Everyone wants something

Writing isn’t entering an unknown world.

Even in futuristic societies and the unknown worlds of Ender’s Games and Hunger Games, there is a connection that readers can make to the experiences the characters are having and the way that they are relating to one another.

Rosenblatt calls this a “living through” experience that enables readers to experience situations and feelings that they themselves might not be willing to admit they want to experience.

It’s hard for me to imagine that the templates I have seen for the Common Core Standards hold to this caliber of writing, but let’s not trust writers like Kurt Vonnegut, Louise Rosenblatt, Orson Scott Card or Suzanne Collins for our writing advice. Let’s stick with policymakers’ ideas of how to nurture developing writers.