Receiving
Using printouts
While WiER exists online in a computer conference, most students encounter the program in print form. In fact,using binders or files in your classroom or school library is highly recommended. It allows students the chance to read and reflect on the writing rather than to focus on the technology. And it can bring the program to any classroom - with or without computers.
Saving and Printing
Save the online messages into a file on your own computer system or onto diskettes. Then you can organize in, and print the material from, your word processor. Print each new piece of writing and each response on a separate piece of paper in order to allow for easy filing and retrieval in the classroom. Besides the advantage of saving online connection time, there is a pedagogical benefit also -- your students can read and discuss the pieces together, then respond to them thoughtfully while offline.
Teachers' conference
There will be an online conference for teachers to discuss ideas with their colleagues and the term's professional writers. This conference is called "Staff Room" and is located on your teacher account Desktop.
Sending
Sending work
We know that some schools will have the capability to allow students to come online and send their own works to WiER. While this is fine, we stress that this must always be done under the teacher's supervision.
One at a time, please
We invite students to send in one work at a time so that they can engage in a discussion based upon the response they receive from authors and other particpants. This allows students the opportunity to incorporate responses into their work. It allows the writers to watch for development in individual students' writing.
Excerpts, please
Students who are working on longer fiction should send in excerpts - no more than three double-spaced pages (about 750 words) at a time, please. Excerpts allow our authors and other participants to focus their comments. And students can use the responses to consider specific parts of their work as it is being created.
All genres welcome!
Prose, poetry, drama and creative essays can all be posted online in WiER. Please encourage your students to try their hands at writing different types of work and responding to it too!
Who's this from?
Please remember to include student writers' names with their pieces, either as part of the title line and/or at the end of each submission. This will allow the people responding to their work to address them directly.
Pseudonyms
We know there may be times when students may not want to be identified. Pseudonyms or initials only are fine - but - the teacher must be able to identify the source should circumstances require this. For administrative purposes, pseudonyms must be consistent from piece to piece.
Posting Student Work
Please have writing drafted and proofread in a word processor prior to having it posted on WiER. Instructions on transferring writing via copying and pasting from your word processor to the online conferences are posted during the two-week orientation session.
Note to PC users: Ctrl+C(opy) and Ctrl+V(paste) work in most Windows wordprocessing applications. Alt+TAB will allow you to switch back and forth between your wordprocessing software and FirstClass.
Note to Mac users: Command+C(opy) and Command+V(paste) work in most Macintosh wordprocessing applications. Accessing the Finder at the upper right-hand corner of your screen will allow you to switch back and forth between your wordprocessing software and FirstClass.
Response
Give & Get
Response - from students and teachers as well as WiER authors - is a crucial part of the WiER experience!
Teachers report that the program is most successful when students engage in discussions about the work posted in the program - both online and in the classroom. These encourage students to develop and write their own views in response to a piece, or to pursue a particular thought or query. We have found this to be much more effective than offering an "evaluation" of another's work online.
Responses also provide opportunities in class for teachers to work with students as they focus their thoughts.
A guideline
WiER's guideline is for each student to respond to two pieces of writing for every piece that s/he submits online -- one to the writer who responded to their work and one to someone else's work posted online.
Secondary & Intermediate Level
Response periods Due to the success of responses-only periods in the secondary and intermediate programs, we have continued to include "response periods" in our conference model.
After the first two-week online orientation session has been completed, the pattern for new work and responses is: 3 weeks for new work and responses and 2 weeks for responses only. A new writing folder will be opened each new-work week for each salon group. For example, if you are in Salon 1, you may see: S1-April 8, S1-April 15 & S1-April 22. Then, following the first two-week responses-only period, S1-May 13, S1-May 20, and S1-May 27 writing folders will open.
New creative writing is not accepted after the end of each 3-week new work period until the beginning of the next. Participants, however, are welcome to post responses and revisions to originally posted pieces at anytime throughout the term.
Response periods are great fun in class and an excellent activity for your writing workshops!
Revision & Closing
Revision
Some of the strongest recommendations we've received have to do with revision. It is clear that students get most benefit from the responses of the many authors, teachers and peers when they can consider them as they return to their work. Writer Kathy Stinson has suggested, and WiER agrees, that work should only be sent once a student-writer has decided that the piece is one s/he cares enough about to spend more time on.
"Along with putting work online," she notes, "comes some idea of commitment to work with the comments and suggestions sent back by those who read and respond to it."
Just part of the process
Students are encouraged to post their revisions and comments in the conference and to see this as an integral part of the online process. Please encourage your students to participate actively in discussion about their work and the work of others. Please note: responses or revisions should be attached to the original note using FirstClass's Reply command with an indication that they are a revision in the Subject line.
Closing discussions
We also ask that students "close" discussions of their writing.
When exploration of a work reaches a natural conclusion, each student should post a concluding note to the discussion that has evolved in response to her or his work.
It could include a final revision, some comments about how a piece might develop, or perhaps some thoughts on keeping the existing work.
In any case, we want to hear back from the student writers when they have considered the views of others and made some decisions about the work they have submitted.
Sending new work
Once the student has closed a discussion, s/he is welcome to send another piece along to the program. Over the course of the twelve-week term, up to three pieces of new work may be posted by each student.
Using Feedback in Selecting New Work
It is important for writers to know that their feedback has been taken seriously. In part, it helps them see how best to focus their advice on subsequent works.
A good practice is for students to select their next piece based in part on writer advice. This may be advice received in response to work posted earlier, or it may be advice students see in response to works of others in their salon. A student may say, for example, "Susan Musgrave told me to use more imagery, so I've tried to do that in this poem," or "I saw Gerry Shikatani's advice to Title by Student, and I thought I'd try it in my own work." If feedback has been that the story or poem requires no changes, the student may say so and offer a different piece of writing.
Thanks very much! We hope this information is useful to you as you setup WiER in your classroom. You are welcome to save or print out any of the notes posted online throughout the term to help guide your participation as well.
