Trends in Teaching Writing
Trends in teaching writing are ways/ strategies teachers could integrate in their lessons which would assist students in significantly improving their writing skills.
Over the course of completing the unit, we covered a plethora of information which fell under numerous categories. Though I fostered an appreciation for the 25 trends I was exposed to, i had to choose the 5 which resonated most with me.
The first was Gallery Walk. This trend is where students are given the opportunity to view, discuss and write about various displays set up in class by the teacher or the students themselves. I find the gallery walk to promote skepticism in the students and fuel creativity and organization of ideas in presenting their compiled piece of writing.
The second is the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model. This trend stood out because it channels the students with the right help to a form of independent writing in three steps. The "I do" where the teacher models what she expects from students, the "We do" where students assist teacher in building writing based on the topic chosen and the "You do" where students work on their own or in groups to compile a piece of writing of their own. This I believe will give students a much clearer idea as to how they should go about writing independently.
The third is Maintaining a Collection of Writing to create a Portrait of Students Writing History combined with Process Writing. I combined both trends for the purpose that I am of the view that as the teacher goes through the steps of the writing process with the students, he/she could gives students the opportunity to document their writing and post them on the language wall which would allow students the opportunity to visually track their progress and this could be a motivational factor and that which also inspires them in identifying new ideas.
The fourth is Writing at the End of Class where students are able to give the teacher feedback as to what they learnt in class, what they did not understand and what they would want to learn more about.
The fifth is Peer Assistance where students who face difficulties in their writing at any aspect of the writing process could be paired with a more capable other so that they could receive the assistance they need to improve their writing.
We also covered "What works in writing instruction according to Deborah Dean". These included Cognitive Learning, Writing and Self Regulating. We further looked at 7 challenges in writing and how the twenty five strategies we covered could assist in solving them. These challenges included:
1. Writing requires simultaneous coordination of a number of skills to include phonics, vocab, reading and spelling. This could be rectified by utilizing Grammar Instruction and Process Writing.
2. Writing requires different types of knowledge to include knowledge of content structure and genre. This could be rectified by utilizing Strategy Instruction
3.Many processes are required at the same time when writing to include writing thinking and reading. This could be rectified by utilizing Think Alouds.
4.Writing is a decontextualized task meaning that a writer doesn't consider the context to which he writes in as he may not be experiencing it at the moment. This could be rectified by utilizing the Gallery Walk Strategy.
5.Writing does not have prosody, body language or facial expression. This could be rectified by utilizing the Digital Storytelling strategy to bring the writing to "life".
6. The writer cannot assume there is shared context with the reader as they may not share the same experiences. This could be rectified by utilizing Blogs and Wiki's.
7. The writer has limited information about the readers knowledge, opinion and reading competence which entails the author shaping his writing to facilitate his audience. This could be rectified by utilizing Inquiry Activities.
I must say that knowledge about these strategies, challenges and how to address the challenges will come in really useful when I return to the classroom as I would be more equipped to assist my students with their writing.
Over the course of completing the unit, we covered a plethora of information which fell under numerous categories. Though I fostered an appreciation for the 25 trends I was exposed to, i had to choose the 5 which resonated most with me.
The first was Gallery Walk. This trend is where students are given the opportunity to view, discuss and write about various displays set up in class by the teacher or the students themselves. I find the gallery walk to promote skepticism in the students and fuel creativity and organization of ideas in presenting their compiled piece of writing.
The second is the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model. This trend stood out because it channels the students with the right help to a form of independent writing in three steps. The "I do" where the teacher models what she expects from students, the "We do" where students assist teacher in building writing based on the topic chosen and the "You do" where students work on their own or in groups to compile a piece of writing of their own. This I believe will give students a much clearer idea as to how they should go about writing independently.
The third is Maintaining a Collection of Writing to create a Portrait of Students Writing History combined with Process Writing. I combined both trends for the purpose that I am of the view that as the teacher goes through the steps of the writing process with the students, he/she could gives students the opportunity to document their writing and post them on the language wall which would allow students the opportunity to visually track their progress and this could be a motivational factor and that which also inspires them in identifying new ideas.
The fourth is Writing at the End of Class where students are able to give the teacher feedback as to what they learnt in class, what they did not understand and what they would want to learn more about.
The fifth is Peer Assistance where students who face difficulties in their writing at any aspect of the writing process could be paired with a more capable other so that they could receive the assistance they need to improve their writing.
We also covered "What works in writing instruction according to Deborah Dean". These included Cognitive Learning, Writing and Self Regulating. We further looked at 7 challenges in writing and how the twenty five strategies we covered could assist in solving them. These challenges included:
1. Writing requires simultaneous coordination of a number of skills to include phonics, vocab, reading and spelling. This could be rectified by utilizing Grammar Instruction and Process Writing.
2. Writing requires different types of knowledge to include knowledge of content structure and genre. This could be rectified by utilizing Strategy Instruction
3.Many processes are required at the same time when writing to include writing thinking and reading. This could be rectified by utilizing Think Alouds.
4.Writing is a decontextualized task meaning that a writer doesn't consider the context to which he writes in as he may not be experiencing it at the moment. This could be rectified by utilizing the Gallery Walk Strategy.
5.Writing does not have prosody, body language or facial expression. This could be rectified by utilizing the Digital Storytelling strategy to bring the writing to "life".
6. The writer cannot assume there is shared context with the reader as they may not share the same experiences. This could be rectified by utilizing Blogs and Wiki's.
7. The writer has limited information about the readers knowledge, opinion and reading competence which entails the author shaping his writing to facilitate his audience. This could be rectified by utilizing Inquiry Activities.
I must say that knowledge about these strategies, challenges and how to address the challenges will come in really useful when I return to the classroom as I would be more equipped to assist my students with their writing.
This is truly a great synopsis of the session. It was a great session that day. I believe everything we learnt will work nicely with our lessons when planning for our class. The benefit is that we can cater for all learning styles.
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