I’m Mike, the English teacher at Realms. One of the things I love about teaching here is that the small class sizes and high expectations allow me to put time into commenting on each student’s essays. This is certainly my best individualized teaching tool. I’ve also been able to establish the idea of rewriting as part of the writing process in Realms culture. It has always struck me as odd, as a student many years ago and as a teacher, that standard English class essay procedure is for the students to turn in an essay and get it back with the grade that goes on record, hopefully with some helpful feedback from the teacher, but often not. Feedback is usually just a grade and a brief comment.

Any real life writing process doesn’t work this way. Professional writers have editors. Editing and revising is an essential part of a writer’s development.

In my classes, when I introduced the protocol of turning in a first draft that got an edit and comments but no grade, then turning in a graded draft, I’d often have students missing the first deadline and turning in their first draft for a grade. I expected that - that’s how they’d been trained in previous English classes, and it’s the path of least perceived work. About half a class would get a first draft in before the grading deadline. But as enough students found the feedback worthwhile, the culture shifted. Turning in a draft for comments before turning a draft in for a grade is now part of the writing process here. Both the writing quality and the value the students have for their writing reflect that.