Thursday

In a few hours we are headed for Custer, SD. Kristie's father lives there. Her brothers will be up tonight from Colorado. We will make it as far as Bismarck tonight. Then we'll grab a hotel room and head out for the final leg of the trip Friday morning.

Kristie already has lined up visits with the photographer and the pastor for our wedding. I'm lucky she taken over those duties. I'd be lost trying to get all that organized.

So I doubt that there will be any posts for awhile. But there should be plenty of pictures when we get back.


*****

For SSR I'm reading a new book, "Teaching Powerful Personal Narratives" by Mary Jane Reed. It deals with teaching personal narratives to seniors in order to prep them for college entry essays. I was hooked when I read this on page 3: "Though students must contend with how they will be perceived, they must embrace the tenets of good writing - to express genuine feelings candidly, clearly, and concisely while maintaining a distinct voice throughout. In speaking with admissions officers throughout the country, I have found that they are basically offering the same advice to students: Don't write to impress. Just be yourself. But for these young writers, the temptation to over inflate their language and their personalities is always there."

There is so much about that paragraph that fires me up.

First, I love what she says about 'good writing' - feelings and voice. That's the good stuff. Unfortunately, I don't remember there being anything on the RU Ready rubric about that. Maybe that's why, for the most part, the essays were pure torture to read.

Second, I want to make a copy of this for my College Comp classes. I have several kids who always try to inflate their personalities. And their writing is awful.

Later in the text she offers several sample essay topics from universities across the country. So far I'm only about ten pages in, and it's already got me thinking about changing the way I teach writing. Good stuff.