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Alexis really articulates our message well in her blog entry. Here are some take-home points from the conference:

1. The process approach (getting students to do the things that good writers do) works, but the teacher has to make it work, and that takes a lot of effort and time--we think too much.

2. Teaching specific skills using modeling, scaffolding, and repetition also works. Like the process approach, the teacher also has to produce results. The grading load, however, is lighter than the grading load using a process approach. Students generally have an easier time learning skills, as opposed to developing writing talent. For the most part, students like this approach. As Alexis states in her blog entry, “They [the students] enjoyed the exercise and said more such practice would serve them.”

3. You don’t have to stop doing what works for you to use this approach. This is just another tool--an underused and highly effective one--in the teachers’ toolbox.

Here is a breakdown of how to do “Guided Navigation”: