Learning to write or becoming a better writer can be difficult for a number of children. There are some children who will sit and look at a blank page and get frustrated as the time passes by because they are not sure how to get started when writing. In Children’s Struggles with the Writing Process: Exploring Storytelling, Visual Arts, and Keyboarding to Promote Narrative Story Writing the authors, Michael W. Dunn and Susan Finley, explore ways to help children with narrative story writing. Michael Dunn is a former special education consultant teacher and also an assistant professor of special education and literacy. Susan Finley is also a professor and the founder of At Home At School (AHAS) program in Washington State. “At Home At School is an arts-based/integrated-curriculum literacy program that provided an opportunity to employ my alternative – strategy idea with elementary-aged students who found writing to be a challenge.” (Dunn & Finley, p. 33, 2010) The At Home At School program is designed to help eliminate the roadblocks that many student writers face with creating outlines, rough drafts, editing, and final copies of writing pieces. Students who participated in this workshop were given art supplies and computer software to help them visualize their stories. At Home At School started in homeless shelters and eventually was offered in school districts in Washington. The students participated in a four week program in which they learned more about writing through theater, news media activities and visual media.
Another workshop that was created was the Thirsty Thinkers in order to help the students enhance and strengthen their writing styles. It is this program that is the main focus of the program. The Thirst...
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...ting as we prepare Thematic and Document Based Question essays in practice for the New York State Regents exam. Also, I have my students read a piece of historical literature and do several activities throughout their reading. I can use what the At Home At School and Thirsty Thinkers programs do by including more ways for students to use visuals with their writing and the Ask, Reflect, Text strategy as a step in preparing their final essay of the project. The Ask, Reflect, Text strategy could also be adapted into using for review in Social Studies as well as students learn about many different people and events.
Works Cited
Dunn, M. W., & Finley, S. (2010). Children's Struggles with the Writing Process: Exploring Storytelling, Visual Arts, and Keyboarding to Promote Narrative Story Writing. Multicultural Education, 18(1), 33-42. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Experts believe that writing workshops are an excellent way to get elementary school children interested in writing and setting the stage for a lifelong joy of writing. Lucy Calkins developed Writer’s Workshop which was based on many positions taken by her mentor Donald Graves (Feinberg 2). She identified six major components of the Writer’s Workshop, which make it so successful. The six components are: predictable structure, free choice, useful mini-lessons, daily independent writing time, conferencing with teachers and peers and modeling good writing.
English Language Learners (ELL) require thoughtful and careful instruction for both reading and writing education. Both of these skills are necessary for a bright future and to be a functioning citizen in Canada. Those that do not possess considerable literacy levels will be effectively 'locked out' from so much knowledge, information and ideas that are part of the culture of society (Christie 1990, 20). Having a low level of literacy usually means acquiring an unskilled job. The relationship between literacy levels and poverty is something that should not be ignored (Gibbons, 2002). Developing literacy skills in ELLs is a daunting task and especially with students that have not developed those skills in their first language originally. Through the Curriculum Cycle and proper scaffolding of writing strategies, this paper will provide a lesson plan that will help develop an ELL's writing skills. It will include many different tools that will help students gain an understanding and confidence of the narrative writing form.
Sills, Caryl K. "Success for learning disabled writers across the curriculum." College Teaching 43 (Spring 95): 66-72.
A successful writer is he who is able to transmit ideas, emotions, and wisdom on to his readers. He is cable of stirring emotions and capturing the reader's attention with vivid descriptions and clever dialogues. The writer can even play with the meanings of words and fuse reality with fiction to achieve his goal of taking the reader on a wonderful journey. His tools are but words, yet the art of writing is found in the use of the language to create though-provoking pieces that defy the changing times. Between the lines, voices and images emerge. Not everyone can write effectively and invoke these voices. It is those few who can create certain psychological effects on the reader who can seize him (or her) with inspiring teachings, frightening thoughts, and playful games with the language. These people are true writers…
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Tenth edition. Edited by Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman Publishers, pp. 371-377, 2008.
Without delay, I begin my in-depth look into the requirements of this study and what was expected of me, as an English 111 student. To successively complete these assignments, I would need to be focused on the process of such writing assignments. Along with the instructor’s ideas that our writing would be done in such different ways it will eventually consume every waking moment of my time and become top priority for the next four months.
Home schooling is another way for a child to receive his or her education. It is one of many alternatives to regular schooling (classrooms and schools). It is the oldest alternatives to regular schooling and one of the most effective. There are many true stories proving that home schooling is an effective and often successful way to teach you child. But first lets talk about home schooling began in the U.S.
Children’s writing has a low tendency to be connected to particular contexts, they may have poor or unclear logic in their writing (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/405/Witt/Writing-Project/writing-development.htm[26.11.01]). Children while writing may have poor planning and they may write whatever enters their heads with little concern as to whether the writing connects to what was previously written. If more material is required they may add information without selecting and noticing the relevance of the added information (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/405/Witt/Writing-Project/writing-development.htm [26.11.01]). Bereiter and Scardamalia argue that the writing process of a young student when compared to that of a mature skilled writer will have a vast difference, they can’t be the same, the skilled writer produces a different kind of writing process, the unskilled writer is incapable of such abilities (Grabe & Kaplan, 1996, p.117).
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.
Jones, Jill, and Jill East. "Empowering primary writers through daily journal writing." Journal of Research in Childhood Education 24.2 (2010): 112+. General OneFile. Web. 22 Feb. 2011.
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
When children first start school they begin a new extensive journey, first meeting all new people and then having to learn a broad array of new things. One of those new things is how to read and also write. Teachers start out slow by having students write in big capital letters on funny looking red and green striped paper, next moving on to cursive letters with still that same silly paper. After a short while the students are on their own, writing notes for classes, notes to friends and family, along with research papers and stories for their teachers in school. And that is where my story begins, room 216 on the second floor of Pottsville Area High School.
The homeschooling is a controversial topic as many have very different ideas on what they want for their children. The idea to opt for homeschooling originated in the 70s in parts of Europe but at passage of time it has spread throughout the world, now more than half million American boys and girls and about ten thousand. British do not attend public school or private school because their parents have come to the conclusion that at home can get a good education. At least as good as they could receive if they go to school (Sandra M. Alters ) education.
Writing and Learning Disabilities International: Overcoming Learning Difficulties 6.3 (2006): 347-67. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Two days a week in the morning, the children participate in a reading and writing block called “literacy and writing workshop.” The classroom is organized into five different levels with one group having one extra person; the levels are based on scoring of reading assessments. The groups are rotated so that each may spend 15 minutes cycles with either the teacher or Para-educator. The groups not with an instructor were to work on the “Daily-5” (explanation later) until their scheduled lesson. After the students finish their lesson, they are to fill the remainder of the workshop time working on “Daily-5.” This workshop is part of a regular routine. The students understand that after a reading a story with the teacher, they are verbally given a writing assignment. The assignment is usually to write a five sentence paragraph and color a picture related to the reading.