More on Final Draft Speech and Alternatives to Teacher-Led Discussions

Hey everyone,

I wanted to start by adding to my feelings on Smagorinsky's views of Final Draft Speech from Chapter 1, which I shared in last week's post. I alluded to the more redeeming qualities we might see in Final Draft Speech in response to Smagorinsky's belief that it merely represents a rejection of bad ideas, certainty, authoritativeness, and a means to teacher approval. I think one of the main values of final draft speech is expressing one's ideas concretely and clearly, so it may be received and responded to, as it was intended or at least close to the writer's intention, by an audience. Based on this view, I was taken by Beach, Thein, and Webb's note that, "While attention to reading and writing processes is important to language arts teaching, recent scholarship focuses more on the importance of purpose and audience (30)." I think focusing on these aspects during the writing process can help students find greater value in working toward final draft form, and not seeing it just as the arbitrarily correct form that gets them the better grade. Realizing that what they write has implications within a classroom's social dynamics may increase their willingness to engage more in the composing-process model that Beach, Thein, and Webb describe (30). Allowing students to share and receive feedback on their writing through peer reviews may also help students to find greater purpose in their writing, leading them to see its finalization as that which is more accessible to their classroom community.

On another note, I really enjoyed some of Smagorinsky's alternatives to teacher led discussions, and thought some of them would work well with The Wednesday Wars. For example, the Homebody idea (37) would be a great chance to create a visual representation of The Perfect House, or the Narrative Written from a Different Character's Perspective (41) might allow us to hear more from Mr. Hoodhood on what it takes to "play for keeps."

Thanks, see you all tomorrow!