On p. 32 of The Writing Workshop Ray writes, “Where do we hope all the curriculum we offer [our students] will lead them as writers? What kind of people do we hope they will become as they are becoming people who write?” It is the second of Stephen Covey’s seven habits: Begin with the end in mind. What is the end to which I want all my teaching of composition to lead? I want my students to:
- be able to write in a way that clearly communicates their ideas and experiences.
- be able to write in a way that captures their audience’s interest.
- become excited about sharing their own ideas and experiences and learning about the ideas and experiences that others share in their writing.
If I keep this end in mind our writers’ workshop this year will be a 100% improvement over the last time I taught the classroom curriculum. It’s not that I taught so badly before–my students were able to show substantial improvement on our state test–but I was uninspired and unfocused because I had not considered my end goal.