HOW I INTEND TO TEACH WRITING

This classroom provides some insight into my intentions to teach writing in the secondary classroom.

From this picture a few important words and phrases come to mind:

1. SOCIAL INTERACTION

In my English classroom students will collaborate to perform engaging (fun and interesting for students' cognitive level and life experiences), meaningful, purposeful and relevant tasks

I will endeavor to create a sense of classroom community where everyone's contribution matters and there is respect and understanding of differences (language, culture, cognitive and physical disabilities). It's not about being wrong or right, shy or embarrassed. Its about being motivated to believe in yourself and in others that they can do better with additional support from more knowledgeable others in the classroom.

What I wish is for students to ride on a journey together and after they have left my class be more aware, motivated and competent in composing writing in various genres. Thus, knowledge and application of the writing process will be a focal point in creating my "community of composers". Inevitably students' collaboration in five of the language arts i.e.  talking, listening, reading, viewing, visually representing will be used as platforms for both independent and shared writing.

I have never taught English but I recall my first experience teaching Social Studies at a secondary school (for Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum) when students questioned me, "Miss why are you rearranging the furniture?" I quickly explained to the students that for the purposes of the class they would be working in groups and I would not alter my lesson plan to facilitate their wanting to work independently. I modeled the activity (completion of anticipation guide before and after shared reading and discourse), provided guided practice and let the students continue working in small groups without intervention for the remainder of the time allocated for the task. The students were then provided with immediate feedback not only for successful completion of the anticipation guide and reading comprehension questions but for building upon their level of confidence as the teaching of the lesson progressed, their willingness to support others who were struggling and enthusiasm for active participation.

2. CONSTRUCTIVISM

The curriculum dictates what students should learn but constructivist learning theory addresses  how students should learn. In assuming the role of a constructivist teacher, I shall act as a facilitator and guide in the teaching-learning process and blends the what with the  how. Hence, 

I WILL KEEP IN MIND THAT I SHOULD NOT TELL A STUDENT WHERE TO GO ON THEIR WRITING JOURNEY BUT HOW TO FIND THEIR WAY.

The following video contains 3 important principles of constructivist teaching that I will make a conscious effort to apply in the English classroom: (1) students' level of readiness to learn (2)the spiral curriculum (3) ability to go beyond background knowledge or what has been taught.

In practice constructivist English classrooms:

• Value students' prior knowledge
• Adhere to teaching concepts within context-not abstractly. For e.g. Grammar is best taught using a piece of literature which can relate to the list of grammatical conventions. 
• Value collaboration and in particular cooperative learning strategies
• Monitor student progress using multiple types of performance based assessments
• Blend content knowledge with process for e.g. The techniques of persuasive, descriptive, narrative and expository writing are examined at various stages of the writing process.

3. INVENTORY OF STUDENTS INTERESTS, LIKES AND 

     DISLIKES

Informal classroom observation, anecdotal records, interest inventory surveys and interviews (student, peers, other teachers, parents) are tools which can provide me with insight into what students like to and do not like to do and how they learn best. I can use this when planning lessons to make informed decisions about  appropriate teaching strategies which will impact positively  on  the community of diverse learners in the classroom

I am not acquainted with the interest inventory survey however it is something worth trying . Furthermore, I do not intend to use internet samples without prior modification.

Click on the  link to view the 1 page survey.

http://files.solutiontree.com/pdfs/Reproducibles_BY/ThingsMyTeacherShouldKnowAboutMe(High%20School).pdf


4. THE NEED TO EMBRACE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
     AND NEW LITERACIES

I am a digital immigrant who made a conscious effort to better my skills in the use of  digital technology not only for academic purposes at Teacher's Training College but for aesthetic and functional purposes outside of the school environment.

This video clip explains why digital immigrants like myself need to adhere to the prescribed curriculum and take a balanced approach to the use of technology in the classroom-TRADITIONAL MEDIA for e.g chalkboard+ DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY for e.g. laptop and NEW LITERACY for e.g power point presentation - to cater to divergent learning needs of digital natives.

New literacies practices that secondary school students may engage in outside of the classroom include:

• Instant messaging
• Subscribing to virtual social networks for e.g Facebook and Twitter
• Responding to blog posts
• Watching and uploading video clips on YouTube
• Sending e-mail
• Web-searching
• Reading newspapers, magazines and books online
• Sharing files

ARE YOU  INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT – AS MUCH AS I -WHAT YOUR STUDENTS DO ONLINE AND OFFLINE ON THEIR DIGITAL DEVICES ?

Click on the link below for a sample of a new literacies questionnaire that is recommended for teachers to discover students attitude towards digital technology, new literacies and online media so that they may make informed decisions when planning student-centered lessons for a technologically savvy community of learners.

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/NCTE/new%20lit%20questionnaire1.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJH5D4I4FWRALBOUA&Expires=1350157579&Signature=wyVNZrQPdjOKDNuNbmk8aWB72JY%3D

5. THE RECOMMENDED ENGLISH TEXTBOOK MAY BE
     INADEQUATE IN TEACHING  SOME WRITING GENRE
     AND FORMS OF WRITING

 

Q. Why is exposure to different writing genres and forms of writing important for students who are       learning to write?

   

A. Collerson (1988) in his book,  "Writing for Life", summed up genre well

We can think of genre as a social process i.e. as a particular set of activities or a way of doing something [...]these activities are carried out for some purpose. This is true of any genre; it is a social process which has a purpose-some goal that people are working towards. It also has a recognizable structure or pattern. Finally, a genre is something that arises within a particular culture; it is a product of the culture.

Source:  http://englishonline.tki.org.nz/English-Online/Exploring-language/Pattern-of-Text-Genre

The purpose of the writing, the intended audience and the topic together influence the choice of genre.

Therefore, as a reflective practitioner, I am aware that some forms of writing are better suited to capturing the "big ideas" that are associated with specific genres. For e.g A persuasive essay can capture a lot more of the persuasive techniques than a persuasive dialogue can.

If you examine the table below, it is evident that expository texts and procedural texts are connected because they both explain to and inform the audience about a specific topic. They also have descriptive elements. Therefore, as a teacher I should endeavour to teach students to make connections between text so that they are aware that one piece of writing can lend itself to divergent types of text.

Lastly, I will teach students that writing strategies achieve their purpose effectively when used with specific types of text for e.g Concept mapping has universal appeal-it works with all types of text BUT a T-Chart is often used to compare and contrast and so it is better suited to expository, persuasive and transactional types of text.

Here is a table of writing genres and the forms of writing that best capture them:

GENRES/TEXT TYPES	DESCRIPTION
EXPOSITORY	a genre of writing that informs, describes, or explains with text types that include: autobiography, biography, descriptive, essay, experiment, informational report, and media article
NARRATIVE	a genre of writing that entertains or tells a story with text types that include: adventure, fairy tale, fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, personal narrative, realistic fiction, and science fiction
PERSUASIVE	a genre of writing that attempts to convince readers to embrace a particular point of view with text types that include: advertisement, editorial, persuasive essay, political cartoon, pro/con, and review
PROCEDURAL	a genre of writing that explains the instructions or directions for completing a task with text types that include: experiment, how to, and recipe
TRANSACTIONAL	a genre of writing that serves as a communication of ideas and information between individuals with text types that include: business letter, friendly email, friendly letter, interview, invitation, postcard, speeches, and weblog entry

See also: http://www.education.com/reference/article/writing-genres/ (Tompkins, 2010)

Other elements that I would like to incorporate into my teaching of writing repertoire are as follows:

6. ENSURE THAT STUDENTS COMPOSE WRITING IN
    MULTIPLE GENRES AND ADHERE TO THE WRITING
    PROCESS

Based on the latter I know some of what applies to teaching writing in diverse genres so I will attempt to provide opportunities and stimuli for students to practice writing in the various genres at school and at home. It is important for me to do this to gauge a student's true writing potential. The writing process will be introduced to students and shall remain a significant part of students growth in writing ability with my added support.

7. ALIGNMENT OF THE TYPES OF WRITING STUDENTS
    DO AT HOME WITH WHAT IS DONE IN CLASS

I am aware that students write not only for academic purposes but for aesthetic and functional purposes. The forms of writing as well as genres students engage in away from the classroom can enable me to use samples of students work to teach them writing conventions and effective writing strategies that can better their craft. I can also get students more engaged in editing and revising for self as well as for their peers. Students can also collaborate in publishing their writing as a whole class or small groups on class blogs for e.g a digital collection of short stories or poems and they may publish a class newsletter which includes comic strips, poems, short stories, letter to the editor, advertisements and so forth.

I compiled a list of  some of the forms of writing that students may engage in outside of the class:

• Blog posts/responses
• Wiki responses
• traditional (pen and paper) story writing
• digital story writing
• poetry
• love letters
• Traditional and digital card messages
• Instant messaging (BBM, Tweets)
• Journal/Personal diary entries
• Comic strips/cartooning
• Schedule
• To-do-lists
• Recipes

I found these two interesting links. Firstly, " How does  writing digital text differ from writing print text?" http://digitalwritingresources.pbworks.com/w/page/54270923/Digital%20Writing and plan to use it when faced with difficulties of providing

The second link is about creating a story board in Word which I am willing to try since I am a writer for aesthetic purposes. I will then teach my students how they too can do it because it facilitates practicing the writing process. Click on the link http://www.microsoft.com/education/enus/teachers/guides/Pages/digital_storytelling.aspx followed  by the pdf file " Storyboarding: Creating a storyboard in Word" 

  

8.TEACH STUDENTS TO ASSESS THEIR OWN WRITING
    AND THAT OF THEIR PEERS

In a previous blog post I mentioned that I was on a road to nowhere with regard to improving my writing abilities in an academic environment. In the 80's, 90's and early 2000's competition was fostered among classmates and so peer assessment would not fit into that learning environment. However, with today's self and peer assessment as an integral part of formative assessment. My students will be taught to assess how writing can be made better. In order to do so there must be a balance of both negative and positive criticism as well as awareness of what makes a good piece of writing in a specific genre. To achieve this I will provide all students with checklists and rubrics to self-assess and peer-assess.

9. STUDENTS FUNCTIONAL FORMS OF WRITING FOR
    THEIR FUTURES AS YOUNG ADULTS ENTERING THE
    WORKFORCE

business e-mail

curriculum vitae (CV)

job cover letter

memorandum

I will use a socio-constructivist approach to teach Form 5 students these 4 essential forms of business communication which are key for survival in the business world. This was taught to me by a substitute teacher and I am thankful to this day that I never had to go begging any family member or friend to write a job cover letter or CV for me. Now with the advent of technology there are templates available for job cover letters and CV's for students to follow and for teachers to provide guidance on  components specific to job requirements, education level, job and voluntary experience.  Students can collaborate with each other and share the different document styles available and decide for themselves whichever they feel more comfortable using. Thereafter students will endeavour to create their own samples to be modified when applying for a job and to communicate with colleagues within the workplace. Authentic materials such as web and newspaper advertisements will be used, in addition to writing strategies such as RAFT.

10. ACCEPTANCE OF THE SOCIO-CULTURAL
     DIVERSITY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
     WHICH INCLUDES STUDENTS WITH BILINGUAL
     ABILITIES

 I am aware that I am primarily a visual (learn well by visuals), auditory (learn well by listening) and field independent learner (exhibit autonomy in the learning process) but there are other learning styles in the classroom including the kinesthetic (learn by performance) and field-dependent (exhibit dependency on others for learning) in the classroom. Therefore, I need to be aware that my own learning styles and cultural assumptions can influence how I teach students and the expectations I have of students.  For example I have a positive attitude toward the majority of St.Lucian students'  L1 (St.Lucian Creole English)  and I see the relevance of its use as a platform to better students competence in writing in the L2 (St Lucian Standard English). Therefore, I would like to teach students how they can incorporate the use of Creole English in creative writing to add flavor to it within certain contexts that the Standard English cannot achieve. The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) has given this the thumbs up so why continue to subject students to alienation from their mother tongue.

In addition, it is my mandate that as I gain more experience teaching writing that a more inclusive teaching style will grow on me and become second nature. I intend to use diverse writing samples or stimuli for e.g. advertisements, newspaper or magazine clips, comic strips, recipes, video, song, games and simulations to teach writing conventions, techniques and process that reflect different cultures, life experiences, genders, sexual orientations among other sociocultural differences. This will occur in the context of lectures, group work, discussion, cooperative learning and so forth.

11. PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENT-TEACHER 

         CONFERENCING

We discussed teacher-student conferences in ENG 204 and ENG 205 and I  had first-hand experience engaging in them for COM 101/201 and ENG 203. However, I could not conceptualize how to go about conferencing  effectively with secondary school students.Nevertheless, I  know it is a teaching strategy that I would like to implement in my future teaching career and so I decided to watch a video of the strategy in action in an authentic classroom setting. It is being used with primary school students but the principles are the same and it enabled me to reflect on my own writing experiences and that of many current students in secondary schools.  I have come to the conclusion that a  lack of one-one- attention, encouragement , self assessment and immediate feedback from a more knowledgeable other is why so many secondary school students get lost on their writing journeys.Have fun watching and learning from the video!!!!

12. PROVIDE TIMELY FEEDBACK

  + results in

Without effective feedback students would not learn -remembering that learning is a permanent change in one’s behavior- the result is that they may repeat mistakes over and over again. It is best practice to provide students with feedback no more than one day after a test or homework assignment has been turned in this has the potential to increase the window of opportunity for learning and can close the gap between current and desired performance. That information can be used to help set achievable learning objectives   for the teaching and re-teaching of specific aspects of writing.

Examples of places where timely feedback can occur:

-the whole classroom environment

-writer’s workshop

-peer tutoring session

-peer  review

-teacher- student conference

-class blog on for e.g. Blogger

- Google Docs


This video highlights the importance of  feedback on the "big ideas" during a peer review. If students fail to practice what they learnt when peer review was modeled by teacher the first few times , then apparently  both the writer and peer reviewer are misinformed or confused about the editing and revising stages of the writing process. Notice in the video the peer reviewer has no checklist to use as a guide and affirmation that specific criteria have been met.

Criterion-referenced feedback provides the right kind of feedback to improve student understanding of the writing process. 

Peer feedback on the class blog in particular prompts students to read each others’ writing from a critical perspective and to think about how to phrase feedback so that it is constructive.  For the students to be able to use the blog properly I need to set ground rules and to teach them how to do so through modeling, guided practice and thereafter independent practice (gradual release of responsibility model). Blogging is an important skill to teach students because the blog is capable of improving the standard of writing students produce because of immediacy of feedback. The blogger writes and publishes (posts), the audience provides feedback (comments), the blogger revises and edits the post and thereafter the blogger posts a second draft. Blogger on Google makes it easy to ignore boundaries of time and space as face to face communication for writer’s conferences are no longer necessary-students can collaborate in a virtual “hang out”. In the “hang out” students can edit and revise each others’ writing through speech and text by using the webcam and chat facilities.

Furthermore, teaching students self-assessment techniques encourage students to generate their own feedback. Rubrics and the aforesaid checklists monitor student progress toward achieving learning objectives, clarify learning objectives and provide helpful criteria for achieving success in writing in a specific genre.

13.FIND INNOVATIVE WAYS TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS
     TO WANT TO IMPROVE THEIR WRITING SKILLS

Writer's block, procrastination, frustration and boredom are some of the problems students encounter in a writing class. I have always been an above average writer and so I could not come up with a plan subject to modification of how I would deal with a class of unmotivated writers. I read a blog on the first link below  and watched a video "Fun Writing Activities for Middle School" on the second link and then tied it all up into a bundle with what I already knew from my educational psychology courses.

http://voices.yahoo.com/how-motivate-unmotivated-student-read-and-229604.html

http://www.ehow.com/video_4766453_fun-writing-activities-middle-school.html

This is what I came up with:

MOTIVATING THE UNMOTIVATED STUDENT TO WRITE

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION MAY BE HARDER TO ACQUIRE BUT THE FUTURE REWARDS ARE LONG LASTING AND LIFE CHANGING. THE STUDENT'S WRITING JOURNEY STARTED WITH THE STUDENT AND WILL END WITH THE STUDENT. THE TEACHER'S JOB IS ONLY TO PROVIDE THE MOST APPROPRIATE STIMULI, ENCOURAGEMENT, PROVIDE GUIDANCE AND CONTENT KNOWLEDGE AMONG OTHER THINGS.

EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION  IS EASY TO ACQUIRE  DUE TO THE PROMISE OF AN IMMEDIATE REWARD. SADLY MOTIVATION QUICKLY FADES AS THE REWARDS BECOME ORDINARY RATHER THAN EXTRAORDINARY.AT WORST, THE STUDENT NO LONGER WANTS TO MAKE THE NECESSARY STRIDES IN ORDER TO WALK THE LONG MILE, ON THE JOURNEY TOWARD BECOMING A BETTER WRITER.

THUS, FOSTERING INTRINSIC MOTIVATION IN STUDENTS TO ENABLE THEM TO DEVELOP ATTAINABLE WRITING GOALS IS THE WAY TO GO!!!!!

It is important for future English teachers like myself to be aware of my English students' interests, hobbies,talents interpersonal skills, language ability etc. This knowledge is best acquired through informal interviews with students' themselves, the students' peers, other teachers and immediate family.The aforesaid interest inventory is a useful instrument to accomplish this. This enables me to make a diagnostic assessment of the student in relation to writing ability and I can then proceed to formulate an individualized plan for the respective students. In planning there is need to make use of differentiated learning strategies for e.g. cooperative learning, group work, discovery-based learning etc.

Noteworthily, students need stimuli for writing as well as the opportunity to develop critical perspectives of the world around them. For this reason, teachers need to periodically take students on field trips that can inspire them to write in various genres. These field trips may include: industrial plants, art and craft exhibitions, historical buildings, parks, walks through small towns and villages, natural attractions and so forth. The biggest hurdle to cross is getting the principal and then the parents to agree to have the students leave the school compound. It is in students' best interest to get the first hand experience rather than a second hand experience relayed through reports or reflections by other students.However, once the benefits exceed the costs and your negotiation skills are in tip-top shape then convincing the principal and parents should not be hard to do.

However, beside physically taking students outside of the classroom for stimuli for writing there is also need to bring students' life outside the classroom in. Unlike the former,the latter is a more feasible approach to teaching writing within an authentic context. Hence, students' writing can be inspired in the following ways:

1.Teen magazines e.g. Yo in the local Voice newspaper

2.Clean song lyrics from various genres

They can be used to inspire students to write about issues that affect them or people in their social circles.

3.Travel magazines of places they have visited or would like to visit

They can inspire students to look toward the future or reflect on the past when they write.

4. News clips from other subject areas like Social Studies, Physics, Geography, Biology

They can appeal to students' future aspirations , allow students to make global comparisons of living experiences in different countries and encourage students to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for life as we know it.

5. Some students participate in the performing arts such as ballet, modern dance, karate, drama and calypso.

They are stimuli for students to engage in writing plays, skits, newsletter articles and radio programmes about an upcoming production.

6. Some students have a national hero, favourite sports person or musical entertainer.

Posters, newspaper articles, online video clips, photographs, autographs can be used to inspire students' to write an autobiography of the aforesaid personalities. This can also be used for summary writing or writing reflections.

7. Samples of students own' writing which exemplify techniques in various genres of writing accompanied by editing, revising and proofreading checklists can help students become more interested in and willing to work at the writing process. However, in order for this to work the gradual release of responsibility model must be practiced (teacher models the writing activity, students receive guided practice and this is followed by students working independently when they have reached the required threshold)

It must be emphasized that the teachers ' role in fostering intrinsic motivation should carry through at all times in the classroom. This can be exhibited by the following:

• Exhibiting enthusiasm when questions start pouring in to foster students' metacognition, as well as clarification of misconceptions and misunderstandings. This can help students' who are off task to get back on again with a renewed determination to succeed at the task at hand. 

• Furthermore, whether it be through dialogue or comments it is important for the English teacher to make the students feel that he or she values their work. This gives some students an additional boost of confidence that is needed for them to improve or to continue producing good work.

Watch this video for more insight into the teacher's role in intrinsically motivating students to want to write:

Additionally, to help students make giant steps on their writing paths, it is useful for English teachers to facilitate the writer's workshop model in their classrooms. The writer's workshop model fosters collaboration between small groups of writers. These writers may have similar interests, hobbies, talents, language abilities etc. So too, these groups of writers provide guidance to each other and offer each other both positive and negative feedback before, during and after the writing process. This can be a source of intrinsic motivation for students to want to write both inside and outside of the classroom.

Yet another approach to inspire students to write from within is discovery based learning. Discovery based learning in English can help students to solve problems and answer questions in their writing. Also, when students engage in discovery based learning which includes inquiry based learning,  they can become more focused toward striving towards achieving their writing goals. Discovery based learning also incorporates the project-based approach to learning and therefore small group projects that can expand the knowledge and experiences of  the whole class are generally used. Furthermore, when this approach  involves research, the topics and hypotheses can be negotiated by students and teachers. Discovery based learning can include the following:  social networking with writers across the world via webcam and chat facilities to ask and respond to questions, gain insight and share critical perspectives; getting students involved in the community for e.g. visiting pre-schools or home for the elderly to read stories at an appropriate cognitive level, interviewing students on the school compound to get data to write a report and the list goes on. This is a hands on approach to learning which focuses on using prior knowledge and experiences to create products of writing. Through this  is very student-centered approach to learning, students can become more aware of what they can do well  on their own in writing and what they cannot do. The video below provides useful insight into the inquiry-based approach to teaching:

Taking the aforementioned into consideration, the  formerly unmotivated student who has become intrinsically motivated to write for aesthetic and efferent purposes can now also write  within context. For this writer, writing  to achieve self satisfaction and to embrace life experiences outside of the classroom will become increasingly important as growth in the writing process develops over time. This video demonstrates just that:

     

14. ROTE LEARNING IS NOT WELCOME IN MY CLASSES

It is either you know or do not know. I will never encourage students to cram nor will I overload them with so much content that they feel that they must cram to keep up with instruction. As one of the solutions to the problem the students and I will work on expanding "big ideas" that the whole class  has generated during instruction and small or large groups  during seat work. For e.g. Preparing a thematic unit for the first two chapters in a literature text where students work on elements of the story by constructing Venn diagrams or T-charts for similarities and differences between characters and Cornell Notes to establish theme and character relationships found in the chapter. The possibilities are many but should be adapted to suit the community of learners.

15. BE A REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER 

I will enter the teaching profession as a qualified, novice teacher. Therefore I need to seek advice from and work with others in the profession both locally and globally to improve on knowledge and skills in teaching of writing.

For e.g I will not discard failed teaching strategies for writing but assess what went wrong which prevented the learning objectives from being achieved, modify the lesson plan and work on successful implementation to that same or another group at a later date.

This can be achieved through one or more of the following methods: 

• English teacher forums/blogs/wikis
• English podcasts
• English journals 
• English textbooks/e-books
• Informal interview with practicing English teachers
• Attending English teacher conferences
• Engage in face-to-face problem solving activities with English teacher colleagues

16. WRITING TO LEARN STRATEGIES MUST MATCH 

         THE SET LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR THE  SPECIFIC 

          GROUP OF STUDENTS IN MY VARIOUS CLASSES

A learning log

For e.g RAFT (Role, Audience, Format,Topic) and learning logs can achieve both lower order and higher order learning objectives.

Whoa! This is a long list. Thanks to my lecturer for providing me with an opportunity to really think about my execution for teaching practice.This has been a cathartic experience because I have attempted to clarify lots of misunderstandings and misconceptions that I never took the time out to do-admittedly before I did ENG 204 I did not know how to connect my understanding from the other ENG's and EDCL to plan a student-centered English lesson.  This list helped me to put teaching goals into perspective by considering what I know now as best practice and my experiences of having been taught English. I can safely say that I will never teach English the way I was taught at secondary school-in a vacuum. It is my business to be aware that students don't enter the English class on  a level playing field and I need to build upon their individual life experiences and weave that into the products of writing they produce.