Writing: how i was taught

How were you taught writing?

I learnt writing as a young child, by my mom showing me how to hold my pencil and then showing me how to shape my letters. My mother taught me how to write my tracing letters with me, drawing with me and my also allowing me to doodle on my own.

At the primary school level, I was taught writing by the teacher who wrote letters on the board and I was asked to rewrite them in my book. The teacher would also write letters in our notebooks and we were asked to re-write the letters by tracing over them.

At the secondary school level, writing was taught by the teacher who provided samples of writing from text books to read and we were asked to reproduce the writing my putting in ideas of our own. Writing was also taught by the teacher modeling certain types of writing and providing examples of that writing. We were then asked to use those writings in order to complete writings of our own.

 

How has the information you have been exposed to, change or decide what you do in your writing class?

As a novice teacher, I intend on using the information which I was taught such as teaching writing as a process to help me in my writing class. I intend to use strategies such as the writing process, modeling writing procedures and also allowing students to make use of double entry journals in class in order to have them write on their own free will. Writing should be viewed by students as a form of expressing their ideas and feeling and not as a task.

In order for students to enjoy writing, I will allow students to discuss ideas for essay writing such as various topics and ideas and also encourage them to brainstorm ideas with their peers. This will allow students have a better understanding of the writing process and can also help to clarify any misconceptions they may have at the time.

I will also have students participate in free-writing instead of providing them with a topic to write about where at times students may not be able to write that essay due to having no pre-requisite knowledge in order to write the essay. I will therefore allow students to write about anything that they feel passionate about and in that way, it will encourage them to write, as they will be writing about something they are confident about.

Short Story: Just me

Short Story

Just Me

I wake up in the morning wondering why me. The sun comes up and all I want to do is crawl under the covers and go back to sleep. There is an insistent and annoying knock on my bedroom door followed by an even more annoying voice telling me that it is time to get up and get ready for school.

I try to drown out the noise with the radio, but unfortunately the voice only gets louder with the radio. I sigh “oh how I hate mornings…..and school. Who thought it was important to have school five days a week starting at 8am. If it were up to me, school would be twice a week starting at 10am.”

“Get up now” the voice yells again. I try to get up and stop daydreaming….. I really want to go back to bed but I know I will never fall asleep again with all the noise. Maybe today I will learn something new or probably annoy my teacher until she asks me to leave the class.

NCTE Beliefs Reflection

NCTE Beliefs

Writing is a process which involves many stages. It involves the following stages:

Pre-writing stage

Drafting Stage

Revising Stage

Editing Stage

Publishing Stage

Each stage is important in the writing process. This does not however mean that you need to follow it step by step; a student can and may start the drafting stage and move onto the revising and editing stage, only to go back to the drafting stage if they want to add more information to their piece of writing. NCTE points out many beliefs about the Teaching of Writing.

Writing is a Process

According to NCTE writing is a process through which there are many stages which a writer goes through in order to produce a piece of writing. First there is the developmental stage through practice and then the developmental stage through reflective abilities. I would encourage students to use the writing process in order to help them. I would also model and guide students through the writing process. Students should also be provided with multiple strategies in order to go through the writing process that will allow them to go through the multiple stages.

Being that I have not taught before, it will be a new experience entering the classroom. As a teacher, I would like to influence the students to make use of the writing process when writing and to encourage them to view it as a strategy to improve their writing and not as an additional task. In this technological age where most students are either on a computer online or on their blackberry phones, it will be a good idea if as a teacher I would be able to incorporate their use of technology in the Teaching of writing instead of limiting it to their notebooks and pens. This may encourage students to write more often and also more freely.

Writing is a tool for thinking

According to NCTE, the act of writing generates ideas in that you have information in mind before you actually begin writing. There are many important reasons for writing such as identifying issues and to construct questions. As a teacher I would encourage students to write with the use of journals in which they write in everyday about anything that they wish. I believe that writing should not be restricted to what we as a teacher believes is correct but should be seen as a means of the students expressing their feeling and ideas whilst also writing and learning in the process.

In the classroom, these strategies can be used to encourage students to post their views or ideas on certain topics. One strategy may be to start an online discussion page where students may be asked to post their views, feelings or ideas on certain topics and also be able to ask questions of their own which their peers are able to answer. With the use of technology in the class, I believe that students may be a bit more enthusiastic to be involved in the class and also as a teacher, you will be able to see how the students write and be able to plan lessons to meet their needs. Although technology in the classroom may prove to be a disadvantage as not all students may have accessibility to it, the teacher can make available a resource room.

In order to introduce, these ideas to teachers in the school, I would firstly, model some of the strategies that I believe can be useful to them and also allow them to modify some of the strategies that they already use, but by trying to incorporate an ICT in their teaching. In order to be able to use some of the strategies forwarded by the NCTE, it will mean that teachers need to be more understanding patient, and instead of just teaching material or writing they should be modeling and guiding students in their writing. Teachers should be provided with information on the writing process and also the different strategies that can be used in order to teach writing. Therefore workshops should be held on a regular basis in order to update teachers on new strategies and also where they can meet in order to discuss the success or failure they may be having with certain strategies and how they are able to overcome them. In this way they will be able to learn from each others mistakes. Teachers will also need to have resources available to them in order to use various strategies so that they are able to cater to the needs of the various learners in the class.