grows with their work as the year progresses. In addition, not only does it reinforce the belief that writing is worth saving, it also provides a forum to reflect, analyze, and review their writing and writing process periodically. By carefully studying their personal pieces that they have so carefully filed away, students will gain a greater perspective on what their strengths and weaknesses are as writers and students.

To have a portfolio, one also needs writing to put in there! Barry Lane, a renowned author of teaching writing, has thoroughly convinced me of the power of personal writing. Although this sounds elementary in ways, it is astounding how much high school composition revolves only around literature, and thus does not have such a component of freedom. After working through many of his suggested activities myself, I plan on integrating many of his pre-writing and writing exercises that are mentally engaging, thought provoking, and memory-stimulating. Thus, they warmly invite the writer to dig into the past, recall old experiences, and discover new truths about such moments. In addition to opening a whole new world of personal reflection, such activities seem to promote comfort in and enthusiasm for writing. This, in turn, should boost motivation and performance on all future tasks and modes of writing. In addition, I think students will be excited, relieved, and interested to compose creative pieces that aren't being graded on the infamous 1-6 scale that create typical feelings of anxiety and pressure. Wouldn't it be great if students had nothing but positive associations with the idea and process of writing?

Finally, response groups, as discussed by Karen Spear in several of her works, should compliment such personal writing well. If effectively implemented, students working together to revise their work is a powerful in-class tool to improve writing, encourage interpersonal skills, and enhance revising strategies. In fact, this belief has been strengthened by the response-groups that we've done once a week in this workshop. Every Monday, we share our creative writing piece due that week with three colleagues and receive thoughtful questions, criticism, and praise from them. Similarly, students teaching each other has always had a special place in the classroom, but this particular practice reinforces the importance of writing as a recursive, multi-stepped process that can be shared between students for enjoyment and learning purposes.

It certainly has been a learning, humbling experience here in Eugene. Come September, clearly only one thing will be on my mind, namely: how do we defend our state title? No seriously, it will really be how to modify and apply all the useful teaching strategies I've picked up along this journey. Furthermore, I would certainly recommend more teachers in our district to attend future summer writing projects and gain the "OWP Experience." Not only have I learned many new lessons and ideas that will greatly improve my practice, it's a fun, comfortable environment that invites each member to become "reflective practitioners" as we learn from teachers of all grades from different places in Oregon.

Enjoy the rest of your summer,

Chuck Schneekloth, Jr.

The farthest thing from a 5,000 Meter Ace