Trends in Teaching Writing by Rhonda Christopher

Reflection on unit #1 Trends in Teaching Writing by: Rhonda Christopher

Semester three began with the first LAE class held on the third of September 2018.   During this class the first unit presented was very informative and enlightening.  Also, the topic focused on trends in teaching writing and challenges in teaching writing.  This certainly gave an over view of what writing in primary school is all about.

There was a wealth of writing strategies shard with the class via group presentations that has gained my interests.  Some of these sentences combining, peer assistance, digital storytelling and the one which stood out to me most was the prewriting activities: In this strategy preschoolers who are not yet able to write learn to color, draw, tracing and scribble diverse types of lines, while older students may practice brainstorming, freewriting, amongst others. Before learning about pre-writing, I did not realize that all these methods must come into play as a part of writing.  In addition to that, other lessons consisted of inquiry activities such as observation and textural analysis which will also help students in learning to write.

Further, we looked at the challenges in teaching and how using the trends in teaching writing can curtail those challenges.  In my group, we looked at when writing many processes are required at the same time and how using thinking, writing and the reading process are involved.  This was done with the use of the think method. 

Overall, this course has brought the class even more alive when the presentations are made and we can see how using these methods can be implemented within the classroom.