Over the last three decades, there has been a major change in the way that writing is taught and assessed in schools. This shift has mainly been motivated by insights derived from grassroots teacher movements and research. Today, there are numerous trends in writing research, writing instruction and writing assessment as a learning activity.
Early trends in writing were characterized by conflicting views about the impacts of writing on learning. Students were mainly instructed on how to write essays by using forms of exposition, narration, description or arguments. Teachers mainly dealt with contemporary textbooks and taught and assessed students on the ideal written products. The main assessment tool was the final product that the student
…show more content…
One important lesson learned from using the writing observation framework is that it enhances an understanding of the learning process. As stated, earlier models of teaching writing emphasized on assessing the product. Teachers could easily analyze the understanding of students using the essays they wrote. However, the advent of the new model had no clear method of how student understanding can be checked. The Writing Observation Framework solves this problem by providing a simplified and standard tool that guides how teachers can instruct and observe writing in students.
The writing observation framework places more emphasis on teaching students how to write to learn. Its models emphasizes on the process that enable students to learn new ideas and concepts while enhancing their writing skills. In the past, students were mainly taught how to write as the major focus. During assessment, test scores were used to analyze whether students have understood how to write. However, apart from analyzing only the writing style, the writing observational framework emphasizes on additional elements such as background of the topic under study and relevance of the content provided is also
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
Instead of focusing on the different types of writing styles they will encounter in college and the workforce, most of the writing instruction students receive in their underclassman English courses at Carrizo Springs High School is primarily focused on preparation for the English Language Arts Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills Written Composition test, which has standards that are different than the outcomes they will be expected to accomplish in their dual credit English class and future college writing courses. Therefore, there must be a method implemented at Carrizo Springs High School and Southwest Texas Junior College to help students become more successful in dual credit English before they even step foot in that class. Students must understand that how they perform in that class will have an effect on their
Writing, and literacy in general, is one of the founding cornerstones of modern society. It is difficult to find any sort of occupation that doesn’t require at least some basic writing skills. From business managers to lawyers to doctors, despite their notoriously bad handwriting, all require intimate knowledge of writing skills. Yet, teaching critical writing skills is not the cure-all to solving the problems that the public education system faces in producing students better prepared to tackle the challenges of the world as Peg Tyre portrays it as in The Writing Revolution. Critical writing skills, despite its current underemphasis in the classroom, should not be the only focus of the public school system’s curriculum as Peg Tyre suggests in The Writing Revolution, because critical writing skills do not prepare students adequately enough for the standards of the real world which require more technical skills, critical writing skills only teaches a small subset of underlying critical thinking skills, and critical writing skills education, as presented by Peg Tyre, is formulaically based which can result in long-term inability to further student’s critical writing skills despite initial success.
In the article “Best Practices in Teaching Writing”, Charles Whitaker outlines eight points on helping students succeed as writers. The first
Downs & Wardle’s “Teaching about writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re) Envisioning “First Year Composition” as “Introduction to Writing Studies” talks about several ways to refer to writing and our response to it. As well as the misconceptions students have towards the proper way of writing and how they have managed to break the “college writing” stereotype and discover their own way of writing.
Writing is a practice that most of us were taught when we were young. We were taught the basics of grammar, how to form a sentence, conjunction words, how to write paragraphs and more. Although we have learned this skill while growing up and have used the skill every year after entering kindergarten, this does not mean our writing process will ensure the best work. The authors that I chose each encourage their audience to excel in the art of writing in their own way to help with the writing process.
When teaching writing, I employed graphic organizers, drawings, and guiding questions to introduce components of essays and assist students in developing their writing. In addition, I designed courses to allow students to choose topics that they were interested in or relevant to their daily lives for writing assignments. Moreover, I gave mini-lessons on grammar especially when most students made similar grammatical mistakes. Furthermore, I employed Communicative Approach and selected daily topics (e.g., news, hobbies, travel, and favorite local and exotic food) to instruct students in English speaking. For listening, I utilized popular English songs, news videos, and excerpts from TV shows and audiobooks to enhance their listening competence. Since I incorporated various instructional materials and adopted different teaching approaches into my teaching, my students expressed that they enjoyed learning, and their academic performance showed great achievement. Those students who were afraid to speak English in the first class were willing to express their opinions and involved in class discussions in English after my instruction.
While attending writing class, I learned about the 4 steps in writing, bases for revising, organizing, and connecting specific information, and I also learned about the different types of essays such as descriptive, narrative, process, cause and effect and argumentative essay. I have been a student at Milwaukee Area Technical College for 1 semester, and over the course of my enrollment I have grown and learned more that I knew prior to attending this writing course. Participating in this writing class has taught me so much more than stuff about literature and language, it has taught me another way of expressing myself. I have learned here how to write and express myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don 't know. Most importantly I have learned how important technique, outlines and organization are. My goal in this paper is to inform writers about how my writing skills have improved.
A learner’s ability to communicate effectively through writing to his/her target audiences is a major prerequisite for academic success. It is also a major pillar of success in one’s career across all areas of practice. Even though, writing clearly is critical to one’s academic and career success, I have not always loved writing. In fact, for a long time I despised writing. At one point, I had a feeling that my writings skills were bound to remain stagnated throughout my life. However, time has proven that I was wrong. My attitude and outlook towards virtually all genres of writing has changed positively. The various helpful methods I have been exposed to by my English teachers through different grades have helped me
This semester I was surprised by how much I actually learned and developed my writing skills. I was given the opportunity to learn the many steps that it is required to become a good writer. Writing requires a lot of work. It consists of various steps; prewriting, drafting, rewriting, proofreading and publishing. . All of these components are extremely important, and necessary, and will need to be follow to improve student’s writing.
My practicum took place on September 7,2016 from nine thirty to ten thirty. The practicum took place at Impact Early College High School in Baytown. The class I observed was Ms. Nguyen’s class of juniors and seniors that contained twenty students, seven boys and thirteen girls. The class appeared to be alert and ready to learn. Since this was their second period class they already had enough time to shake off their fatigue. The subject was Pre-Calculous and the topic was operations of functions. Students entered the classroom in a calm manner and socialized until it was time to start class. The teacher instructed the students to take their seats and take five minutes to write their assignments into their academic calendar. The teacher went
Writing and improving penmanship skills is the most difficult task to perform in English language classes. In order to advance, most are expected to perform better with what was originally known as more information is added to the process. It becomes even more challenging as one moves up and teachers have to start teaching their students through social interactions to grab a better concept of being realistic with most of their writing. Knowledge is used for cooperative or perspective assignments to broaden their view on their own writing. Students will later understand writing characteristics composed of their own hand and realize what one may write about. Conversing with others in unison to form construction within their own work will help undeveloped writers create and take criticism to improve their writings. The first step for the youthful is to gain knowledge about the genre, explore the works within the genre, discover writings connected to their own original
The nature of writing has changed in the past century. While writing still remains a form of visual communication, much of this change has been a result of technological advancements such as, from pen to paper or from a typewriter to a networked computer. The changes and expansion in the ways we are able to write today have brought about changes in writing pedagogy as well. The teaching of writing has been part of formal schooling in the United States for over 200 years (Kean 7). One major pedagogic change in United States’ education has to do with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These standards have led to a change in the instruction of writing in schools. This paper, will focus on instructional changes of writing over time and current expectations for writing abilities as whole.
Rod Smith Shane Penrose Kate Whited Sandusky High School Submitted to Dr. Joanne Arhar Action Research in the Classroom
Every student needs to be able to acquire their knowledge about the purposes of writing, the forms of writing, strategies for planning and being able to evaluate their work, have those basic writing skills and most importantly they require motivation. Everyone knows the important connections between reading and writing and the importance each one has to the other, and many will say that to become a better writer one needs to be a good reader, at least that’s what has been taught in the classroom. Teachers tend to provide readings and expect the student to provide a written assignment on this provided reading. The problem with this is that it is not well broken down, the classroom lacks certain components to assist the student become better writers. Students receive a grade at the end of every six weeks or semester teachers should be graded on their ability to teach these components.