Mentoring Student Writers

My first encounter with my student writer allowed me to touch base with him and discover where his writing is situated. He had three pieces of writing that were "completed" which I have since read.

About my student:
In order to break the ice, my student and I discussed our hobbies and interests. I discovered that he was an avid reader (400-500 pages a week) as well as a sports fan (baseball mainly). When asked about his weaknesses in writing he mentioned that he didn't quite know what to reply. This meant that I had to investigate and discover his strengths and weaknesses through his written work.

My observations:
I found the major strengths of my student were in his ideas and his research abilities. Once he had defined his topic of interest, he hashed out essential points which he then complimented with his research. I also liked that he included visual supports for his writing (graphs and or images). On the other hand I noticed that his organization (structure of ideas) and presentation (paragraph length) needed guidance and fine-tuning. Added to these concerns were his use of editing skills; following our discussion I understood that his editing consisted of proofreading rather than reorganizing ideas and reworking the whole piece.

In order to improve my student's written products, I developed various templates to assist him in the pre-writing and post-writing process. Given that we each have our own writing processes I sought to develop suggestions that could assist in both instances as to provide the student the ability to adopt the method which is most effective for him.

Pre-writing Essay Template

This is a malleable template which is to serve as a guideline rather than requiring strict adherence. The amount of main points, and sub points within each, is malleable and up to the student to determine.

Introduction

                Hook –

                Topic –

                Thesis –

                Ideas Outlined –

1.

2.

3.

Body

                Idea 1 –

                Supporting Arguments –

1a.

1b.

1c.

                Idea 2 –

                Supporting Arguments –

2a.

2b.

2c.

                Idea 3 –

                Supporting Arguments

3a.

3b.

3c.

                  Conclusion

Summary of ideas/arguments:

Thesis confirmed:

Opening:

Post-Writing Checklist

This checklist is intended as a guidepost and set of reminders for the student to use while editing his paper. The list is not exhaustive and can be changed according to the students needs and concerns. 

Ideas

         You can tell what my main idea is

         I spoke of what was important

         My ideas are clear and specific

         I support and expand the main idea with evidence, examples, facts, or explanations

Organization

         My lead gets you hooked

         My paper is easy to follow, like a good map

         I used transitions to lead the reader through my ideas

         I linked ideas with word bridges

         Each paragraph discusses a whole idea

         I ended my paper with some final thoughts

Voice

         This writing sounds like Me!

         I “talk” to the reader in my writing

         This is a paper you would enjoy sharing aloud

         I bring my readers “inside” the paper by asking – What do they already know? What would they like to know? What will they find interesting

Word Choice

         My words make sense and are used correctly

         My words go with my topic and audience

         I was careful not to use one word too many times and instead used synonyms

         I did not use big words just to show off

         I avoided vague words

Sentence Fluency

         I read this aloud and like how it sounds

         Many sentences begin in different ways

         Some sentences are long, some short

Conventions

         I have proofread my whole paper

         I have checked my

o   Spelling

o   Grammar

o   Punctuation

o   Paragraphing

o   Capitals

         My paper is neat and looks good on the page

         This paper is ready to publish    

Presentation

         My use of visual or graphics is well integrated

         My paragraphs are approximately of equal length