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Hidden Gems: Naming and Teaching from the Brilliance in Every Student's Writing
"Open Katherine Bomer's staggeringly beautiful, generous book-you may realize that you have never before see your students' writing at all."
- Lucy Calkins , Author of Units of Study for Teaching Writing Hidden Gems will transform the way we read student work.
- Thomas Newkirk , Author of Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones You don't get true, fire-in-the-belly energy for writing because you fear getting a bad grade, but because you have something to say and your own way of saying it.
- Katherine Bomer If you're like Katherine Bomer, you've grown weary of searching for what's wrong in student writing, and you want better ways to the respond to pieces whose beauty and intelligence doesn't shine on the first read. Now she shares how she learned instead to search-sometimes near the surface, sometimes deep beneath-to find, celebrate, and teach from writers' Hidden Gems . "My hope is that as teachers we can respond to all students' writing with astonished, appreciative, awe-struck eyes," writes Katherine. Through protocols, sample assessments, and demonstrations with actual student work, she shows how to bring the brilliant facets of your writers to the surface as Accept Katherine Bomer's invitation to read work "by young, unseasoned writers the way we would inquire our way into a poem by Nikki Giovanni, Jimmy Santiago Baca, or Naomi Shihab Nye and to notice the quirky brilliance and humor, the heartbreaking honesty, and surreal beauty in even the slightest bits of writing." You'll soon discover that student writers often perform remarkable feats in the craft of writing, and that you can achieve remarkable results with them when you uncover their Hidden Gems .
- Lucy Calkins , Author of Units of Study for Teaching Writing Hidden Gems will transform the way we read student work.
- Thomas Newkirk , Author of Holding On to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones You don't get true, fire-in-the-belly energy for writing because you fear getting a bad grade, but because you have something to say and your own way of saying it.
- Katherine Bomer If you're like Katherine Bomer, you've grown weary of searching for what's wrong in student writing, and you want better ways to the respond to pieces whose beauty and intelligence doesn't shine on the first read. Now she shares how she learned instead to search-sometimes near the surface, sometimes deep beneath-to find, celebrate, and teach from writers' Hidden Gems . "My hope is that as teachers we can respond to all students' writing with astonished, appreciative, awe-struck eyes," writes Katherine. Through protocols, sample assessments, and demonstrations with actual student work, she shows how to bring the brilliant facets of your writers to the surface as Accept Katherine Bomer's invitation to read work "by young, unseasoned writers the way we would inquire our way into a poem by Nikki Giovanni, Jimmy Santiago Baca, or Naomi Shihab Nye and to notice the quirky brilliance and humor, the heartbreaking honesty, and surreal beauty in even the slightest bits of writing." You'll soon discover that student writers often perform remarkable feats in the craft of writing, and that you can achieve remarkable results with them when you uncover their Hidden Gems .
216 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 26, 2011
Rubies, not rubrics.
That about sums it up. And any book that disses rubrics automatically gets my vote because, quite frankly, I've never been comfortable using the damned things -- as if writing could be boxed, labeled, and homogenized like that, anyway.
But to Bomer's message. It is common sense on the one hand and necessary on the other. She states (news flash!) that positive remarks grow a writer (our task, last I checked, as teachers) more than negative remarks, to which we all agree. But let's look at the last pile of papers we plowed through for the evidence. Oops. Twenty-three spelling errors circled. Seventeen comma splices. Fourteen "FRAG" remarks and ten "run-on" ones. Thrice-underlined letters all over the place (capitalization, children!) and a few "AWKs" to signify how awkward the mess happens to be. And, to top it all off, a note at the end that kindly states what went wrong and what could have been better. Plus a grade. Usually south of a B-minus.
Next!
You get the picture. I guess it's the sins of the fathers because we're surely channeling our own professors and teachers of the past and not considering our own experiences as writers where we can state from memory the litany of rejections and unkind words we've received on our OWN writing. But whatever. That's a horse of a different color (even though it isn't).
Regarding the book: Katherine Bomer writes well and knows how to persuade, too. She provides her rationale. She give examples of poor-to-middling (in "English teacher-think") student work and then shows us how to read it with as much care as we would professionally-published work. What's more, she gives advice on how to find and compliment what's WORKING in the piece so that, when Johnny and Suzy receive the paper back, they will be so psyched they'll be not only willing but eager to jump in again and begin revising anew.
Yes, she can get corny at times -- especially with stories of breaking out in tears at the slightest student-written provocation -- but overall it's a message that has to be received in many English classrooms throughout the land. Beaten and depressed by so-called mediocrity, teachers have become gloom and doomers who read student papers through dandelion- (is this the opposite of "rose"?) colored glasses.
Also provided are protocols and forms to use while reading student work. This will help newly-recharged teachers to put the abstract ideas into concrete action so that they can judge its effects for themselves. Why not? If you're tired of the teachers' café with all its whining, consider whether your marked up papers are the equivalent of same, then DO something about it. Yes, you can still teach and encourage kids to be better, providing the tools they'll need to do it, but consider how much more willing they'll be once they know you've not only taken their work seriously, you've found whatever hidden gold it contains. Now THAT'S incentive!
That about sums it up. And any book that disses rubrics automatically gets my vote because, quite frankly, I've never been comfortable using the damned things -- as if writing could be boxed, labeled, and homogenized like that, anyway.
But to Bomer's message. It is common sense on the one hand and necessary on the other. She states (news flash!) that positive remarks grow a writer (our task, last I checked, as teachers) more than negative remarks, to which we all agree. But let's look at the last pile of papers we plowed through for the evidence. Oops. Twenty-three spelling errors circled. Seventeen comma splices. Fourteen "FRAG" remarks and ten "run-on" ones. Thrice-underlined letters all over the place (capitalization, children!) and a few "AWKs" to signify how awkward the mess happens to be. And, to top it all off, a note at the end that kindly states what went wrong and what could have been better. Plus a grade. Usually south of a B-minus.
Next!
You get the picture. I guess it's the sins of the fathers because we're surely channeling our own professors and teachers of the past and not considering our own experiences as writers where we can state from memory the litany of rejections and unkind words we've received on our OWN writing. But whatever. That's a horse of a different color (even though it isn't).
Regarding the book: Katherine Bomer writes well and knows how to persuade, too. She provides her rationale. She give examples of poor-to-middling (in "English teacher-think") student work and then shows us how to read it with as much care as we would professionally-published work. What's more, she gives advice on how to find and compliment what's WORKING in the piece so that, when Johnny and Suzy receive the paper back, they will be so psyched they'll be not only willing but eager to jump in again and begin revising anew.
Yes, she can get corny at times -- especially with stories of breaking out in tears at the slightest student-written provocation -- but overall it's a message that has to be received in many English classrooms throughout the land. Beaten and depressed by so-called mediocrity, teachers have become gloom and doomers who read student papers through dandelion- (is this the opposite of "rose"?) colored glasses.
Also provided are protocols and forms to use while reading student work. This will help newly-recharged teachers to put the abstract ideas into concrete action so that they can judge its effects for themselves. Why not? If you're tired of the teachers' café with all its whining, consider whether your marked up papers are the equivalent of same, then DO something about it. Yes, you can still teach and encourage kids to be better, providing the tools they'll need to do it, but consider how much more willing they'll be once they know you've not only taken their work seriously, you've found whatever hidden gold it contains. Now THAT'S incentive!
September 13, 2016
I cried... more than once.
March 9, 2020
Honestly after about the halfway point I skimmed...A LOT. Firstly, this book should have been half the length it is, and at only 177 pages it's not long to begin with. I'm the kind of person who writes notes in the margins of her reference texts, highlights interesting ideas, and writes about my thoughts as I go along. I honestly would have stopped reading this book long ago if it wasn't required for a class.
The entire book feels like Bomer's attempt to prove that she is an authority on teaching kids writing. Like she's in a room of experts and vehemently boasting that she too knows a thing or two about teaching writing. She constantly quotes other authorities or name drops her professional friends; oftentimes in lengthy multi-comma form (I'm talking lists ten or more people long). when giving literary examples to make a point she always quotes the same cluster of authors (Gary Paulson, ugh). Bomer also includes examples...endlessly. Whole chapters are about four pages of content and ten or more pages of examples. At what point is she just filling space? After one or two examples I understand what she is saying. I don't need the next fifteen. She also makes it a point to state things (i.e. rubrics are bad!) and not give any indication on how to grade writing. This is where I started skimming. Her pattern was established early so I would just omit whole chunks of text. Some of these are formatting issues to be sure, but Bomer is not done yet with making a book that if full to the brim of questionable ideas.
At first, I was excited to read from someone who grew up in Albuquerque. My father is from there. My grandmother still lives there. I know it well. But Bomer's perspective is so skewed and romanticized. She had the privilege to view the city in a clean, sterile way. Albuquerque is not a clean, vast, desert paradise she makes it out to be. In fact, statistically New Mexico's poverty rate sits at 19.7% as of 2017. More recent recordings have shown consistent increases in poverty levels. Mind you, this is the 2nd highest poverty rate in the country by state and higher than the national rate of 13.4%. https://www.dws.state.nm.us/Portals/0... Having already known this (half of my family still lives there) I kind of expected Bomer to dive into finding the "hidden gems" in the writing of students who just are not given the advantages of others. The kids that have so unceremoniously fallen through the cracks because of NCLB and other trash policies. But alas, Bomer's view strips these students from being mentioned.
Another thing I quickly realized was that Bomer was to put it lightly...not politically 'woke'. On page 35, when talking about using pieces of writing you like to influence your own writing, Bomer goes too far. For someone who grew up in New Mexico, her decision to share her story of pretending to embody the thoughts and emotions of a Native American with the goal of becoming a good writer is tone deaf at best, and culturally appropriative at worse. Bomer places importance on writing genuinely one's own story and in the same passage proclaims one should copy the likeness of someone else to write. The bottom line is this. Kathrine Bomer can NEVER authentically write like a Native American Medicine Man (again, ugh!) because she will NEVER have even close to the same experiences. To try is to whitewash and bastardize the harsh realities of being a person of color. But people of color are not the only marginalized group to be targeted by Bomer's insensitivity. On page 150 Bomer talks about the many roles writing teachers must take on. She describes them as "the schizophrenia of roles". A frankly disgusting call out of those with serious mental illnesses and not even an accurate description of what schizophrenia is. Like using the word r*t*rd to describe someone, Bomer uses schizophrenia as a gross insulting comparison of having to switch back and forth between roles when evaluating writing. Can you imagine having a teacher you love and adore refer to their many jobs as 'the schizophrenia of roles' when you yourself have this serious mental illness? All of a sudden your trust is gone. You've been made into a joke. An outlier to be exploited and made fun of.
Her book isn't all bad though. I agree with her idea that there is good in every writing piece, that writing, like art, changes rapidly and interpretations must change with it, that rubrics cannot fully evaluate a creative process that emphasizes growth, and that writing comes with a built in purpose (to write for an audience). But honestly, that's about it. Bomer spends a lot of time touting her idea that teachers should dedicate their time to spending evenings in bookstore pouring over volumes of books and magazines on genres and topics they don't like. Through this, Bomer insists you can appreciate different types of writing better. I disagree. Just because you're not deeply educated in the workings of art, music, or film, doesn't mean you can't be open to being moved by what you consume. To me that's the power of these things. They're good because they make you feel something, knowing the tactics they use to get you to feel something isn't necessary. So why should I, when I find it hard to even read for my own pleasure, pour myself over things that I just don't enjoy? Teachers should be open minded enough to see a student's writing about a topic, no matter how unfamiliar, and be able to see the passion and interest the student has. But then again, what do I know? I'm just a human person able to empathize with the excitement of others without needing extensive research to understand. Anyway, Bomer establishes her idea that there is something good in all writing (I mean Hidden Gems is the most on-the-nose title). But then, on page 74 she includes a list of 'The Characteristics of Good Writing'. This is just confusing. How can you say that there's good in all writing and then give me a black and white list of what is in 'good' writing? The hypocrisy s note-worthy.
Overall, I would not recommend this book. Especially if you have read other books about teaching writing to kids like, Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner; which reads more lightly and with similar and yet somehow better content. There are are few points worth noting, but again, not anything that I didn't get from other books already.
The entire book feels like Bomer's attempt to prove that she is an authority on teaching kids writing. Like she's in a room of experts and vehemently boasting that she too knows a thing or two about teaching writing. She constantly quotes other authorities or name drops her professional friends; oftentimes in lengthy multi-comma form (I'm talking lists ten or more people long). when giving literary examples to make a point she always quotes the same cluster of authors (Gary Paulson, ugh). Bomer also includes examples...endlessly. Whole chapters are about four pages of content and ten or more pages of examples. At what point is she just filling space? After one or two examples I understand what she is saying. I don't need the next fifteen. She also makes it a point to state things (i.e. rubrics are bad!) and not give any indication on how to grade writing. This is where I started skimming. Her pattern was established early so I would just omit whole chunks of text. Some of these are formatting issues to be sure, but Bomer is not done yet with making a book that if full to the brim of questionable ideas.
At first, I was excited to read from someone who grew up in Albuquerque. My father is from there. My grandmother still lives there. I know it well. But Bomer's perspective is so skewed and romanticized. She had the privilege to view the city in a clean, sterile way. Albuquerque is not a clean, vast, desert paradise she makes it out to be. In fact, statistically New Mexico's poverty rate sits at 19.7% as of 2017. More recent recordings have shown consistent increases in poverty levels. Mind you, this is the 2nd highest poverty rate in the country by state and higher than the national rate of 13.4%. https://www.dws.state.nm.us/Portals/0... Having already known this (half of my family still lives there) I kind of expected Bomer to dive into finding the "hidden gems" in the writing of students who just are not given the advantages of others. The kids that have so unceremoniously fallen through the cracks because of NCLB and other trash policies. But alas, Bomer's view strips these students from being mentioned.
Another thing I quickly realized was that Bomer was to put it lightly...not politically 'woke'. On page 35, when talking about using pieces of writing you like to influence your own writing, Bomer goes too far. For someone who grew up in New Mexico, her decision to share her story of pretending to embody the thoughts and emotions of a Native American with the goal of becoming a good writer is tone deaf at best, and culturally appropriative at worse. Bomer places importance on writing genuinely one's own story and in the same passage proclaims one should copy the likeness of someone else to write. The bottom line is this. Kathrine Bomer can NEVER authentically write like a Native American Medicine Man (again, ugh!) because she will NEVER have even close to the same experiences. To try is to whitewash and bastardize the harsh realities of being a person of color. But people of color are not the only marginalized group to be targeted by Bomer's insensitivity. On page 150 Bomer talks about the many roles writing teachers must take on. She describes them as "the schizophrenia of roles". A frankly disgusting call out of those with serious mental illnesses and not even an accurate description of what schizophrenia is. Like using the word r*t*rd to describe someone, Bomer uses schizophrenia as a gross insulting comparison of having to switch back and forth between roles when evaluating writing. Can you imagine having a teacher you love and adore refer to their many jobs as 'the schizophrenia of roles' when you yourself have this serious mental illness? All of a sudden your trust is gone. You've been made into a joke. An outlier to be exploited and made fun of.
Her book isn't all bad though. I agree with her idea that there is good in every writing piece, that writing, like art, changes rapidly and interpretations must change with it, that rubrics cannot fully evaluate a creative process that emphasizes growth, and that writing comes with a built in purpose (to write for an audience). But honestly, that's about it. Bomer spends a lot of time touting her idea that teachers should dedicate their time to spending evenings in bookstore pouring over volumes of books and magazines on genres and topics they don't like. Through this, Bomer insists you can appreciate different types of writing better. I disagree. Just because you're not deeply educated in the workings of art, music, or film, doesn't mean you can't be open to being moved by what you consume. To me that's the power of these things. They're good because they make you feel something, knowing the tactics they use to get you to feel something isn't necessary. So why should I, when I find it hard to even read for my own pleasure, pour myself over things that I just don't enjoy? Teachers should be open minded enough to see a student's writing about a topic, no matter how unfamiliar, and be able to see the passion and interest the student has. But then again, what do I know? I'm just a human person able to empathize with the excitement of others without needing extensive research to understand. Anyway, Bomer establishes her idea that there is something good in all writing (I mean Hidden Gems is the most on-the-nose title). But then, on page 74 she includes a list of 'The Characteristics of Good Writing'. This is just confusing. How can you say that there's good in all writing and then give me a black and white list of what is in 'good' writing? The hypocrisy s note-worthy.
Overall, I would not recommend this book. Especially if you have read other books about teaching writing to kids like, Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner; which reads more lightly and with similar and yet somehow better content. There are are few points worth noting, but again, not anything that I didn't get from other books already.
June 30, 2010
Amazing, amazing book! Now, I may be a bit biased, but I'm also honest in that it's an amazing book. If you work with young people at all--writers or not--you should read this book. Bomer encourages and helps readers find the "hidden gems" in what our students write. It's also a testament to real world dealings with people in a "glass half full" sort of way. She focuses on seeing what IS there, and not what is lacking. Although it may be a bit "academic," it's very easy to read, full of humor, honesty and narrative.
January 1, 2016
I enjoyed reading this book because Bomer discusses how, as educators, we should look for the beauty in every students writing. However, there were a few things that I disagreed with in that they weren't practical especially concerning assessment of student writing. Overall, it was good and I walked away from with a few good ideas.☺️
January 20, 2017
Not only is this book full of insightful and smart about teaching writers (young and old), but Katherine Bomer's writing voice is lovely. Bomer suggests how to build effective writing curriculum from a writers's strength and not through mistakes.
May 24, 2021
Katherine shows how the reading and teaching of student writing can be joyful and communal. She gives detailed advice on protocols to do this with colleagues and students. She emphasizes the need for writing teachers to engage in vast reading alone and with others. Another book on the teaching of writing that tells me I must also be a writer. I wanted answers to how to grade and evaluate student writing, which she includes, but ultimately her argument is that writing should be assessed, but not evaluated and thus this is the needed revolution needed in education! She showed me that I am not alone and I must continue to create ways to ensure that others (collègues and students) are not alone. We are enough and must be celebrated! Do no harm.
May 17, 2015
This is a must read for teachers of writing. The eloquence of this book makes evident the author's ardent fire that she possesses for writing. Katherine Bomer delineates naming and teaching writing from a perspective that compels readers to look at every piece and composition they come across from both a new and scholarly standpoint, encouraging the recognition of the brilliance- the "gems"- in writing more than any aspects that may need to be tweaked or lack strength. Bomer's exuberance for writing in her own career is eye-opening and stimulating to anyone who is seeking to look at the writing of (for the purpose of the majority of her book) students with fervor for naming those gems. Her insight and perfect balance of formal and informal writing in this book, I believe, galvanizes any teacher of writing to become an active provider of encouragement to students in their writing and a helper and advocate to them in honing their talents and proficiency. As if the previous chapters in the book had not already seemed invaluable to me, the last chapter was a treasure to come upon and finish, leaving a greater impact upon me than any other part.
Perhaps most of all, I would recommend this book for those looking to further their own writing richly for the rousing and heightened perception it left me with in application to my writing. I read this book for my writing and literature applications in writing class this semester, and of all the texts delved into, Bomer's shrewd and knowledgeably written book had the greatest impact on my growth as a writer that will undoubtedly continue to penetrate my thoughts on writing. Bomer shares her knowledge of writing in a way that is simply moving, unadulterated, and relates back to her experiences, different art forms, and every day wonder.
Two quotes that were especially profound to me in my reading of "Hidden Gems":
"Remember that my impassioned plea in this book is that as teachers of writing, we should give the same amount of time, respect, and attitude of inquiry into the mystery in our students' writing that we would give to a published novel, poem, or feature article. Yes, we notice misspelled words, and absolutely, we trip over sentences that don't flow in conventional, logical patterns. But we have decided to take a different stance: to notice the surprises, the brilliance, and the unique tone and signature style of even the most plain or scrawny or meandering piece of student writing." (Bomer, 135)
"This moment of truly noticing and naming for an individual what he or she can already make has more potential for student learning, I believe, than the most succinct mini-lesson or erudite lecture about the qualities of good writing." (149)
A more abstract excerpt that struck me, the poignant introduction to Chapter Four: "At Box Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, gallery owner Michelle Ouellette spoke about the contemporary artists she represents as if they were her own children, who could do no wrong, whose every dot of paint, every impulsive choice of paper/canvas/oil/clay was conceived in intuitive genius, enabling the artist to discover new territories and create new masterpieces. She took us on a tour of her current exhibitions, commenting on each treasure with poetic, exuberant language. I followed her from painting to painting, completely entranced. She spoke of one painter exploring surface when the oil paint stood out from the canvas in huge globs, sometimes including the scabs formed on oil tubes left open in the air, as well as any materials blowing about in the open-air studio the painter worked in, such as dust and leaves." (53) This paragraph spoke volumes about writing and seeing the richness and value within the variety of writing that we come across.
Perhaps most of all, I would recommend this book for those looking to further their own writing richly for the rousing and heightened perception it left me with in application to my writing. I read this book for my writing and literature applications in writing class this semester, and of all the texts delved into, Bomer's shrewd and knowledgeably written book had the greatest impact on my growth as a writer that will undoubtedly continue to penetrate my thoughts on writing. Bomer shares her knowledge of writing in a way that is simply moving, unadulterated, and relates back to her experiences, different art forms, and every day wonder.
Two quotes that were especially profound to me in my reading of "Hidden Gems":
"Remember that my impassioned plea in this book is that as teachers of writing, we should give the same amount of time, respect, and attitude of inquiry into the mystery in our students' writing that we would give to a published novel, poem, or feature article. Yes, we notice misspelled words, and absolutely, we trip over sentences that don't flow in conventional, logical patterns. But we have decided to take a different stance: to notice the surprises, the brilliance, and the unique tone and signature style of even the most plain or scrawny or meandering piece of student writing." (Bomer, 135)
"This moment of truly noticing and naming for an individual what he or she can already make has more potential for student learning, I believe, than the most succinct mini-lesson or erudite lecture about the qualities of good writing." (149)
A more abstract excerpt that struck me, the poignant introduction to Chapter Four: "At Box Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, gallery owner Michelle Ouellette spoke about the contemporary artists she represents as if they were her own children, who could do no wrong, whose every dot of paint, every impulsive choice of paper/canvas/oil/clay was conceived in intuitive genius, enabling the artist to discover new territories and create new masterpieces. She took us on a tour of her current exhibitions, commenting on each treasure with poetic, exuberant language. I followed her from painting to painting, completely entranced. She spoke of one painter exploring surface when the oil paint stood out from the canvas in huge globs, sometimes including the scabs formed on oil tubes left open in the air, as well as any materials blowing about in the open-air studio the painter worked in, such as dust and leaves." (53) This paragraph spoke volumes about writing and seeing the richness and value within the variety of writing that we come across.
July 14, 2010
This book really made me think about how I talk to kids about their writing. In my school district, we've been encouraged to use the language of the rubric (in many cases the ISAT rubric) when talking about writing with kids. This never really felt right to me, and Bomer helped me figure out why. She also addressed why we shouldn't grade writing, and I'm still rolling this part around in my brain.
May 5, 2014
I purchased this book after Katherine Bomer was the keynote speaker at this year's Spicola conference.
In this book, Bomer talks about how to take a different approach to student writing. Often, children hate writing class because all the teacher does is to mark up the paper in red ink. In this book, Bomer talks about finding what is good in writing and working from there.
In this book, Bomer talks about how to take a different approach to student writing. Often, children hate writing class because all the teacher does is to mark up the paper in red ink. In this book, Bomer talks about finding what is good in writing and working from there.
March 12, 2011
One of my new favorite books! Love this and how it helped me see student work.
Want to read
July 3, 2011One of the reading options for the Eastern Michigan Writing Project Summer Institute 2011.
January 1, 2015
I'm about halfway through this excellent book. Great advice for teachers of writing.
July 1, 2012
One of my all time favorite professional books! It changed the way I conferred and viewed student writing. A must read for any writing teacher!
February 18, 2014
This book is beautifully written. This is a must read for anyone that teaches writing or leads writing teachers!
January 28, 2016
Heinemann
June 21, 2016
Read. This. Book.
A game-changer!
A game-changer!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews