My classroom philosophy: process always trumps product

I was taught to write by teachers who seemed more interested in what form my final product took than they were in the process my thinking took while working out a piece of writing. "Write an essay," or "Write a book report," or "Write a story," or "Write an acrostic poem"--these are the products I remember being asked to complete.

My work with the Northern Nevada Writing Project saved me from doing the same to my students. Now, make no mistake, my students created products for their portfolios, but we understood that the process was the most important thing we assessed, not the product.

"I need you to start your essays this week," I might say, "and I need you to show me what you have learned about organizing and sequencing your subtopics in your rough drafts." Or perhaps my instructions would go, "Don't just fill in the blanks on your acrostic poem with the first word that comes to mind. Instead, brainstorm multiple word choices, then show me you have the ability to choose the perfect word." These are the sort of instructions I was taught to give so that process trumped product in my classroom. I am forever grateful to my many colleagues at the Northern Nevada Writing Project.

After the writing process became my focus as an instructor, I added two career-changing elements to my writing instruction: the 6 writing traits and the writers workshop format . Neither of these elements seemed very important to me when I had thought product to be more important than process. With my new philosophy, they became everything.

Be sure to check out My Lessons page to freely access my favorite 6-trait lessons that I created for my Writer's Workshop.

Be sure to check out My Resources page to freely access some of the best handouts and resources I created to help my students create powerful writing portfolios.

Be sure to check out My Products page to purchase the handouts and resources I freely give out at my workshops and conference sessions, but I sell these on-line to those unable to attend my sessions.

My Life-Long Learner's Timeline:
(If you haven't created a life-long learner's timeline to share with your students, I encourage you to do so.)

1968: Born in Fresno, California.

1973 - 1979: Attended Bullard Elementary in Fresno. My most important teacher: Mr. Michael Borilla, 4th and 5th grades. Click here to access the Mr. Borilla stories I tell students when I am doing demonstration lessons in classrooms.

1980 - 1982: Attended Pine Middle School in Reno, Nevada. My most important teacher: Mrs. Beattyanne Rassmussen, 8th grade language arts.

1983 - 1986: Attended Wooster High School in Reno, Nevada. My most important teacher: Mrs. Diane Howard, 11th and 12th grade speech and debate.

1987 - 1990: Attended the University of Nevada-Reno. My most important teacher: Mrs. Anne Howard, various literature courses.

1991-2001: Taught language arts, speech and debate, newspaper, and desktop publishing at Reed High School. My most important mentors during this decade: Mrs. Susan Martin and Mrs. Carol Harriman.

1996: Attended the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Invitational Summer Institute, which forever altered the way I thought about teaching, especially the teaching of writing.

1998: Finished my Master's Degree in style by earning a one-month fellowship at C-SPAN, in Washington, D.C. I spent that month studying national trends in education and developing resources for C-SPAN's educational website.

2001-2007: Served as Director of the Northern Nevada Writing Project. My most important mentors and colleagues during this time: Mrs. Kay Henjum and Mrs. Jodie Black.

2003: Attended the National Writing Project's Technology Matters Advanced Summer Institute in Huntington, West Virginia, discovering new directions I wanted to take the two websites I had created for the Northern Nevada Writing Project: WritingFix and the NNWP's Homepage. I met two wonderful mentors and colleagues--Paul Oh and Karen McComas--who later asked me to serve on the NWP's Technology Leadership Team.

2001-Present: Served as a Trainer and Training Coordinator for Nevada's Northwest Professional Development Program, creating workshops primarily in these areas: 6-trait writing, lesson design, differentiated instruction, writing across the curriculum, and developing a writing workshop. You can read about my current list of trainings by clicking here.