TEACHING WRITING TO STRUGGLING STUDENTS
Rosanna Corona
University of La Verne
A Paper Prepared for EDUC 306
In Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
May 2016
Abstract
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.
Teaching Writing to Struggling Students
Writing can be a daunting task for students in any grade. Teachers have to implement new basic components for those struggling to write. Finding new methods and being able to execute them requires teachers to design lesson plans that help
As I look back into my high school years, I thought I wrote papers well. But then coming into a college environment, my papers were mediocre. By overlooking at my past papers, I found that they were unorganized, sloppy and had bad use of diction. From now on, I will use the tools I learned in English 1100-40 as a foundation for the future papers I intend on writing in college. Following the criteria of organizing ideas so that they flow, impacting the reader with diction and also by being creative, will help become an ideal writer. Following the criteria of staying motivated in short and long term goals, taking responsibility for actions and finally the ability to study well will help me develop into a supreme student.
The final step in the approach that the authors present is to include a writing component within a lesson. There is no wrong way to include writing in any classroom. Teachers have to choose what mode of writing best fits each individual student. Again, there is technology available to use with students in order to aid with
With the implementation of Common Core, many teachers and administrators are searching for methods of pedagogy that challenge students. Many district leaders are pushing teachers to write across the curriculum in an effort to not only increase writing skills, but to require higher order thinking from students. The Common Core standards were designed in an effort to challenge students to translate information, communicate their knowledge through writing, and make connections across disciplines. In both college and career, writing is a skill often seems to be lacking.
While writing is an essential part of a student’s success I managed to avoid papers as much as humanly possible. The reason I have avoided writing isn’t that I do not like to write but that I am not comfortable writing papers that are going to be graded because I have a hard time putting down what I am thinking so typically it is a grammatical mess. I often over use or do not use enough punctuation and have poor choice in wording. Throughout the next fifteen weeks my personal goal is to be able to write a paper with proper grammar and be able to balance my paper.
An article published by the International Literacy Association, “Implementing the Writing Process” gives a strategy guide for K-5 graders explains the writing process and offers practical methods that can be applied to students to help them become proficient writers. This article shows some similarity to the Bromley chapters. The article shows from research that students who learn the writing process score better on state tests compared to those who receive instructions in the skills assessed on the test. These students become writers who can apply their skill to all subjects. The writing process takes students’attitude, motivation, and engagement into account, as it allows them to plan their writing and come up with a final publishable draft they can be proud of. The writing process involves teaching students to write in a variety of genres that apply to different
We are preparing for our first Write- Score. The lesson plans are chunked in a manner that will allow me to explicitly teach technique and provide effective writing conferences with students.
In “An Effective Framework for Primary-Grade Guided Writing Instruction”, it discusses what guided writing is and how it can help students in their writing abilities. Guided writing is a small group of students who share similar needs in their writing abilities that are receiving instruction from the teacher together. This article discusses the steps in this framework and how teachers can help scaffold their students learning. There are four steps to this framework; “brief, shared experience, discussion of strategic behavior of writing, students’ time to write individually with immediate guidance from the teacher, and connecting students’ immediate writing to an audience.” (Gibson,2008,325) During this framework, the teachers should always
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,
In their research study, Kapka, and Oberman (2001) focused on the writing process as an approach to foster the students’ writing skills. The targeted group of third and fifth graders scored low in writing due to their poor writing skills. To overcome this issue, the process writing with its five steps: pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing was introduced. Even though this approach is a process, teachers dealt with students according to their different needs. Thus, students were given the freedom to choose topics of their interest. Besides, students were given the opportunity to write at different pace and with the flexibility of going back and forth through the steps. The results of this study showed the effectiveness of the writing process. Students at both schools gradually fostered their writing skills and acquired new ones, and this made their writing scores improve.
Even though the writing was never my forte, I am trying to put continuous efforts in order to get accustomed to the world of writing and eventually produce something which I am proud of. Since writing classes are labeled as some of the most difficult lower-divisions by college students, this idea has already induced a lot of fear in my mind towards this particular subject. This is to an extent that it affects my reading ability towards articles assigned in the writing class compared to the text I read for my entertainment. For instance, for the assignments where we are expected to critically analyze the text and provide responses, I tend to overthink a lot and eventually I fail to pick up the overall message from the article because I was too busy searching for details I am neither expected to know nor expected to use in my assignments. To elaborate on this, when I am reading the text, my brain is comprehending the meaning of each word in the sentence, however, it fails to establish a connection with the sentence prior and subsequent to the sentence because it is too busy trying to decode the details of that particular statement.
Have you ever been so frustrated writing an essay that you set it aside until the last minute? Well, there can be a way to prevent that. One of the most important parts about writing is the process behind it. An essay should consist of an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Even though the process of writing essays seem very mind boggling, it is actually an easy process if following the correct writing steps. It can be even easier if the writer enjoys the topic of the essay. There are certain steps a writer must take to keep a reader interested while showing enthusiasm for them wanting to learn more. These steps follow a set of guidelines including planning, free writing, revising and editing.
Because communicating effectively in writing is so critical, we want our students to have the skills necessary to express one’s ideas in writing. To address this need, PRA has included two major improvement strategies around writing on the Universal Improvement Plan (UIP). Our first improvement strategy states that educators will provide consistent and effective writing instruction using innovative, relevant, and engaging strategies. Our second improvement strategy explains that teachers will score student writing using common rubrics associated with established curriculum, both independently and collaboratively. The improvement strategies were written to specifically address the vetted root causes-- Lack of student engagement and effort were identified as causes for lack of growth in writing. A common language for teaching writing across the curriculum and over many grades will address this
Growing up we are told that high school will prepare us for college. However, some students, including myself, lacked the skills to be successful in their classes. In high school we are given satisfactory grades for turning in a completed essay. On the other hand, turning in a completed essay will not give you a passing grade if it does not include all the essentials to an efficient essay. Writing is not only done in school, but it is also used in everyday life. After taking English 101, I noticed an improvement throughout my writing and developed the missing pieces to good writing habits such as brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and revising.
Writing is a every common in any institutions especially at a College school where every students must be expected to write a well-written and effective composition. No one is allowed to excuse with this task even if you think you can't write well.
The second chapter in Tompkins’ book, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product, Tompkins talks about the different writing strategies that teachers can implement during the writing process. In my opinion, these writing strategies are especially important for young writers, due to the fact that the process in extremely important when beginning to write. Tompkins supports this belief what she writes, “Even the youngest writers can learn to apply writing strategies” (2012, p. 34). These strategies help writers monitor what they are doing in order to ensure that the final product has been completed to the writers’ best ability. At a first and second grade level, however, some strategies may be too complex and may confuse the students. The goal for teaching at this level should be to have the students generate ideas, organize the writing, and proofread and reread for errors in either grammar or in content. This being said, I do not mean that the other strategies cannot be introduced, but teachers should not spend an ample amount of time showing the students how to elaborate or format papers. To me, it is essential for young writers to evaluate their own progress and now when they have made errors so that they are not relying on teachers, this early on, to fix mistakes for them.