Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Interlude: Quickwriting Groups

In an effort to help Mr. Sutherland with his writing groups, I want to help him gain perspective on what I really think about the whole idea.

Personally, I am against the entire thing because I don't think people are comfortable enough with the students on the opposite sides of the room to work with each other on something as personal as writing. Most of the people in the class are often clustered and do not like to stray from the people they sit next to and know so very well.

If you wish to encourage stronger bonds in helping each other with writing, I don't suggest you do it with groups of more than 2 or 3. It is also important that students are able to work together with someone they know and are comfortable working with to maximize efficiency.

The only real advantage I see to writing groups in addition to our current discussions is to help with writer's block. For people who discuss the quick write in a short five minutes, half the class is actually talking about the topic at hand, while the other half are socializing or sleeping. As such, unless executed with minor deviation from our current procedure, I think these groups are a waste of time.

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