ABSTRACT
Along with having strategies for bringing memories to the fore, students benefit from strategies of visualization, emotion, and point of view. The teacher models these orally and/or in writing by recreating scenes from life, film, or literature and then sharing how the mind works to recreate the scenes. Students are shown how to “see” the scene, moving like a camera lens to every object and at the same time using other senses. They learn how to be in the scene or observe it from the outside. As either a character in the scene or as an observer, they learn to feel the emotions, be they joy, puzzlement, conflict, sadness, or other. With this metastrategic coaching, they are learning the craft of a writer. The results will be highly motivating, adding a layer of identity to each student. All students are then more able to see themselves as writers, as people with something to say that other people will want to hear. When they do, school will be more of a real place where they want to be, rather than, as it sometimes seems to them, a place where they practice skills to please adults.
