As a Secondary school English teacher, how can I support my students writing? Writing has classically been one of the foundations of Language Arts education, and according the BCELA IRP (Language Arts Grade 10) there are three main forms of writing:
C1- Write meaningful personal texts that elaborate on ideas and information to:
- Experiment
- Express self
- Make connections
- Reflect and respond
- Remember and recall
C2- Write purposeful information texts that express ideas and information to:
- Explore and respond
- Record and describe
- Analyze and explain
- Speculate and consider
- Argue and persuade
- Engage
C3- Write effective imaginative texts to develop ideas and information to:
- Strengthen connections and insights
- Explore and adapt literary forms and techniques
- Experiment with increasingly sophisticated language and style
- Engage and entertain
After looking at the three forms of writing that we expect our students to take part in, we also have to consider writing from the students standpoint. There are different stages of the writing process, that educators must be able to indentify when it comes to students writing. According to The English Teacher’s Survival Guide (Second Edition, 90) the five processes include:
1. Prewriting: This stage is often looked over by professional teachers, in their hurry to make sure that all of the curriculum standards are met. But prewriting (or pre-reading, pre-viewing, pre-listening) is an essential part of the writing process. Pre-writing occurs before the student has even presented a draft. They might not even know what the assignment is. Using prewriting as a teaching strategy allows students preparation time where they can generate ideas, activate their schema, or think about a topic without restriction. Pre-writing helps writers make discoveries; they could generate a new topic, look at a strength in their writing process, focus on who their audience is or be creative without having to worry about grammatical consequences. By allowing students this freedom at the beginning of an assignment, encourages students critical thinking skills, by asking them to generate their own ideas, through writing.
2. Drafting: Most students understand that numerous drafts are needed until a piece of writing is complete. But as a teacher it can be discouraging when students think that drafts are only edited for grammar, then fixed and that suffices as a draft; consequently many students (and teachers) confuse drafting for revision. Drafting needs to be a strategy used where students explore different ideas, look at the content of what they are writing, and expand on some of their pre-writing ideas. Throughout the writing process, drafting should encourage students to write, again without having to worry about organization, or correctness. By using this as an in-between strategy, drafting becomes a creative and safe ground, encouraging students to simply write.
3. Revision: Revision and editing are closely correlated, but there are some distinct differences between the two. Revision is the re-seeing of a piece of writing. This usually means that the writer is going back, reviewing and revising a piece of writing. During this stage it is important for the student to understand who their audience is and what is the purpose of the writing. During revision, allow students to focus on the context of the writing (does the organization make sense? What more information is needed? Is there too much writing about one thing?) Drafts can be focused on in the revision stage to look at the piece of writing as a whole, not just ideas as it started in prewriting.
4. Editing: Editing becomes one of the final stages of the writing process. It should be used in the final stages, so students are able to focus on the ideas, context, and their process. Editing includes proofreading, editing, and final adjustments to the writing.
5. Publishing: Publishing can also refer to presenting, depending on the context of the work, the assignment, and how the teacher and student choose to present their work. Unfortunately this stage is often neglected or forgotten by both teachers and students. The difficulty some students have with writing is that it is often only done for one audience: the teacher. By encouraging students to reach out their writing to a large audience, students create different writing styles, imagination, and enthusiasm for writing. Publishing doesn’t have to occur in a book; it can be as simple as reading out loud a finished piece in class, displaying their writing in the school or submitting it to a local newspaper or magazine for publication. This final stage encourages students to see writing as a tool for communication, not just a grade.
As a new teacher, how can I look at the process of writing, combine those strategies with the main forms of writing stated by the IRP and develop an effective writing program? It can seem overwhelming, but by looking at effective writing strategies and programs, I feel like I can develop a strong one on my own. There are a few examples that we have discussed and dissected in class that I know have influenced my pedagogy in terms of writing. At the end of each of our classes, we have been reading excerpts from the book Love that Dog by Sharon Creech. One the greatest aspects that I have learned from reading this book is the power of encouragement. As we can see through his journal entries, not only is Miss Stretchberry encouraging student Jack to write poetry, but she is just encouraging him to write. We can see his process from the very first entry where he hates poetry, to the end, where not only is he writing his own poems, allowing them to be read by the class, but also encouraging a poet to come to his school. Her open communication, dedication and support with Jack shows his remarkable progression as a writing student. She shows Jack that writing doesn’t have to be scary, and allows him to write about things that he is interested in and cares about. While the book is focused on Jacks writing process, I could see that in between writing assignments, and journal entries, Miss Stretchberry was showing jack and his class different poems by different authors. As a beginning teacher I can see how we can have different assignments that will meet many of the different IRP and PLO’s that we are prescribed with our curriculum. While Jack was reading and viewing, he was also engaging in different types of texts. Her encouragement with her student became a central component to the effectiveness of student writing.
An effective writing program can be encouraged by teachers viewing the IRP’s and PLO’s and using these to formulate a writing program. By using the PLO’s as a tool to support writing, teacher can encourage students creativity and development. The following PLO could be used as a part of the scaffolding of a writing program:
C8- Write and represent to explain and support personal responses to texts, by
- Making comparisons to other ideas and concepts
- Relating reactions and emotions to understanding of the text
- Developing opinions using reasons and evidence
- Suggesting contextual influences
Instead of asking students to respond to a text with a traditional 5 paragraph essay, teachers can use this PLO in a number of ways. Because the PLO is encouraging student responses, a teacher can use a text and with different strategies encourage student feedback through writing. Such ideas include starting the prewriting of a text with story maps or brainstorming about themes that occur in the text. By offering assignments that access student’s schema, they can support their personal responses to a text. Other activities include comparing a piece of work to another media (movie, song, poem, etc…) and have students write how the two pieces are comparable. Also, by reading a text, students could be prompted to write about the story from a different perspective; how do you think this character feels? What happened within the plot that you can relate to your own life? By using the PLO’s as a building block for writing, teachers can offer students a wide range of tools and strategies to be creative within their writing. By offering students a wide range of writing prompts, and relating it to their own life, teachers can build an effective writing program where students want to write.
By using some of the strategies that we have looked at in class, I hope to develop an encouraging, balanced and effective writing program for my students. For me, being able to see how other students in my class have been supported by their previous teachers has provided me with some really encourage ideas. A few of my classmates have listed the following as examples of how their writing has been supported by teachers who:
- never told me my writing was wrong.
- let us choose a text and write about it.
- Sat with us, one on one, and gave us specific tools for improvement.
- Were available outside of the classroom time.
- They were excited to publish our work.
- Gave detailed feedback for our writing.
- Allowed me to write about my own experience.
For me, two of the most important factors I will consider within my writing program are communication and creativity. Communication is such a broad word, but for my writing program it means two things. Students will be encouraged to communicate their thoughts, ideas, creativity, through writing. Also, it means that there will be open communication between me and the students. I want my students to feel encouraged to write, and feel like they can be creative, follow assignments, express ideas, while in an environment where they can discuss work with their teacher. I want to encourage (and implement) the concept of journaling with my students, because this is one of the most basic, yet effective ways for teachers and students to communicate. Creativity among writing is one of the most valuable tools, yet so often looked over by some students. There are students who are convinced that they cannot write a short story or a poem, because they freeze when they see a black piece of paper. But creativity can be ignited with the right tools (like prewriting strategies, brainstorming, different media in the classroom, etc…).
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