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On Sunday evenings, after my papers were graded and the lesson plans were complete, I'd take an hour out of my week and watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. A group of contractots and designers build a new home, basically from scratch, for a needy family. Every show is the same: the family is in dire financial straits; the design team and crew come to the rescue and build a new home. The rising action is the building process; the climax of the show is a mini-conflict that may thwart their schedule; and the resolution is the family in its new, beautiful home, with hope of a better future. After grading a countless number of essays, this uplifting show helped round out my weekend.
One Sunday, I realized that every house was built in the same fashion every time: a foundation is poured, walls are constructed and raised, and a roof is framed and attached. After that, the creativity of the crew sets in, establishing room placement and sizes, paint colors, fixtures, and all of the characteristics that make a house a home.
I found it eerily similar to the way I taught writing skills to at-risk students. Since I followed a standard format, once that format was established, the students were able to add their creative touches to the piece. The formats I used were the five-sentence paragraph and the five-paragraph essay. I admit that I am a behaviorist, old-school teacher. I am didactic in my speech and, to a certain extent, rigid in my methods of teaching writing skills. When teaching literature, I employ a wide variety of techniques to examine and explore literature. It is common to have organized chaos as students use visually creative methods, such as participating in cooperative activities or epistemic games. Students engage in arts and crafts to illustrate poetic themes, or they may produce a television program to portray characters in a novel, engaging in creative pursuits as they make sense of literary analysis. Such creativity is ideal for at-risk students. Many of these students can express...