authoring cycle

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authoring cycle
By megan

My professor taught it to us, but I do think that it is in many whole language books. Children start off indepependently thinking baout their memory. You can read a story about memories and give the children an index card
to illustrate a fond memory of theirs. Then giving them a choice you ask them to write a memory story either based on that picture or something else. There are no "requirements" b/c the children are deciding the parameters that suit them, not the teacher. That is why is works so well. After the children write their first drafts, you put them into a discussion group of about four people.

Each child is asked to read their 1st draft out loud, while the others jot down ideas for construstive criticism. After the child reads her story aloud to the group, she is given the criticism and is asked to go home and revise the pice using the suggestions. However, if the child does not like some suggestions, that is okay too. This is her story. Then the others so the same that day. the next time they are out back into the same groups and they switch stories with each other and they all read the story that was given to them silently, marking any corrections and suggetsions on that draft. Then the child is asked to go and revise it agagin. When the child has a final draft, the teacher will read over it and make sure it is okay, and the child will "celebrate ownership" of their piece of writing by sharing it with the entire class! This is what is meant by Publishing and the Authoring Cycle. If you need more info, I would suggest looking either on the internet or at a bookstore.