Let's Start Writing! By: Naomi Robertson
Let’s Start Writing!
By: Naomi Robertson
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Part 1: What Is “Writing”?
“Writing” refers to the act of creating composed knowledge according to the NCTE. Composition can take place in many different ways for many different reasons. Some compositions could include a blog, notebook, equations, documents, and many more different forms. Writing has multiple purposes including:
- To help writers create and write down their ideas for many purposes and audiences
- To let others view their work and critique it.
- To help a community or individual create, define, and clarify ideas.
Principle 1.1: Writing is social and rhetorical
Writing is social is intended to speak to audiences for particular purposes. Even when a writer writes “for themselves” (e.g., in a personal blog or diary), they are their own audience. When it is effective, writing is rhetorical, it takes into account the values, ideologies, interests, needs, and commitments of the people, the audiences, for who it is intended. Different elements that happen during writing are content, form,and style/register. When writing reflects the expectations that audiences have for each of these elements, it is considered good.
Principle 1.2: Writing serves a variety of purposes
Part 2: Who Are Writers?
Principle 2.1: Everyone is a writer
Writers are not static, so they are constantly changing and becoming better throughout their lifetime. Being a writer takes practice. They become better overtime and that is how students learn to write by writing. Writers can be beginners and advance but they are not always advance in every situation. Writers work with other writers to get feedback to better themselves. They are researchers in always trying to better themselves.
Principle 2.2: Writers bring multiliteracies, and they bring cultural and linguistic assets to whatever they do.
Because writing is linked to identity, writers represent different ideologies, values, and identities. Writers’ cultures and languages influence their writing. Recognizing that students are language users with multiple literacies will help the writing instructor engage students in writing. In short, everything they have experienced, who they are, where they have been, and what they have done impact their writing practices, literacies, and language attitudes. Second-language, or multilingual, writers have become very important in writing courses and programs. They take part in these courses and programs at all grades (K–graduate level) and content areas. The language practices and linguistic backgrounds vary among these writers; so, these writers should not be treated as one and the same. Second-language writers’ literacy and linguistic practices should be valued and recognized as assets in the writing classroom and not be viewed as weaknesses and as language interference problems.
Principle 2.3: Writers compose using different modes and technologies
As technologies become more advanced and sophisticated, writers learn the possibilities with these tools. With technology, writers are now engaged in multiple discourses, such as texting, blogging, posting on social media sites, and instant messaging, using language and writing on a daily basis.
Principle 2.4: Writers compose in and outside the classroom.
Writers should develop the critical ability to evaluate their own work so that they can become effective, independent writers in the world beyond school. Writers grow by envisioning and learning to write for a variety of audiences.
Part 3: Essential Principles for Teaching Writing
As teachers of writers, our goal is for writers to emerge as better writers with each new writing experience. This means that as teachers we must consider how writers learn and how we can create conditions in our classroom so that learning can take place. The word grow in the next principles are used for the potential of students.
Principle 3.1: Writers grow within a context / culture / community of feedback.
To emerge as better writers from a writing experience, learners need feedback, and this feedback should fuel revision. Writers talk together about both products and processes, which means they share criteria, discuss challenges and choices, and offer feedback on how helpful feedback is in helping writers see new possibilities and options in steps they might take next.
Principle 3.2: Writers grow when they broaden their repertoire, and when they refine their judgment in making choices with their repertoire.
Writers need models and strategies—to find topics, issues, and questions to write about, to revise, to contextualize and connect their piece with others, to give and receive feedback. They also need practice in explaining why they made the choices they did.
Principle 3.3: Assessment should be transparent and contextual, and it should provide opportunities for writers to take risks and grow.
Principle 3.4: Writers grow when they have a range of writing experiences and in-depth writing experiences.
Questions
- How will you encourage your students to keep writing even if they feel like they have nothing to write about?
- Will you as an educator use essays and papers as a form of writing or will you allow your students to do alternative writing like journaling, blogging, etc.? Why?
- Which principle do you feel is the most important? Why?
- Do you struggle as a writer yourself? Have you ever had someone encourage you to keep writing? What were the best ways for you to write?
Citations
Understanding and Teaching Writing: Guiding Principles. (2018, November 14). Retrieved November 6, 2019, from http://www2.ncte.org/statement/teachingcomposition/.
Classroom: Traditional classroom: Classroom clipart, Classroom, Student clipart. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2019, from https://pin.it/yjxabivhhpoj6o.
Bright, J. (n.d.). devops-for-everyone. Retrieved November 6, 2019, from https://blog.chef.io/why-devops-is-for-everyone-not-just-a-single-team/devops-for-everyone/.
Good post, Naomi. I like how you included principles surrounding “writing” and gave them a brief and clear definition. This makes for a much easier understanding of the principles. To answer your second question, I will have my students use multiple forms of writing: essays, blogs, journals, papers, etc. I believe it is important to use both proper and casual forms of writing. I think proper form of writing is important because some colleges entrance essays, especially for a certain program may want a very sophisticated and proper paper. I believe students should be able to acquire the skills to write a paper at a “high level.” However, I believe the more casual form of writing such blogs, journals, etc… are just as important if not more important because I believe this writing can allow for students to enjoy writing and allows for freedom when writing. Then combing the skills of being able to write in any form, I think will allow for a writer to reach their max potential.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your second question, I believe the most important principle is Principle 2.2: Writers bring multiliteracies, and they bring cultural and linguistic assets to whatever they do. I think this principal is the most important because it reminds us that there isn’t one or any set number of ways to be a good writer. Good writing is found in many different forms, therefore I think you need to be open-minded when it comes to writing. Also, once a teacher or anyone follows this principle, they are allowing themselves to learn about the authors experiences and background, regardless where they are from. A lot of the reason people write the way the way they do is because of their past experiences. E verything they have experienced, who they are, where they have been, and what they have done impact their writing practices, literacies, and language attitudes (National Council of Teachers of English, 2018).
To answer the question How will you encourage your students to keep writing even if they feel like they have nothing to write about? I think that everyone needs someone encouraging them, especially in a subject where a lot of people struggle with. I could find one of those writing journals where you write an insert once a day and each day in the classroom, set aside a certain amount of time to do one of these. This way even if the writing isn't something huge or really of importance, my students are still writing about something. By doing this, you never know if that could spark something within your students.
ReplyDeleteMackenzee, you have a great idea to encourage writers to keep writing. I think one way to encourage students to keep writing is by doing an activity where the teacher puts a random word on the board and students get one minute to write any words that come to mind when reading the word on the board. Once a student has all their words, they have tow write a very short story using all of those words. I believe an activity such as this will help students build critical thinking and creative skills in writing and will help them avoid running into writers block as often.
DeleteFocusing on your first and second question, in elementary school I was in a reading/writing class where the teacher gave everyone a journal to keep. It wasn't some fancy thing, it was just printed on paper, but it created a sense of ownership over our writing. We had different sections in this journal -- a "story section", a "review section", and a "journal section". In the story section, we had a continuous story that we could write on during our free-writing time, in the review section, we kept peer feedback over our journals or stories, but the journal section was by far what we spent the most time on.
ReplyDeleteEach day for the journal section she would give us a prompt and we would write about it, some days she would say "write about whatever you want today." Personally, I liked getting the prompts, but I can see how other students would have preferred to write their own things. I think that by giving students multiple optional prompts each day, I could create a journal that all students will enjoy keeping. Of course, I would keep the "free" days where students can write about whatever topic they want.
Brandt, I like how you had a a journal in class that was a little different than mine. Ours was a standard notebook that was purely dedicated to our journal time. sometimes it was hard to write because our teacher just told us to write what was on our minds. I think having a prompt would really help students that have writers block or simply do not know what to write. I think it important thought to give students the option to either free write or use the prompt. Giving them these choices will allow them to have ownership of their work.
DeleteTo your first question, I will encourage my students to keep writing in many different ways. One thing that could help students is a 'writing jar' I've seen teachers have Popsicle sticks with questions, topics and random things on them that help student keep thinking about their writing. Another thing that I will do to encourage my students to keep writing is having writing prompts. I think these really help students that are stuck on what to write about. The third thing that I will do is have my students journal. I think having them journal each day will help spark their creativeness.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your last question, I do see myself struggling as a writer. I think that for me, writing became more academic than personal and that is what made me not want to do it anymore. In elementary, I was in an accelerated program for 3 years, and we wrote term papers. When I got to middle school, we didn't write anything nearly as difficult or time consuming, and I think that had an affect on my quality of writing as well. I was the child that either wrote way too much detail because I couldn't determine what was important, or the one who just tried to get all of the words out as concisely as possible and got counted off for my lack of detail. I can't recall any teachers ever encouraging me to keep writing because there was almost never any free time to just write about what was happening, it was all academic. I think my peak of being a writer was in 2nd grade when we all kept writing journals and wrote about whatever we wanted and then the teacher collected them and looked through them and corrected the writing and looked through it for details and correct grammar, and I think that was the last time I can remember that I wrote the best.
ReplyDeleteThere have been some struggles I have had as a writer even though some teachers have let me know that I am a "strong" writer while others have let me know that I get off topic. Mostly what I struggle with is when I have to write an essay, story, etc., and I lose the "thread". I believe that I lose this thread when I focus too much on the mechanics and grammar of the writing that I forget the flow of the writing. This can also be a problem to young students who are beginning to write long papers. As a teacher, I think it is important for students to write the way that they speak and think. This way, they don't lose that thread and are able to get all of their ideas written down. Later, they can go back and re-write it and refine it. It is more difficult to do this currently because the papers are longer and it would be difficult to write/type a paper twice. The only time I was encouraged to keep writing was in my senior year of high school. My English teacher told me that I should get a major/minor in writing. This is very encouraging for me and I wanted to keep making stories.
ReplyDeleteJackie, I also have struggles with focusing too much on the mechanics of writing. I get so scared of getting a bad grade because of punctuation and grammar that it overtakes what I actually have to say about the topic that I am writing about. I think that this is something we need to take into consideration when we are teachers. I think that teaching punctuation and grammar are important things, but do they need to be counted against our students grades so harshly? I feel like that can have negative impacts on the way that they feel about writing.
DeleteTo answer question 2, I think alternative writing options are imperative for students writing skills. The whole idea is to keep kids writing, so why not let them choose a format they enjoy. If a student is comfortable with the format they are using then they are more likely to share well thought out ideas. helping students find a format for writing they are comfortable with will also help them to continue writing even beyond your class.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question "How will you encourage your students to keep writing even if they feel like they have nothing to write about?" Something that always worked for me in school was when teachers gave us time to free write. I had an English teacher that would allow us time to free write in our journals at the beginning of class. Sometimes she had a quote on the board or something for us to respond to, but the free write days were my favorite. You could write about your struggles, what had happened so far that day, what you were going to do over the weekend, or literally anything you wanted. I liked these writing days because it felt like a release. I could put whatever I wanted to on that paper and it wasn't "wrong" because we were free to write about whatever we wanted to write about.
ReplyDeleteAs students you may hit what is called "writers block" which is when you just can't think of anything to write and it is becoming difficult. However, just having them talk about their day or a favorite memory from your class is a good way to get them off the ground and going again. Also, if it is a prompt let them include personal stories instead of just writing to fulfill the space and requirement.
ReplyDelete