Linda Rief's What's Right with Writing
Rief packed a lot of information into her article. I related strongly with her on the topic of receiving A's on papers that are bland and meaningless, void of my voice. I also was deprived of constructive comments from teachers who could have helped me to improve. I am determined not to do this to my own students!
"Writing is thinking" came up several times in the article. This is one reason I really want to get the kids writing more in my music classes. I know that writing will help them think deeply about the music and what they are learning.
Students need choice in what they write, and I need to do some more thinking about how this will look in band. One thing I plan to do is have them write about the music they are playing. An easy way to incorporate choice would be to let them choice which song to write about, but that feels superficial to me if I am still "forcing" them to write about a song.
My favorite line in this article was the following: "Do it [writing] at every opportunity. And then do it some more." This is helping me, so I have no doubt it will help the students as well.
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