Reflective Writing Reflection

The article “The Writing Revolution” by Peg Tyre is a piece which aims to address the problems in school systems often associated with the way in which writing is taught to students. Tyre’s article conveys the different arguments presented in the course of teaching writing to students, which have been shown to be on opposite sides of the creative and analytical spectrum. These different perspectives of how to build the foundation of writing for the children of America as well as other countries are backed similarly on both sides, though the debate still continues. “The Writing Revolution” instead of focusing on all aspects of writing, highlights the effectiveness of analytical fundamentals over that of creative writing in helping to

In the 2011 article “Helping Students Meet the Challenges of Academic Writing”, educators Linda Fernsten and Mary Reda offer innovative self-reflective writing exercises that post-secondary instructors can employ to help students improve writer self-image and academic writing. The authors’ rationale for reflective and practical writing strategies were developed from direct classroom experience, and are based on four (4) assumptions. Their claim that self-reflective writing can aid student writers in overcoming conflict (due to dominant culture, upbringing, former writing experiences, gender, and other marginalizing factors) to improve writer self-identity is plausible. However, their argument that cross-curriculum academic writing can be improved through self-directed, self-reflective writing requires further investigation.

Murray is insightful not only to instructors but also to learners. Murray argues that the challenge facing writing is the fact that teachers have treated it as a product rather than a process and the same concept passed on to students. The author holds that the main problem with this view is that students get to receive irrelevant criticisms that are not related to their learning goals. While I tend to agree with the author based on the arguments presented, it is notable that Murray has paid little attention to the idea of education in the contemporary world. In most learning institutions, the outcome of the writing is considered more than the process. As a teacher paying attention to the process of writing but not be consistent with the students, who are mostly driven by

Students are subjected to write an array of essays, but they lack the required tools needed to effectively deliver a great paper. They are struggling to write and teachers are needing to design and conform to their current student’s needs. New methods are created and implemented in order to execute the daunting task of learning how to write a well-developed paper. Practical recommendations are brought forth for teachers to use and good teachers will learn to design instruction and activities based on suitable references. Teachers must set goals and deliver their lesson with specific strategies to meet their objectives. They must learn to improve skills dramatically by observing and modifying the students. Teachers must plan strategies in order to help the struggling students catch up or exceed in their writing skills. They must learn to motivate their students by keeping them engaged throughout the writing process if not they risk losing the student’s ability and focus to do better.

Students are instructed on how to develop and organize their writing by developing a plan or out line to follow. Teachers should discuss with their students how to effectively plan out their writing strategy. Students need to be taught to question themselves about the purpose of their writing. Questions like; “Who am I writing for?” or “How will I organize my thoughts?” are two general examples. Gersten mentions the importance and purpose of the first draft and how it provides a concrete reminder for where the writing is going. The plan and its draft provide a common language for teacher and students to share making communication easier. He also speaks of the strengths of the revision process. Gersten illustrates how peer-editing can be a useful tool to employ during writing.

The curriculum initiative I chose to actively engage in is our third grade’s Writing Workshop: Four Square Model. The Writing Workshop: Four Square Model initiative is currently in the evaluation phase. The most important aspect of this initiative is provide students with the opportunity to expand upon their writing, add details, and stay organized. So many young writers struggle to develop well-written stories, essays, and descriptions. This method utilizes a simple graphical organizer to take students step by step through the writing process. It can be used for any type of writing project from a simple paragraph to a story or even a persuasive essay. During the project I worked to analyze student data and researched the Four Square Model for school-wide usage.

It is by these short term goals that teachers can teach the long-term goals required in their district or school curriculum. The first goal, getting students to love writing, is fostered by giving students real time, real choice and showing genuine interested in what they put down on paper. (Fletcher &

In his essay, "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product," Donald Murray outlines the major difference between the traditional pedagogy that directed the teaching of writing in the past and his newly hailed model. Traditionally, Murray explains, English teachers were taught to teach and evaluate students' writing as if it was a finished product of literature when, as he has discovered, students learn better if they're taught that writing is a process. For Murray, once teachers regard writing as a process, a student-centered, or writer-centered, curriculum falls into place. Rules for writing fall by the way side as writers work at their own pace to see what works best for

The concept of writing across the curriculum (WAC) is a contemporary movement founded on the belief that writing in all content areas improves not only writing skills, but also increases content knowledge. In recent years, pressure from increased rigor on standardized tests and the push toward Common Core has created a shift in education. The days of memorizing and “drill and kill” are over, evolving into an environment where higher order thinking and making connections are standard practice.

Writing can be a very hard topic to teach. It can also be a very hard subject for a student to grasp on too. The amount of instruction on writing and the amount of writing students have done in middle school is very low. Unfortunately, the time dedicated for writing in middle school has been very minimal lately in classrooms. However, Common Core State Standards says writing needs to be done. Research has shown that the seventh graders at Solon Middle school have completed a unit on writing and they had a higher amount of engagement. This students were practicing the CCSS structure and the loved it.

Teachers need to create a daily purpose for their writing. “Teachers need to make ELLs aware of the purpose and form that different types of writing, and ultimately communication, can take in their respective disciple” (DelliCaripini, 2012).Therefore, the more times the students are exposed to the different variety types of writing the more comfortable they will be in writing in their content-area classrooms. “English teachers are in a good position to implement the types of supports that can move ELLs toward success in academic writing by providing exposure to and practice with different genres of academic writing, finding ways to provide time for ELLs to engage in the task, building academic vocabulary, and providing effective feedback that ELLs can use to improve on what they are doing” (DelliCarpini,

The ability to diagram a sentence does not make a good writer. There are many students capable of identifying every part of speech who are barely able to produce a piece of prose.” (College Entrance, 2003 p. 16). Grammar and writing are not one in the same, and the previous statement tells me that writing instruction needs improvement in today’s classrooms. I firmly believe time is of most importance when it comes to good writing. It’s crucial that appropriate time is carved out of every day for writing. I think it’s important to make writing cross-curricular; this can be very time consuming, but allowing students to see the value of writing in every subject will be beneficial to their future. During designated writing time, I want to incorporate all five of the developmental stages of the writing process. When a student can pre-write, write, revise, edit and publish their work, they are building a strong foundation of their writing

Shared writing is an authentic learning process that helps students to learn necessary skills of writing process. In the instructional process of shared writing, teachers compose text together with the students (Ukrainetz, Cooney, Dyer, Kysar & Harris, 2000, p.334). I use the approach of writing aloud process with my students to describe and model out the different stages of the writing process. In this process, I combine the shared writing strategy by participating in writing, along with my students and provide guidance and support so that they feel confident to contribute their ideas and thoughts. Additionally, I guide my students to focus on the specific elements of writing to produce the final writing piece.

Johns Hopkins University outlined concepts on instructional educational coaching (Lacefield, 2014). Instructional educational coaching is a framework for effective mediation in the classroom. It focuses on self-directed learning at the guidance of the teacher (Perna, 2013). In this context, the term “instructional writing coaching” will be used. This is a powerful tool for stimulating a positive writing environment. It can help undergird insecure writers in a diverse learning environment (Carter, 2007; Costa & Garmston, 1985; Holly, 2014).

After creating a text through the interactive writing process, Pinnell (2001) recommends displaying the text in the classroom. These displays affirm students’ views of themselves as writers, as they can see texts they helped to create and produce. The texts also remind students of the numerous purposes for writing. Additionally, students can reference the interactive