In encouraging our students to engage in "real writing," one of our greatest resources has remained untapped: the community of writers that exists outside of school--the poets, family chroniclers, writers of letters to editors, memoir writers, journalists, and others who write because they love to, even need to. Writing Outside the Lines will help you and your students become members of this community through an innovative writing partnerships project in which younger and older writers exchange their work.
The outgrowth of the author's Writing Partners project, which was five years in development, Writing Outside the Lines provides all the help you need to establish and run your own writing partnerships programs, including guidelines on:
- locating community writers
- informing parents, students, local authors, and administrators
- organizing and monitoring exchanges
- publishing and celebrating writing
- dealing with pitfalls and problems.
The concept of writing partnerships is simple, yet the rewards can be enormous. Gillis shows how writers of all ages learn more about their own and others' writing styles and strategies; share work for the pure pleasure of it; receive support from an audience outside their friends, family, or teachers; and discover that writing can be a lifelong passion.
Writing Outside the Lines ideally suits teachers of grades 5-12 who are looking for ways to nourish their students' identities as writers and strengthen the ties between classrooms and communities.