ABSTRACT
We’ll return to this anecdote in a moment. The purpose of this chapter, “Polishing the Truth,” is to provide perspective on several topics related to students individually developing and finishing their personal essays. I didn’t teach this unit based on a full workshop model, but after working through the sequence of activities from Chapter 4 as a class, I found it most useful to give students time to work as I conferenced with them individually and led brief mini-lessons addressing common needs as necessary. For each of the four major lessons from Chapter 4, I devoted one 50-minute class period each (four total) and, after that time, most students had selected an idea to write about. For the next workshopping phase, I also gave three or four class periods to work individually and conference with me. I realize that tight curricular calendars may not allow all teachers to budget so much time to writing a personal essay, and deadlines have to be imposed to some extent. But, in order to access their best work, it’s important that students have at least some time to let their individual creative processes unfold naturally.
