Reading about the teacherless writing class made me think of my writers group. We don't meet every week. Instead, we meet every month. There is diversity in our group: we have people who write poetry, childrens books, fantasy, memoir, mystery, young adult, essay..... We have probably 20 members total, but only about 7-10 of us make it on a regular basis. Each member reads their piece aloud and the other members offer feedback including first reactions, confusing parts, strong images, etc... We try to be very positive, but we also try to strengthen the writing. At one point, we tried to get everyone to bring in copies, but it didn't work out. It was hard to know how many copies to bring plus it takes extra time, effort, and money to make multiple copies of your work. It didn't last very long (maybe 2 months). Even when we did bring the copies, we still read our work out loud. Every one could follow along on their copy and write reactions/ suggestions in the margins.
Reading aloud is extremely beneficial. I know some people say how they would still have problems with this because writing is so personal, but it really is worth it to push yourself. I am not not outgoing in the classroom as a student, and I never liked giving speeches or sharing my work. (which is ironic since I will be a teacher) When I first joined my writing club, I didn't want to read aloud. I had someone else read it for me. However, they didn't read it with the same emphasis or flow as I would have. He stumbled over some of the sentences and made me want to snatch it out of his hands and do it myself. After that first time, I started to read for myself and I also didn't have to worry about looking around the room at everyone's reaction since I was engaged in reading. Like Elbow, I feel more empowered reading aloud to my audience.