respond to discussion 4REA
Aquarius21
Respondtodiscussion4.docxRespond to discussion 4.1 At least 125 per response
Cassandra
I do not remember being taught step-by-step to write. But I do remember teachers assigning essays. Recalling those memories made me realize I had a deep-seated hatred for writing because I was never taught writing. I was glad that it was only required once a year. In elementary school, students should learn to write (Hochman & Wexler, 2017). Having students learn writing in an early grade will plant the seed. Students retain more information when it is taught at an early age. According to the article “Best Practices in Teaching Writing,” it was mentioned that teachers should set up a positive atmosphere for writing (Whitaker, n.d.). Teachers must have an inviting classroom where students feel comfortable. They have a routine that will help them know what to expect. Teachers should understand the importance of teaching students to write. Learning to write is a part of the learning fundamentals.
Somewhere along the way, writing took a backseat. I have seen firsthand how teaching students to write in elementary makes them solid writers and readers. My daughter was taught writing in the fourth grade. She was introduced to using transitions, adverbs, appositives, etc., to make meaningful sentences. Then they practiced writing paragraphs and using supporting evidence from a text. The students were not expected to know how to do this by only doing once. The students practiced each step daily and received feedback. The teacher’s expectations were high, so her feedback was honest. They did this process until they knew how to write an essay.
Patricia
As educators, our attitudes toward teaching and learning are one of the most powerful tools we have for shaping our students' academic success. By approaching writing instruction with a positive attitude, we can encourage our students to work to become better writers. Charles Whitaker gives us an example of how to do this in his article, "Best Practices in Teaching Writing," when he states that we can help our students become better writers by providing them with a positive atmosphere in which to learn to write (n.d). We can do this by providing constructive instruction and modeling good examples of writing.
Hochman and Wexler state that the biggest problem students have with writing is that they have never been taught to write analytically at the most basic level (2017). It is our job as educators to provide constructive instruction that teaches students to form complex sentences that convey a deeper level of understanding of the material they have recently read. We can do this by providing prompts and questions to help students comprehend what they have read and then shkwing them how to combine those answers into more complex thoughts whicj build upon each other. We can also model good writing techniques by using our own writing as a teaching tool. Teaching students at the most basic level and building upon those basic skills will help students form more advanced writing techniques.
Shelby
To spread the word, one must believe in it. Teachers are skilled and trained. I believe that our beliefs shape the way we think about specific things. I could only teach students material that I knew would be helpful to them. Teachers feel that every student can be an effective reader and writer. Students need a positive learning environment. It fosters the students’ attention and motivation. To help students develop as writers, teachers must take steps to establish and maintain a positive atmosphere and a sense of community (Whitaker, p.1). Students may likely engage more in the classroom if their teachers genuinely care. Not only care about the student but the classroom material. The students monitor a teacher’s approach, attitude, and actions. People make sacrifices for the ones they care about. Although teachers of subjects other than English may be apprehensive about incorporating the teaching of writing into their curricula, in our experience, most of them find that, rather than detracting from their instruction, implementing TWR enhances their ability to teach and boosts their students’ performance (Hochman & Wexler, 2017, p. 35). Not all teachers are going to agree with conducting writing in their curriculum. But once the positive effects it has on a student’s paper are seen, teachers tend to be believers.
And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him (Luke 19:47-48). Jesus was given the assignment to spread God’s word. Unfortunately, not everyone believed his words. Yet those who believed in doing right continued to follow, just as our students trusted their teachers to guide them in the right direction.
Discussion 4.2
Angela
There are ways to provide scaffolding, feedback, and progress monitoring for student writing. Scaffolding for student writing involves teaching students about sentences and how to write sentences. The teachers will show students how to write a sentence that allows the students to give their answers and feedback to answer open ended questions by writing down their thoughts own paper. Scaffolding involves model writing. Model writing help students to be more effective after the teacher models to the class how they should outline topics of what they will write about. Feedback is so important for students when writing because it gives students that understanding of what to write after the teacher has given the students constructive feedback. Feedback is given to students after the students have attempted to write about a topic without any prior knowledge. Progress monitoring is used when the teacher provides students with written performance on how well the students write and the quality of their writing.
Scaffolding and feedback are needed for good writing instruction because with scaffolding it involves getting the topic together for writing and getting the topic down on paper when the student actually begins writing. Scaffolding also focus on quick writes. Quick writes help students to follow instructions for writing on a particular topic and writing of any prior knowledge about the topic. After students have used quick writes in scaffolding then comes feedback on their mini writing assignments. The feedback helps the students to gain a better understanding of ideas they did not include in their writing. Feedback from the teacher will help students to stay on the topic. When teachers write out the feedback of the students mini writing assignment on paper, this will help the student to go back and refer to the suggestions anytime during writing.
Teachers can help support this good writing instruction by continuing to give students practice writing assignments for improvement. Teachers can continue to model writing instructions that will benefit the students with their writing skills. Quality feedback from the teachers will always help support students with their writing skills and increase their knowledge for writing.
Beverly
Writing is a subject that is used in all classrooms: English, math, science, & social studies. As educators, it is imperative that we work together to provide effective writing skills in all of the classes that we teach. My experience in teaching in a low income area shows that there are high rates of students that reach high school that are still struggling to read and write basic sentences. Because I teach high school students, I really like to focus on writing because I know that it will help the students in the future, especially if they plan to attend college. To help my students, I provide different scholarship essay topics each week for a grade. Once I provide the topic, we brainstorm as a class, the top three reasons for writing the essay and we focus on each reason in a different paragraph.
In the brainstorming process, I allow the students to work together in pairs of two and encourage them to come up with their own reasons and share with their partners. Most students at any age usually welcome the critique of their peers in their lesson. As the teacher, I always walk around and offer suggestions on how to better write their ideas on paper before starting on their essays. This type of assignment can be done in any class by providing a reading topic of the teacher’s choice and helping them to write a summary of main idea of the reading. By providing feedback, the students get a better understanding of how to correct their mistakes. A student would much rather you help them correct their writing, than just to give them a bad grade without helping them correct it. Once the students get used to writing each week, it becomes easier and they usually enjoy it more. I always try to choose essay topics that involves them brainstorming and using their critical thinking skills.
After the brainstorming process, the students began to write their thoughts in essay format. I always provide them with a template with formatting instructions before they began. As they are writing, I always encourage them to use the spelling and grammar check. As I am walking around the room, I randomly stop and read their writings and show them how to fix the errors as I see them. This process should not only start at elementary school, but continue throughout their school years. Being creative in your efforts to encourage reading and writing based on the subject that you teach can definitely increase the likelihood of our students learning how to write correctly. As teachers, we can support each other by offer suggestions on what works with your students. I enjoy our PLC meetings each week at school because this is where we share what is working in our classroom and we learn how to incorporate these strategies in our own teaching.
Setting the expectation for what is expected of our students in their writing must be clear. As educators, we must provide them with a rubric of what is expected in their writings so that they can have a clear guideline of what we expect to see in their final writing. Making sure the final product is acceptable and clear of grammatical and spelling errors is a very important step in making sure that the writing meets acceptable standards. This tool is also something that can be shared with other teachers that may not teach English or reading. The Bible tells us
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” As educators, we definitely have to encourage each other so that we can encourage our students.
Jasmine
