Writing: Past, Present, and Future

“Practice, practice, practice writing. Writing is a craft that requires acquired skills. You learn by doing, by making mistakes and then seeing where you went wrong.” - Jeffrey A. Carver

I thought this Jeffrey Carver quote was a fitting way to begin this post. Some may find this a surprising concept, and some may disagree entirely, but writing is a complex process. It is difficult, time-consuming, and requires an abundant amount of practice. I am 23…almost 24, and no matter how many papers I’ve been assigned, I still dread the moment when I have to sit down, and write a paper; whether its 1 page or 15! If adults feel this way…imagine how intimidating it must feel for children?

When I look back at my writing experiences while growing up, the fact that I’m an English major continues to surprise me! Writing never came naturally to me. I was continuously reprimanded for my prose; “You write how you speak, it’s too informal!” or, “Your spelling and grammar are horrible! You need to re-write this!” and so on. It wasn’t until the end of my freshman semester, that I developed the ability to adapt my writing style to fit the required writing “mode”. What boggles my mind is this: “Why did it take so long? How come I didn’t develop this ability in ELEMENTARY school?”

I think children need to be introduced to the variances in writing at an early age. Had I been privileged enough to learn and understand the different categories that comprise WRITING while in elementary school, I believe I would have been better prepared, in later grades, to meet my teachers’ lofty expectations. Personally, I’m going to make sure my future students are, at the very least, aware of the different writing categories; such as:

• Narrative: Describing an experience, event (or sequence of events) in the form of a story.

• Expository: Providing information (for instance: giving directions.)

• Persuasive: Giving an opinion and trying to influence the reader's way of thinking.

Hopefully, I can create a nurturing environment that supports children during the writing process; through explicit instruction, one-on-one guidance, modeling, scaffolding, and finally…practice, practice, practice!

Children and Writing

Chapter Four: "Writing in a Second Language Across the Curriculum, An Integrated Approach" from Pauline Gibbons' text, Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning, provides readers with a look into an English Language Learners (ELLs) struggle with the written word. Writing is difficult for MANY students; it's a process that involves numerous steps and understandings...ranging from brainstorming, free-writing, planning, outlining, drafting, editing, revising, etc. This process requires an understanding of language structure, an author's "purpose", linguistic features, and genre (to name a few), and children who are only beginning to grasp a second language may not have even begun to understand writing in their OWN language, let a lone, a foreign one. Can you imagine?

Personally, writing was a struggle for me when I was in elementary school. I had a difficult time understanding that the way you write changes, depending on your audience, and the genre. Gibbons' chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding different genres and their features when learning to write (specifically, learning to write narratives). I agree with Gibbons. Helping students develop a meaningful understanding of genres and their features is an important part of, both the writing, AND the reading processes.

Another point Gibbons made in Chapter Four, is how intricately woven language is in an individuals' culture. An ELL student not only is unfamiliar with the language, but doubling their struggle, is the fact that this is a whole new culture for them too. There is no reference point for these children. That being said, I believe taking time for explicit instruction on genres, their cultural connections, and writing is very important in elementary school for ELLs.

Scaffolding and modeling are essential tools that we, as teachers, can utilize when attempting to help and instruct ELLs. I think it is very important that we create safe environments that allow children to learn to appreciate writing and learn to value their abilities to be good writers. When our students are able to feel proud of themselves and the work they are creating, then we are doing our job well.

Facilitating Comprehension

After reading Chapter Nine, “Facilitating Students’ Comprehension: Text Factors”, of Gail E. Tompkins book - Literacy for the 21^st Century: A Balanced Approach, 5^th Edition, I’m realizing that one of the MOST important factors of facilitating comprehension with students is simply getting them to engage with the text on a personal level. What I mean is that students need to understand what they are reading…they need to understand what kind of book they are reading (Genre), is it fiction or non-fiction/informational, what kind of audience is the book geared towards, and they need to understand the patterns that present themselves in these texts. When a student has an understanding of these basic text factors, then they are able to develop a deeper connection with what they are reading. Rather than focus on information t hat isn’t important (such as trying to sound out words, stumbling over syntax, etc.) students can focus their attention to the plot, characters, and the conflict/resolution. By taking out the guess-work in their reading activities, we (the teachers) can enhance the level of understanding our students achieve. On page 311 of our textbook, Tompkins states an important finding…“Researchers have documented that when teachers teach students about text factors, their comprehension increases” (Tompkins, p. 311).

Another important point I’d like to make is this…as I said before, by providing our students the opportunity to develop a connection with what they are reading and what they are DOING (as in the subsequent activity) we can instill a sense of meaningful learning within our students. In the first section of this chapter, I read about Mr. Abrams and his fourth grade classroom. One aspect of his story that stuck out to me was when he discussed how he AND his students developed a rubric (TOGETHER) to assess the books they made. I thought that was a really beneficial activity. It creates an environment of collaboration that can really motivate students…and when students are motivated to work hard, they will engage and comprehend on a deeper level.

I’m currently in a fourth grade classroom and I am constantly seeing my Cooperating Teacher (CT) discuss comprehension strategies with this class. It may not be explicit; for instance, he does not say: “When you are trying to comprehend what you are reading, you should notice the text factors”. Rather, he asks questions during shared reading to get students thinking… “What is the author trying to do? How did that make you feel? What do you think is about to happen? What genre is this? Why?”

Not only does my CT guide student thinking to enhance comprehension, but he also does a really good job of incorporating reading/writing and think-alouds into nearly every subject he teaches throughout the day. While I do give him props for that, I do think that he could incorporate a more collaborative feel to his classroom. If students felt that they had more of a hand in their day to day lessons then I think they would work harder and therefore, engage with the material.

I think this was a GREAT chapter to read. The information given is something that I think I will continue to look back on.