The Writing Process: Ideas for Publishing

When I was in school and the teacher mentioned we would be writing an essay, the announcement was met with a collective "Ugh!" It might have had something to do with the single topic we had to write on or, quite possibly, the yellow-lined paper that we were forced to fill at least two pages front and back. As a student, deep down, I think I knew I liked to write, but my inner writing spirit didn't mesh with the way I was required to put words on paper while in school.

My name is Amie Newberry, and I teach English in Northern Nevada. I will be the first to tell you I don't feel like I am a "master" in the subject of teaching English, but I do feel like I do a good job of connecting with kids, listening to them, and helping them find their best as a student in class. This page on publishing is meant to give you ideas on how to get the best final product from your students.

Even though publishing is slated at the end of the writing process--the metaphorical caboose of the train--I believe it's something you need to think about before you have your students write. If we want our students to embrace writing, or at least not throw daggers at us when we announce a writing assignment, we need to find creative ways to harness the final product into something they can be excited about, and obviously that has to happen at the birth of our project. Yes, the essay still has a place in our class (although I still have nightmares about that yellow lined paper), but there are other exciting ways to check their understanding.

In my opinion, publishing has two distinct parts: how the piece will be created and what is done with the created piece. On this page, you will find some great ideas that will tap into both of these important aspects of publishing. I hope the ideas here will help your students feel passionate about their writing pieces and see the many purposes of a published piece.