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Authors critique middle school students
By GEORGE MOORE
Judith Barnes gave her class of 31 seventh- and eighth-grade students at Christa McAuliffe School a rare opportunity for their short stories to be critiqued by nine local published authors on April 8--and this was no tall tale.
Last December each student wrote a story ranging from three to 20 pages in length about any subject they chose. After getting comments from friends, classmates and Barnes, they wrote a final draft in January to give to the authors.
"I had done this before at another school and it was wonderful," Barnes said. "That's why I've always wanted to do it again."
Her class has been doing a short story unit since the beginning of the year--reading and studying the components of what makes a good short story. The students were required to read at least one of their assigned author's books, but not until they had finished their final draft.
"I was more interested in having them feel free to write in any style they wanted and not trying to match a certain author's style," Barnes said.
Joe Cottonwood, author of several published novels, including Quake, Babcock, and Famous Potatoes, was giving some "detailed" advice to three of the students.
"I want one good detail, not 10 details, because you get lost," said Cottonwood. "We wouldn't say that Nico has white teeth, brown eyes and brown hair--we would say Nico's wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt. It used to be navy blue, but he's been wearing it so long it's faded to gray. He never takes that sweatshirt off, even when it's 100 degrees outside. That's the one detail that gives me the whole picture. I want one perfect detail for each character so I can see them as well as hear them talk."
Christine Yang, a seventh-grader, said that Cottonwood's comments were helpful. She said Cottonwood helped her depict some sports radio commentator dialog so that the reader wouldn't confuse it with her main story.
Seventh-grader Darrin Weng said he had fun and Cottonwood gave them some good advice on how to stay focused and keep the story in sync.
Nico Moe, an eighth-grader, with his tongue firmly in cheek said he thought it was cool that Cottonwood contradicted some editing suggestions from his teacher that he had applied to his story.
Author Katherine Sturtevant said the writing project was really well-organized compared to others that she had done in the past. She said she thought that it was important for the kids to get some positive feedback to encourage them to continue writing.
For author Ji-Li Jang, playing the role of editor or critic was a new experience. Jang said she has done about 400 or 500 presentations at schools across the country, but this one was a challenge for her. The kids came up with some great questions, she added.
Barnes said it was nice of the authors to participate in something like this since they're usually asked to come and speak, not actually read and comment on someone's writing. Barnes said there was much work involved and gave a lot of credit to Renee Euchner, a parent of one of her students, who got in touch with all of the authors.
The students will now write the final revision of their short stories armed with the comments and advice from the authors.
"They all had a good kernel of a story," Cottonwood said. "They just need to iron them out a little."
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