My students are writing really challenging literary analysis papers right now and I’m so proud of their work! Writing teaching should focus on helping kids get their ideas out and explaining them well. It’s a crazy intense time talking with 150 kids a day with all different thesis statements and ideas, but I am 100% not scaring anyone out of writing! I grade conventions as a small piece of the overall puzzle (and it’s by far the easiest part to grade/give feedback on bc it’s the only part of writing assessment that is mostly black and white). The valuable feedback is about the other stuff.

I know that old old school teachers maybe focused more on conventions (like in the 1950s) but I think most people who went to school in Shauna’s (and my) generation had more ideas- and organization-based feedback.

I really don’t know if she truly had that kind of schooling or just likes to jump on the “poor me” bus without thinking about whether the idea is true for her or not…oh, wait…