Just Write

            Teachers face many challenges, but one of the most daunting is that of “differentiating instruction so that teaching reaches the diverse range of students present in most classrooms” (pg. 51, Graham).  In chapter three of Best practices in Writing Instruction, by Steve Graham, Charles MacArthur, and Jill Fitzgerald, talk about instructional strategies to help bridge the gap in instructional approaches. Every age group clearly writes differently, and has different abilities. As children age they gradually gain experience and maturity in the writing field. As teachers it is vital to understand a student’s capacity to compose narratives. Once we understand a student’s capacity or developmental level it is vital to find teaching strategies that have been found to effectively support a child’s story composition. 

            Some great ideas given in chapter three involve a comic strip where the students can make a coherent story that is structured. They not only write out the story but they can also draw pictures of the story. When I student taught I saw this strategy in action. The best part was that some students began by writing first and others began by drawing pictures. I noticed the students who had more difficulty with writing usually started with drawing pictures. It allowed the students to be more interactive with the writing and even enjoy the writing process. Another strategy given by chapter three was that of a story plot planning sheet (pg.69).  The sheet allows students to better view the different parts of a story (such as the rising and falling action, the climax etc.). This allows the students to better plan their stories and allows them to visually view what their story is missing or where they may need more ideas.

            Although knowing teaching strategies is important it is also vital to know how to get students started in the writing process. Chapter six stressed PLANNING and pre-writing! Students need a form of support before they begin to write, and this can be done by engaging students in activities before they write their rough drafts. Chapter six mentions brainstorming, organizing using a web or other graphs, draw pictures and reading to get ideas. The next step mentioned in the book was inquiry, where students use a process of question formulation, observation and analysis. The third step is strategy instruction, which is where a teacher explicitly teaches students strategies for planning, or revising.   

            Another aspect of creating good writers is creating an atmosphere that supports students planning, and writing. Planning needs to be valued in a classroom and should be praised! Praising good planning behavior associates positive feelings within the students and their actions. The writing tasks should also be authentic and engaging for the students. If the students do not see the purpose of the writing they will not fully engage themselves. When I observed in a city school district the writing task had to deal with rural communities, and the students could not relate to the material or see its purpose, because it was not fully explained. Due to this most of class did not complete the assignment, and were even confused about a rural community. Without a supportive writing environment students will not succeed in writing, and they will not fully understand the joy that writing can bring. I have seen first hand the differences in a supportive classroom and a classroom that lacks support and expectations. It is heartbreaking to witness and watch students fail before they even begin. The difference in the writing is astounding, and to be honest it is shameful, and often offensive to watch.

Motivating our students

            Motivating students to read and write can be a difficult task. But constructive motivation within a classroom is vital when trying to engage students in a positive experience when reading or writing. Some of the most successful students at reading and writing are those students who are intrinsically motivated. Sadly, some students have lacked the proper encouragement to embrace writing and reading. Best Practices in Writing Instruction, by Steve Graham, Charles, MacArthur and Jill Fitzgerald, talks about three different factors that may affect a student’s motivation to write:

1. Writing can be taught in an inflexible manner, and is perceived by students as a discipline.  

2. Writing tasks can be disconnected from other exercises and classroom activities, thus not allowing students to fully understand the task.

3. Last and not least is a simple concept, writing tasks can be boring! Writing can turn into a routine practice, one in which the student doesn’t feel fully engaged.

Another aspect to a lack of motivation has to do with how a student views themselves, other wise known as self-perception.  A student’s belief about themselves as writers and their ability to manage writing tasks greatly affects their self-perception. If the student does not feel confident in their writing performance this will influence their writing in a negative manner. Thus giving a student loss of motivation to write and complete writing tasks. The book then defines a motivated student by those students “who value and are willing to use writing as a worthwhile activity or means of expression, communication, and elaboration” pg. 205. They are also students who are self-confident and have an overall positive self-perception.

            The book explains how to develop motivated writers,

1. Allowing students to experience writing as a useful activity. What the student has written should have value or relevance to that student.

2. A teacher needs to foster the communicative function of writing, meaning that there needs to be relationships within the classroom and among individuals. Writing should be become a tool for self-expression and communication.

3. Give students novel and challenging tasks. Teachers need not to make it complex but they need to stimulate a student’s will to engage.

            In an article, What Motivates Students to Read? Four Literacy Personalities, by Jill Cole, touches on four different students and their experiences in reading. Through out the case studies she is  able to conclude some important aspects of motivation for reading,

1. Offer rich literate environment and an array of books

2. Have a wide variety of reading experience, such as buddy reading, choral reading, story time, etc.

3. Student voices are important, it is important to create more opportunities for students to express themselves. For example, allowing for response sheets after reading, or having class opinion graphs.

4. Allowing for social interaction

Cole also talks about how we as teachers need to find out the interests of our students. We also need to be aware that every student walks in our classroom with their own beliefs of reading or writing, and these beliefs can either positively or negatively affect a student’s motivation.

key concepts for successful writing

            Where does writing begin in a classroom? Well, it begins with the teachers, and their attitudes towards reading and writing. According to Best practices in Writing Instruction by, Steve Graham, Charles A. Macarthur and Jill Fitzgerald, good classrooms have a lot of writing and instruction, paired with passionate teachers. Some key elements that teachers must keep in mind when  teaching writing are: A teacher must provide scaffolding as students begin a new skill, A teacher should always encourage their students and have high expectations for all students, teachers need to make time for reflections and connections of material, the classroom environment should display student work and allow students to move around, and students should work together when trying to accomplish writing tasks. It was also noted that successful writing classrooms were engaged 90% of the time, with little to no discipline, due to the amount of activity within the classroom. Having high demands on students produces self regulated writers, who are constantly improving on reading and writing skills. An important conclusion drawn from chapter one was simple, the more writing on the wall in a classroom produced more competent writers, which relates to high test scores on exams. The classrooms that were filled with the most amount of writing hanging on their walls demanded more from their students, and demanded more writing from their students.

            I found this conclusion surprising, but amazingly obvious. Now that I look back on student teaching and I compare my city school district site to my suburban site I realize there was a distinct difference between the two. My city school district site lacked writing on the wall, writing standards, and even writing instruction. In fact very little was expected of these students, and most teachers had low expectations for the students. In my suburban site, writing was modeled, displayed in the classroom and words and instruction were everywhere you looked. The students were also expected to write pages at time, rather than just a paragraph or two. The students in the suburban site were not only confident writers, but they loved to share their work, and work with others. 

             In a research article, Put an Idea Together, Collaboration and Composition in Third-Grade Writing Workshop, conducted by, Ruth Davenport, and Julie Ekberg, they concluded that children should read and write together. Their research only strengthens the idea that Steve Graham, Charles A Macarthur, and Jill Fitzgerald concluded, that teachers need to be the facilitators, and allow students to work together, with proper scaffolding. In the research done by Davenport and Ekberg, they found three different types of student collaboration, in which they saw that student collaboration provided great demonstrations for one another. The first collaboration observed was parallel writing, then y-writing, and lastly collective writing. Parallel writing consists of students writing together and each is writing their own copy, and example would be a play. Collective writing assigns each person a different role that they must fulfill.  But the key is to allow the students to assign the roles. For example one student may be the publisher, while another is the writer or editor. Y-writing  has one student write a portion of the story , then another student will write there own portion to the story from the one that was previously written. Once this is done the students will then write the rest of story working together.

            The research also pointed out some key factors for writing: 1.The teacher needs to establish community writers 2. Physical space is important to plan out, the classroom needs to be set up for movements, and have bean bags and carpets for writing. 3. Materials need to be available, and the students need a sufficient amount of tools through out the classroom. 4. A teacher needs to allow choice! This promotes ownership of the writing and allows students to explore. 5. A sharing circle allows a teacher to not only bring a writing workshop to a close but it allows students to share with their peers. 6. Publication possibilities need to be considered. When students are done with their work, their work should be celebrated! I know from my own experience in a classroom that students love to share their hard work, and often gain confidence and can not wait for the next assignment.