Panel of Expert Editors

“With More Than Yawns, Pupils Rate Teacher’s Book” by Grace Rubenstein
New York Times, March 10, 2011

Topic: A third grade teacher in the Bay area uses his class as the “front-line editors” of the childrens chapter book he is writing.

Summary: Each time that Mr. Imwalle finishes a chapter in the book he is writing, he reads it allowed to the students in his third grade class. The students provide feedback about what they liked, what they didn’t like, and he can also judge based on their behavior during the read-aloud.

Intended audience: General public

Key Points:

• The students have a rare opportunity to be exposed to the process of writing a book – as opposed to just seeing the final product on the shelves of the library.
• Kids are excited about creative writing activities in class after being a process of the teacher’s own creative writing work.
• Great way to motivate students who don’t like writing – many in the class are ELL. This puts the focus on the enjoyment of writing, not the grammar/spelling/technical part that is difficult for students at this level.

Relevance: This is something we may be able to use as teachers in the future. I don’t see myself writing a book, but as a child I remember having local authors come in for workshops or assemblies to teach about the process of writing books/creative writing. How cool for these students to get to be a process of that through their teacher! I also really liked the way Imwalle empowers the students to be editors for his book – it goes along with Bruner’s idea that students can practice a discipline at some level with integrity – these 8-9 year ARE editors! How lucky that he has a panel of experts at his disposal :)