Advice on Giving Advice

I very much enjoyed Atwell’s piece on conferences because it was short, easily accessible, and applicable. I appreciated that it gave specific advice that I can directly apply to future writing conferences. In this post, I will pick out a few of the 13 “Content Conference Guidelines” and apply it to my previous experiences and to my future career.

Atwell’s first guideline covers something I think I’m going to struggle with as a teacher who’s passionate about writing. It states, “keep an eye on the clock and remember you’re responsible to all the writers in the room” (Atwell 224). I have had countless experiences reviewing other people’s writing – from class requirements to helping friends and family – and I always tend to take a long time. I love taking my time to carefully read through and mark up every little thing I find that could use some improvement, but that won’t be possible when I have to read over 100 papers. I think I will be able to keep writing conferences short and to the point – which is what this first guideline is really about – but I will have a hard time briefly reading through each paper and only marking up big points. I will have to learn how to do so, not only for my benefit, but also for the benefit of my students. If I give them 1,000 things to work on, they probably won’t be able to focus their efforts enough to actually learn anything.

The second guideline I appreciated was number five, “whisper and ask students to whisper when they confer with you and each other” (Atwell 224). This is a point I know well, but one I wanted to highlight because of its importance. I have always been easily distracted, and this has led to a lot of issues when trying to complete my work in class. One of my pet peeves is trying to finish work in a class where the teacher is constantly talking. I especially hate trying to work through a task that requires a lot of focus and internal thought, like reading or writing, within a noisy environment. For this reason, I will always focus on keeping my classroom quiet during individual work times.

Finally, number eight states, “build on what writers know and have done, rather than bemoaning what’s not on the page or what’s wrong with what is” (Atwell 225). This is essential to student success in writing. If all we do is tear down what students have written, we will be hurting their confidence, discouraging them to take risks, and diminishing their opportunity to learn and expand their writing abilities. A much better approach is to ask questions and help students to build upon what they’ve already written. As an English major, I’ve been lucky enough to experience plenty of practice on giving good feedback, but I am always looking for more ways to expand my knowledge and learn how to better facilitate my students’ growth as writers.