Teaching Writing

(Written in response to Linda Rief’s What’s Right with Writing from Voices from the Middle. 13(4). May 2006, 32-39.)


Note: As to my own process in this writing, I began by trying to note key thoughts from different authors read thus far in our studies. I tried not to copy content from what Rief has written but her format (and any new ideas I noted). I hope to use this rough writing in developing my philosophy paper. This is not THE END of this piece. 

What we have learned about writing and the teaching of writing:

    Writing is natural and developmental. Learning to write is a form of natural language acquisition (Falk). Various authors comment on different aspects of its development: from thought to speech to writing to publishing (Moffett) or from expressive (very self-oriented) to transactional or poetic (Britton). Writing progresses from concrete topics for themselves to abstract ideas for a distant audience (Moffett). 

     Writing follows processes in its production, but the order of these processes varies (and repeats) depending on the writer and the writing task. Good writers continually explore the problem they are writing about and how to affect their readers (Flower and Hayes). Skilled writers do more planning and reviewing of their writing (NAEP). They discover as they write and make changes based on the whole of what they want to say (sometimes changing large sections if it does not fit the goal of their writing) (Sommers). "Writing is revision" (Lane 13).

     

Why writing matters:

     Writing gives us a chance to discover our thoughts and express them to others. Writing can be transactional, accomplishing something that needs to be done (Britton). This kind of writing informs and instructs others and can be changed to fit new audiences and circumstances. Writing can be poetic, drawing the reader into the deeper world of the author through poetry, a short story, or a novel (Britton). 

Our writing can influence others (Emig). The world would be a different place without the experiences we have gleaned from others' writing and the opinions we hold that we have developed alongside literature.

Writing and Poetry:

     Poetry helps develop better writers. Writers express their unique voices in poetry and affect the hearts of their readers. In poetry novice writers can play with their words and take creative risks on a smaller scale, moving words and phrases around like furniture (Lain). 

What our students need to help them write well:

     Assignments that progress in difficulty. Teachers need to help students progress in the styles of writing they utilize (expressive to transactional and poetic), audience their work is directed to (self to other unknown readers), and ideas addressed in their writing (concrete to abstract).

     Students need good models of writing to read so that they can develop those styles of writing themselves and build experiences to use in their writing. These models aid in developing spelling and grammar in addition to the different ideas and genres represented.

     Students need a predictable and consistent environment in which to work (Calkins). The writing workshop format provides students with the time, practice, safety, and sharing that students need to become better writers.

     Students need authentic assignments (Edelsky and Smith; Falk). Writing assignments with a real purpose (not informing those already informed) and audience are more likely to engage students' efforts toward better writing. Teachers need to consider the perceived usefulness of writing assignments to students; the more valuable the student thinks an assignment is, the greater effort he or she will put into it. Within those assignments, students need to practice finding problems and topics for themselves which they can tie into literature and their own experiences (Flower and Hayes).

     Students need to see their teachers as writers. Several studies mentioned how important it is for teachers to practice the writing that they ask their students to do.

     Students need teachers to listen to them as writers and to help them learn to evaluate their own work. Instead of focusing on the minutia of each writing assignment (although it can be factored in), students need teachers to note the processes the student is using and help teach them strategies to use in future writing projects. Teachers need to point out noteworthy details or processes in student writing instead of overarching praise i.e. "Great Work!" Our goal is to help students begin to read their own work critically--when we are not there (Calkins).

References:

Britton, James. Now That You Go to School. Children and Writing in the Elementary

School. Richard L. Lawson, ed. New York:  Oxford University Press, 1975, 3-16.

Calkins, Lucy. The Art of Teaching Writing. 183-191, 221-247.

Edelsky, Carole and Karen Smith. Is That Writing—Or Are Those Marks Just a

Figment of Your Curriculum?Language Arts. 61(1), January 1984, 24-32.

Emig, Janet. Non-Magical Thinking: Presenting Writing Developmentally in Schools.

Writing: The Nature, Development and Teaching of Written Communication.Vol II, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1982, 135-144.

Falk, Julia. Language Acquisition and the Teaching and Learning of Writing. College

English. 41(4), Dec. 1979, 436-447.

Flower, Linda and John R. Hayes. The Cognition of Discovery: Defining a Rhetorical

Problem. College Composition and Communication. 31(1), Feb. 1980, 21-32.

Lain, Sheryl. Reaffirming the Writing Workshop for Young Adolescents. Voices from

the Middle. 14(3). March 2007, 20-28.

Lane, Barry. After THE END. Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH, 1993.

Moffett, James. I, You, and It. Children and Writing in the Elementary School. Richard

L. Lawson, ed. New York:  Oxford University Press, 1975, 19-28.

Rief, Linda. What’s Right with Writing. Voices from the Middle. 13(4). May 2006, 32-

39.

National Association of Educational Progress. Can Students Benefit from Process

Writing?NAEP Facts. 1(3), April 1996, 1-6.

Sommers, Nancy. Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult

Writers. College Composition and Communication. 378-388. (?Date)

Warne, Bonnie. Writing Steps:  A Recursive and Individual Experience.
            

English 

Journal. 97(5). May 2008, 23-27.