Writing is an incredible characteristic in every culture. Anybody can express their feelings through writing, and can learn by visually seeing words on a page. The power of writing is amazing. My area of study is elementary education in the 4th grade setting, and I will be focusing on writing. There are many “best practices,” in the 4th grade setting and Santrock talks about many of them, but the one that stands out the most is free-write. Along with free-write another set of authors, Darch and Simpson, created a program for spelling tests. Within the text Santrock talks about how teachers need to have writing not be a punishment but use it for positive affects in order to have children enjoy writing (page 375). By allowing students to write about anything that they want in a set amount of time, teachers can enforce that writing can be a positive experience. Students won’t be graded on what the students write about, they would be graded on sentence structure and grammar. By just grading students on that, they will feel like their ideas and stories are important. …show more content…
Santrock gives the examples of, “writing about the American revolution in five minutes.” After the free write is completed, students can share ideas with other students. By doing so, students can listen to ideas that they may not have thought of. Having students collaborate and talk about the free write allows them to generate ideas together and allow the subject to sink deeper into their learning. Along with letting the subject sink deeper into the students learning, it allows new questions to arise. Allowing new questions to arise can help students become curious about other topics, which can lead to students expanding their learning outside of the school
Furthermore to make the Writer’s Workshop successful the students must have intensive and daily independent writing time. During that time the children will work on tasks they learned in the mini-lesson. Some of the writing time should be silent thinking and writing time, while the other time can be quiet writing times when the students can talk in soft voices. Students should always know they are never finish writing in writing workshop, they either work on a draft, revise pieces, or start a new writing (Rog
... more likely the students will write effectively. When they feel in control of their writing they will gain confidence and be proud of their achievements (Gibbons, 2002).
...n them today. This begins with, first and foremost, a creative new approach to teaching students to write.
In the book, “Essays on Writing”, Roy Peter Clarke writes an appropriately titled article, “I Won’t Use Writing As A Punishment, I Won’t…” (pg 3). In it, he describes the wrongful assignment of writing that students are required to do as punishment for their actions. I agree with Clarke that this is a terrible practice and teaches kids to hate writing but he doesn’t mention the reason that this is used as a punishment in the first place. It is a cycle of disgust towards the entire idea of writing that begins with students being forced to write under strict rules with the threat of their grades (and in turn, their futures) on the line. This causes them to hate the idea of writing from an early age. Then, since students don’t like writing from based on this reason, teachers believed that it was a good form of punishment. So, instead of redeeming the positivity of writing, teachers just threw it under the bus and are using it as a lesson, however, the only lesson being learned is that writing
Throughout my childhood, I had a very strong dislike for writing and reading. I found it boring and unexciting. As I progressed through elementary school, each writing assignment always came back with a mediocre to poor grade and to be honest, I didn’t really care because I disliked writing so much, so it meant nothing to me. Even throughout middle school, I didn’t care. Because all grades in elementary and middle school didn’t count towards anything, so I just didn’t put in the effort. I got bored so easily when completing a writing prompt for the state standardized testing exam called CSAP, later known as TCAP, then progressing to become PARCC. Writing just never appealed to me.
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum, Brief Edition (2nd Edition) (2 ed., pp. 413-429). New York: Longman.
Thinking about a topic to write about is not always easy, and sometimes the process of writing can end up being difficult. Jennifer Jacobson discusses strategies to overcome the struggles that young writers can encounter while writing. I was interested in her book No More “I’m Done!” Fostering Independent Writers in the Primary Grades because I feel like as a future teacher this could be a frequent problem among students. From reading this book, I hoped that I would learn useful strategies that I could use to help students overcome their problems with writing. After reading this book, I do believe that Jacobson has provided me with plenty of methods to use. I was surprised at the depth that she goes into in her text. There is a vast amount
In our focus groups, teens said they are motivated to write when they can select topics that are relevant to their lives and interests, and report greater enjoyment of school writing when they have the opportunity to write creatively. Having teachers or other adults who challenge them, present them with interesting curricula and give them detailed feedback also serves as a motivator for teens. Teens also report writing for an audience motivates them to write and write well. (Lenhart et. al.
Different people have different reasons as to why they write. Some people write for their own private reasons or to attain their own individual goals. An example of this ‘private writing’ is exploratory writing. This is writing ideas that you do not want others to see. Introductory writing where you free write on a topic, before composing what you want to say. Examples of writing to explore a topic include keeping a journal, which helps one to take down information that will help him recollect and investigate ideas for a future write up.
The ability to write well is not a naturally acquired skill; it is usually learned or culturally transmitted as a set of practices in formal instructional settings or other environments. Writing skills must be practiced and learned through experience. Writing also involves composing, which implies the ability either to tell or retell pieces of information in the form of narratives or description, or to transform information into new texts, as in expository or argumentative writing. Perhaps it is best viewed as a continuum of activities that range from the more mechanical or formal aspects of “writing down” on the one end, to the more complex act of composing on the other end (Omaggio Hadley, 1993). It is undoubtedly the act of
Free Write: A Free write is a very common writing strategy used in English 5A. This is writing about a topic given in a certain amount of time not thinking about essay structure or
Writing and Learning Disabilities International: Overcoming Learning Difficulties 6.3 (2006): 347-67. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Wierzbicki, the same teacher as before, how she felt about prolific writing in students; this was her reply, “If they don’t write often for a variety of purposes, they do not stand a chance of improving.” She gave a large number of writing assignments of different types to get the class to be able to write in various styles and for various audiences. Her style was similar to King in how he taught kids to be specific. King would ask students to describe common things that most of us take for granted, such as braiding hair or sports rules. There were days when we would walk into class expecting to work on a project and Mrs. Wierzbicki would hand us an off the wall writing prompt with an hour time limit
The writing class session I observed is a packaged program in which the students have been participating in for 5 months. They all know the routine of the reading and writing workshop and understand “the Daily 5.” The student’s movements are purposeful and there is little time wasted in transitions. The books used by students become more complicated as the students ability strengthens. At the end of the workshop, Mrs. Rammond praised those students who used their time efficiently during “the Daily 5.” She spoke directly to the students who wrote in their journals and asked them to share their entries. The students learned some new trivia about insects, practiced writing and then had some time for art.
Writing is such an essential part in any person’s life. If you’re anything like me, writing can be quite therapeutic. In elementary children find joy in writing their name and complete sentences. Once those students get older and reach a middle school age they are drilled to become “testing writers.” Texas students are completely overwhelmed with the writing structure and expectations of a test that by the time they reach high school students are completely burned out and so far withdrawn from a piece of paper and pencil.