Dear Paul,

I have taught in four different Chicago schools and enjoyed almost every
day of teaching, but you are right in your observation that students have
too much negative stimuli to be interested in most reading assignments and
in writing, let alone revising their work.  

My own experience is that daily brief sentence work that builds on
carefully sequenced skills and then a short free write that credits both
interest and quantity of writing gives students a new interest and
confidence in their writing.  McDougal/Littell has such a sequence and I
made sure to start at their level.  Older students moved through more than
one year because I was careful not to repeat lessons too often and to
combine more than one or two types of errors as we worked.  They were able
to find their own grammatical mistakes easily by the end of the year.

I'm still struggling with revision, but it has helped to consider what I
myself need when it comes to revising a draft:  very specific suggestions
that relate to organization, support, logic, or point of view.

I hope that you will find your students' appreciation for your effort and
interest as rewarding as I have.

Sincerely,

Lois Barliant