Issues in Teaching Writing

Writing proves daily to be a tool one can use in their own way to express themselves. Many teachers have their own approaches to teaching writing and not to say that they are not effective I just feel that if some people change their approach some of the problems I myself see can be changed by a change in the approach to teaching and assessing writing. Some issues I see are students not being exposed to different styles of writing, their writing assignments challenge their knowledge and remembrance instead of their analytical and critical thinking skills, and the way teachers assess writing. These problems are pretty I love writing and I have had good and bad experiences with teachers of writing.

I believe one issue in the teaching of writing is the student’s exposition of different writing styles. Writing styles across genre but for the sake of this discussion I want to focus on essay’s at the high school level. When I was in high school essay writing was a drag because it was always a “reflection” or a “persuasive” essay. There was never any real analyzation or evaluative skills necessary. It was not until my AP English class that I was exposed to writing at a more advanced level. I think in teaching writing at the high school level it should be more exploratory because the students have already acquired the fundamentals of language in “grammar” school. At the high school level it should be the job of the teacher to teach the students to use writing in many different ways and use it as a tool.

One of the questions my group asked our instructor “Is it more effective to assign students personal essays where they share their own experiences, or critical papers where they are to respond as academics?” His response was exceptiona...

... middle of paper ...

...e a traditional option alongside a creative option. Therefore the students have the choice of which one they would perform best in. My approach to writing will always be to present the information in a way that they see it as something they can use to enhance their writing not things they need to know. I want my students to be able to use written language to thier advantage and be very flexible in the way they write. Therefore in my classroom there will always be the implementation of standards and necessary knowledge with creative freedom. Students must prove and demonstrate knowledge in comfortable and uncomfortable writing and be able to identify the styles of writing. I want to teach my students every possible style of essay, and style of every other writing so they are well rounded I knowledge of how to write and how to use writing as a means to achieve an end.