Crafting Writers, Ch. 7-9 & App. F

Hale points put so many good references for our teaching the craft of writing I'm not sure where to begin.  I was most inspired with Chapter 8's lesson about researching strengths in a conference.  Hale mentions Stephen Peter's book, "Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me?" as a reference for ways to capture and inspire students.  Many times a student just needs a teacher to care enough about them and their work to make a positive difference with their internal motivation.  We saw this with one of our field experience teachers, you could tell that she was encouraging and supporting her students.  With this support system in place, her students will be writing to their potential.  An important next step that Hale mentioned was to also teach the next step. This reminds me of the Zone of Proximal Development that we learned in our Child Development class - it is the gap between what a student has already learned and what he or she can actually achieve.  Knowing when a student is ready to be taught the next step is a very important part of their learning success.
When I was looking at the 3rd grade standards that were passed out in class last week, I noticed that Hale had addressed a specific standard - 3.5.4 - Use varied word choices to make writing interesting.  The standards give an example of using varied words instead of the word said.  Hale also mentions this as a craft lesson on pages 206-207 and gives some variations of common words, especially for said.
I found Appendix F very good for giving me practice looking for strengths and possible next steps that the student is ready for rather than looking at everything that was "wrong" with the writing.  It is so important that we look for the good rather than the negative in students' writing and encourage them that they can be wonderful writers.