Judging good exercises

I've read bits and pieces of Atwell's In the Middle before, but reading the first two chapters for my methods class this semester, I was struck by her observation that oftentimes teachers rely on "exercises" rather than giving students autonomy over their own writing process. I've been mulling this over for a while, now, because I'm one of those people who almost always hates participating in writing exercises. Or, rather, I hate participating in too many writing exercises.

Plan more, worry less

Reading Tchudi and Mitchell's chapter on creating instructional units, I could feel myself getting tenser and tenser. I actually had to stop reading and walk away. Five times.


Finally, I just started skimming the article, forcing myself to finish it, without reading too deeply. I felt that if I slowed down and thought about the reading in too much detail, I would panic. It felt too big, too overwhelming. It felt like I would never, ever be able to do it all.