Moving on to the Advanced Writing Group

You may use the format of the writing group as outlined in The Writing Group for many weeks, or even many months, using the writing group to give specific, positive feedback to the learners you are working with.

At some point you will begin to notice they get bored. They have heard the things you say about what makes effective writing many times. In fact, they have now internalized some of it, so it is no longer a thrill to hear you say it.

You will also notice that they begin to accept your invitation to say why they have chosen a particular sentence as their favourite. They will then repeat the kind of things you have been saying all along, such as: “It touched my heart”; “I could just see the car from the way he described it”; “This first sentence made me want to know what happened next.”

You may hear them talking about their own work in these terms when they are writing, editing, or proofreading it. That is how the learners tell you they are ready to take on more responsibility for giving specific feedback and for analyzing their own writing. When you see those changes in your writers, you know it’s time to move to the advanced writing group.

In this phase, the onus on giving public feedback shifts from the practitioner to the learners. Although I am no longer giving that immediate feedback in front of the whole group, I still take the opportunity to do it in private. Both while the learners are writing, and when they proofread it with me before they hand it in, I comment on the things I like, just as I did previously in front of the whole group.