Cari Cornett
~Purpose and Audience, Idea Development and Support, Organization and Sentence Structure, Conventions of Language and Correctness~ These abstract skills can be mastered with concrete tools. Taking middle-school students through the writing process effectively may be challenging, but there are concrete ways to facilitate this journey with rewarding results. The best results include all students grasping writing skills while securing personal style and ownership in their pieces.
Fun Concrete Tools for Writing provides teachers with unique step-by-step techniques to use in the classroom. These techniques target 7 specific challenges that teachers face. After reading this book, teachers will be fortified to present simplistic techniques to their students which will foster student voice and style as well as mastery of writing skills. Although this book is primarily meant for middle school level, it can easily be adapted to elementary and high school levels.
Cari Cornett has a bachelor degree in Education, one Master's degree in Elementary Education and another Master's degree in School Counseling. Her understanding of how youngsters think and what they need from a classroom teacher in order to attain writing skills has developed over the nineteen years spent with hundreds of students in the classroom. She has used the platform of the school newspaper to spark interest and generate authentic authorship for middle school students. Through trial and error, genuine concern for student achievement and insightful reflection, Cornett has fine-tuned 'tried and true' techniques that work with all types of learners. Her credentials, experience and masterful experimentation have produced successful results.
Awareness of audience has been the most difficult concept for me to teach. In the empty classroom, I sat in a student's seat and thought about what made it so hard. One obvious reason is that most kids think of audience as spectators who will clap or boo at a performance. This can create a lot of anxiety, I am sure. A second obstacle in their minds is that they regard the teacher as their audience. The problem with this is that ultimately, the teacher will evaluate their work. This can also create yucky feelings. A third problem, I imagined, is that the students have a nagging feeling that no one really wants to read what they write. With these obstacles in mind, I realized that I needed to help the students by allowing them to create their own audiences. This would give them some feeling of control, and it would give them a friendly face with whom to "talk" throughout the writing process.
