February+25

== =How do revision and editing practices fit in writing workshop?= = = =Writing Workshop=

Endings matter! Here are some options from Ralph Fletcher's book, //Live Writing//:
 * Mini-Lesson: powerful endings**
 * Catch your reader off guard with humor
 * Try a circular ending to tie the piece together
 * Surprise your reader
 * End with emotion (but it doesn't have to be complicated!)
 * Trust your reader: don't leave them with something obvious
 * Don't try to make your ending do //too// much
 * Leave a lasting impression
 * Make a graceful exit
 * Try a memorable quote or statement that will linger

And a few more by Barry Lane: Essay endings don't have to be bun bottoms: **Writing Time**
 * End with a snapshot
 * So now I wonder...
 * Something that strikes you as most puzzling
 * So now I think…
 * What I wish I could find out now from…
 * How an experience led to a belief (if that had not happened, how would you know it?


 * Class time**

Revision & Editing: what's the difference?
Revisiting 6-Traits
 * Barry Lane’s //After the End: Teaching and Learning Creative Revision//) || Ralph Fletcher ||
 * ¨ Cross out THE END and write five unanswered questions and turn the most compelling one into a new lead. || ¨ Change the beginning ||
 * ¨ Divide your piece into chapters || ¨ Break a large piece into chunks or chapters ||
 * ¨ Insert a snapshot. || ¨ Change the ending ||
 * ¨ Insert a thoughtshot. || ¨ Add a section (layering) ||
 * ¨ Insert some dialogue or cut out uninteresting dialogue. || ¨ Change the tone ||
 * ¨ Write from a different point of view. || ¨ Change the point of view ||
 * ¨ Write in a different genre. || ¨ Change the genre ||
 * ¨ Cut writing into paragraphs. Keep the best ones; throw away the rest. Write the piece again, building on the parts you kept. || ¨ Focus on one part ||
 * ¨ Explode the moment. || ¨ Slow down the “hot spot” ||
 * ¨ Replace ineffective dialogue with snapshots and thoughtshots. ||  ||
 * ¨ Cut anything. || ¨ Delete a section (pruning) ||
 * ¨ Draw illustrations and see if you can add more detail based on what you draw. ||  ||
 * ¨ Read the piece out loud and listen to your voice. Ask what you can do to change the parts you don’t like. ||  ||

__Response Groups__ //Katie Wood Ray says that the process of revising should include reading aloud in order to hear the "problems" in writing; using author's craft to make the writing better; reading our work aloud to our response groups; fixing the things that the response group didn't understand; and re-seeing our beginnings and endings in order to get our readers interested and thinking.

Jeff Anderson, The Write Guy// =Homework=

Enjoy your break...but bring back a list of twenty things (just the ordinary) that happened throughout the week, or even a day or two. Note that Multi-genre project drafts are due on March 18!