For me, first and foremost, is noticing how Barry Lane recognizes and pays tribute in his own book to other educator researchers on writing who have had a powerful influence on Lane's ideas about writing: Donald Murray, Donald Graves, Susan Wheeler, and others. And I do believe that first impressions are ever lasting. Lane's personality of teaching writing is what has drawn me in the world of thinking 'writing is about understanding how to use revision' as a key ingredient towards meaningful writing for students.
With that said, Lane certainly held my attention in the opening chapter one describing how to use one among several revision strategies with students. "I have a really important story to tell you" (pg. 13). How clever was Lane to set up his story this way and hooking his students to want to know more. Lane's craft deserves a rating of 10; here again, we teachers were given experimented proven revision strategies that are guaranteed to engage students in their writing. Proof. Asking questions can be turned into a good lead to a story.
Lane uses a refreshing approach demonstrating a list of revision tools to use to help teachers with that "obstacle" of getting students to relook at their writing as a positive task. This guy is amazing! Lane is sophisticated and simplistic in his delivery of information. I am anxious to use this revision language to catch my students' attention: Digging for details, Snapshot, Thoughtshot, Mountain and Sea. Lane has given me the fuel to fire up my students' writing.
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