Raise Your Expectations

This is the very subject that seems to haunt myself as a teacher, because I feel torn between letting them create and having it readable. I agree with what Routman said about the finished product, "Work published for a reader has to be as perfect as we can get it." That is the way it is in the real world. Getting there is always the difficult part.
During this chapter I started asking myself, have I lowered my expectations in writing, conventions, etc. for my students? Sad to say, I think I have on some of their daily papers and such. How high to have those expectations has been a struggle. Demonstrating to them, how to do it well, has been effective recently, but I must agree with Routman, teaching breaks down when my demonstrations are not effective. This is most evident in the struggling students, who need more attention or more demonstrations.