I think I went off on a tangent...

The revising and editing process has been interesting for me. On one hand, I like to watch the reactions of my peers as they read my story. I even enjoy (yes, enjoy) listening to their comments afterward. It was very helpful for me to hear that my shifts from past to present were slightly confusing and needed to be fixed in some creative way. And, of course, it's always helpful to have my type-o's and grammatical errors pointed out to me. It was also a relief to hear that my story was well liked and had the effect I had hoped it would on the reader.

On the other hand, it is difficult to place my hard work into someone else's hands. It's hard for me to come to terms with the fact that this person who knows nothing about my life or the story that I am telling is going to tell me how to fix it. It makes me fairly nervous to be honest.

Yet, this is very common practice for me. I don't typically trust myself, and I really do like to hear other people comment on my work. I have a favorite "editor" who typically reads my stuff and is honest (like the time he asked me if I was asleep while writing my ENG 111 research paper).

I think this is absolutely essential in the classroom. Students are able to practice many different skills. Of course, there are the obvious language arts skills (reading, writing, grammar, etc), but students also practice social and emotional skills as they bravely hand their hard work over to another peer. For this reason, I think it would be best to either keep the same partner for at least half of the year, or to let the students chose their own partners when peer conferencing.

Who would think that language arts would be so emotional...maybe I made it too emotional.