Week 15: Writing and Reading
Throughout your many years of going to school, did you ever think twice on how you were writing? Did you ever think that there was an actual process for your writing? I never really thought about it, I wrote my paper, messed up and went on with my life. Turns out, there is a process and it might be smart to look over it.
Process Approach, writing instruction is based on writing process that professional writers and students use:
- Prewriting
- Composing or drafting
- Revising
- Editing
- Publishing
In chapter 12 of Creating literacy instruction for all children, it talked about how prewriting is one of the most important steps in the writing processes. Prewriting includes; picking a topic, planning, rehearsing, and goal setting. Choosing a topic will help students be more open about themselves throughout their papers, that will then help teachers get to know their students a bit more. When composing a paper, students will put their thoughts onto the paper without caring about punctuation or spelling, etc. This then helps them focus on the task at hand, the topic they want to write about. To a lot of students revising means putting in periods and capitalizing a letter. In reality revising is adding and taking away things that are important or not so important. It's changing the way a character looks or feels. When revising, it should add more meaning to the story that is being written. In the editing stage is where students will look for grammatical error and punctuation that is missing from their stories. When it comes to publishing Elbow says, “I believe publication is the single strongest way to help encourage students to revise and copyedit” (2002, p. 5). When students know that other people will be reading their work they will be encouraged to go back and do the writing process.
Questions
- When you were younger, use the writing process? If so, when did you learn it?
- How will you teach your future students the writing processes? Will you teach them all the steps at once or take the time to go over each step individually?
- What do you believe writing should be? Do you think students should be able to write whatever they want or should it be critiqued on the topic that they chose?
- From how you were taught this in school, how would you change teaching it?
In answering your first question, when you were younger, use the writing process? If so, when did you learn it? I remember my teacher in elementary would take a lot of time explaining to us the writing process when we would write. I think I was in 2nd- 3rd grade we had to publish a book. We worked on our books for months before they send them to a company to get them published and make them hard back books. My elementary teacher helped me with the writing process. She will first ask what did I want to write about. Then I had to give her reasons why I wanted to write about that topic. Then she put all my ideas together to a beginning, middle and end. Once I put all my ideas together she will read my book to make marks for me to edit before I do my final. Once my teacher gave me the okay she will then keep my book so it can be published. To this day I still have my books I made when I was in elementary.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing that your teacher did this for you! I remember writing books in elementary school as well, but they were nothing extraordinary and from what I can remember, they didn't make much since either. When thinking about it though, this really ties into what Elbow was saying, if children know someone else is going to read it then they are going to work a lot harder on it.
DeleteTo answer your first question, "When you were younger, did you use the writing process? If so, when did you learn it?", I did use the writing process. I remember using and learning the writing process in high school. I only used it when it was mandatory and for a grade. If it was not required then I would not do it because I felt like it took too much time and I really just did not like doing it. Instead, I would just make notes about things I wanted to talk about and then start writing. Once I started writing I would then go back to make edits and keep on writing and editing until I was done.
ReplyDeleteI agree! I only used it when it was for a grade too. Isn't that crazy that we are just doing it because it was required, not to make out paper run smoothly or because we actually care. If were knew that other people were going to read what we wrote, then maybe we would work a little harder on it and go over it step by step. A lot of times I don't think we care enough because our writing isn't something we are interested it, it's something boring that were are force to do.
DeleteTo answer the first question, I did learn the writing process when I was in school at about 5th grade. I first learned to brain storm my thoughts on what I wanted to write about and I would write it on paper. I would then create an essay using my points an he format of the 5-part essay. I did the 5-part format for essays all through out school until I got to college. This really messed me up because I was already bad at English, so learning all new styles of writing made college English miserable for me..
ReplyDeleteTo answer #2, I think I would teach my future students step by step because I think it would be beneficial for them to understand and learn the steps in order to have a successful writing process. I think when they know the steps better they have a better chance of understanding why the writing process is important, thus helping them revise not only their papers but their peers papers on a better educational level. The writing process isn’t just about what’s written but the steps taken to get you there.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with you. These steps should also be practiced and written down in steps. Personally, I would teach one step a lesson. So, I would work on prewriting first and do an entire lesson over it, other than teaching them all in one lesson. This would then give students good practice and then when they are writing, it would go a lot smoother.
DeleteI struggled a little when thinking about question 3, I think to a certain degree students should be able to write about topics that interest them and not be forced to come up with an entire paper on something that doesn't inspire them. When I was in middle/high school I did really well in writing assignments but it was a struggle the entire time I had to write about impromptu topics. Although I was good at it, I despised English class because of this. In college English class, you're given more free rein and it makes papers not seem so daunting, I wish my middle/high school papers weren't so restricting. I do think that whatever the grading system is should be used on free writing tasks as well; students should be taught about the writing process and be graded on the logistics and obviously if the paper makes sense and is well thought out.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your first question, I always used that writing process for any paper I ever wrote especially during middle school. I remember my sixth grade teacher Mrs. Brock would always inform us about how to sketch out our ideas in a bubble chart first before we can start going to the rough draft. It helped me a lot with my creativity process. The topics that she would pick would be based on social issues over poems and texts we read for homework. It was always a question that we had to answer too. I thought it was very rigorous and tedious at first but now I look back on it thinking its a beneficial tool that all children should be able to learn at an early age.
ReplyDeleteI like your third question, "What do you believe writing should be? Do you think students should be able to write whatever they want or should it be critiqued on the topic that they chose? ". I think that teachers should provide a general topic and then the student can talk about whatever they chose within that topic.For instance if a teacher said "nature", students could talk about animals, ecosystems, or anything else in that category. This way a student is not bored with just one topic they do not want to research, but can choose. I remember in 7th grade in my creative writing class we got to debunk myths in our papers. I thought it was so fun to research crop circles and the Yeti. It was funny to me and got me to want to write my papers in that class.
ReplyDeleteI was taught by being given story prompts. I remember when I was in second or third grade that we had a booklet and we would draw a picture of our story and write it. In fifth grade my teacher had us start our day with a topic to write about in our notebooks. They would be things like "If you had a million dollars what would you buy?" They were always about something goofy that engaged all of us. I also remember in fifth grade, writing on the computers. We were able to type a story about anything we wanted but it had to be a certain length. I think this was helpful.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this would be extremely helpful because you are giving students a chance to get out their ideas and inspirations. It also would get them into a good mood for the day because they are thinking about something they enjoy. With this, I would have them continue writing the story each morning. So, each morning I would have them add on to their stories and if they wanted, I would have them share it with the class. This would then give them a chance to talk about their interest and give the students a chance to get to know one another.
DeleteTo answer your first question, I remember learning a writing process. Every teacher I had told me to write my papers in a five paragraph essay format, with an introduction and ending paragraph. I did not write essays any other way until I got to college.
ReplyDeleteI want to answer your first question, When you were younger, use the writing process? If so, when did you learn it? I remember learning it in elementary school and how we always had to brainstorm first and then make a rough draft as well. After that we would revise and edit the rough draft and make sure it was good. We then would also get someone to peer review it before we left it and moved on to the final copy. What do you believe writing should be? Do you think students should be able to write whatever they want or should it be critiqued on the topic that they chose? For this question I believe it should be both so they can write different writing styles. I also think they should have a lot of creative writing because I feel like when you enjoy writing about what you write then you can truly become a good writer.
ReplyDeleteto answer your third question, I think students and people in general should write freely. However I do think there should be an overall topic but a broad enough topic that the person writing can take it in whatever direction they chose to. I know especially freshman year here at IUPUI, my prerequisite of W131 was always biased topics and I didn't usually agree with it so it was so hard for me to write 3-5 page papers because the topic was already boring and on top of it, it wasn't the way I would want to talk or write about the topic too.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 3 really had me thinking about on what I would want my kids to write about and if they should be critiqued afterwards. I believe writing should be something that kids enjoy doing, something that allows them to express their thoughts, opinions, and way of thinking. I feel sometimes it is a good idea for students to be able to write about whatever they want and they shouldn't be critiqued about the topic afterwards, but I do feel as if it is a good way to be able to bounce off what they write about and give feedback as in asking questions and expanding their thinking process on what they are writing about. I understand some writings can't be whatever they want and have to be critiqued but only to an extent. I know for me I wasn't the best writer and got critiqued a lot, and I soon lost the enjoyment on wanting to write because I felt as if there was no right way for me to do it.
ReplyDeleteI think the students should have choice on their topics, but not free reign because then you could have topics that aren't appropriate for school. I also think students shouldn't be so critiqued on their writing and grammar skills, but more on their ideas and how well they answer the topic or assignment. I think the writing process when I was in school focused the most on prewriting and revising. I think as a teacher, if I'm going to give students the opportunity to revise their work, I will give them my feedback before hand, instead of having their peers give them feedback. That way they know exactly what I'm looking for on the final paper.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger I remember majority of the writing process being peer reviews. I believe students should be able to write what they want so they understand the format then over time provide rubrics with topics they can relate to to write about.
ReplyDeleteI think writing should be educational but also fun and care free. I know the time I enjoyed writing the most was when I was able to write something that I cared about or was interested in. I think kids should enjoy writing and that it's my responsibility to help them get there.
ReplyDeleteThe way that I would change the writing process is to have each student do the prewriting however they seem fit because everyone thinks different and everyone has different processes to do their writing. Everyone should have their own writing process that they have and do every time, I would be there to guide them and trying to have them figure out what their process is.
ReplyDeleteI learned the writing process in 2nd grade. I remember working on different sections at a time and sitting around the classroom on the floor doing so. I will do both when teaching my students the writing process. I will tell them all the steps, but focus on each one individually. I think writing needs to be structured but students should have the opportunity to write about what they want.
ReplyDelete