The IRPs state that the aim of English Language Arts is “to provide students with opportunities for personal and intellectual growth”. Writing and Representing, one of the curriculum organizers for English Language Arts, facilitates this goal. According to the Centre for the Improvement of Early Reading, through writing children express themselves, clarify their thinking, communicate ideas, and integrate new information into their knowledge base. As a pre-service teacher, who graduated from high school in 1996 and finds writing challenging, I will strive to portray a realistic approach to writing.
I will teach my students about the writing process. When I went to school the process was to write the rough draft, hand it in, and then fix all the red pen marks, and submit it as my final copy. There was no emphasis placed on the writing process. My teachers never explained that the first copy wasn’t supposed to resemble the final copy. Prewriting, drafting, revision, editing, presenting, and publishing may have been mentioned, but there was no follow through in implementing these processes. Tom Romano says, “Authors give themselves plenty of time. We need to show kids this so they won’t become discouraged by their results.” Reinforcing this statement, Robin Stevenson, local author, says, “Go ahead, and give yourself permission to write a lousy first draft because you can’t rework blank paper.” Stevenson also admits that she writes a lot of work that won’t be published, but she states she gets many ideas from these writings. If I heard these words from my teachers, I wouldn’t have stared at the empty horizontal lines of my notebook struggling to make each word fit the page perfectly. If my teachers said good writing takes time and is a process, maybe I would have been more apt to express myself, and communicate my ideas on paper. If my teachers gave me the time to revise and edit my work until I thought that it was ready for presentation, the entire process of writing would have served to clarify my thinking and enabled me to think critically.
Penny Kittle says, “we need rigor in process, not just products, and that requires an emotional investment from the student.” Kittle agrees with attention to process, but she also suggests that we need an emotional investment from students. Kittle maintains that we help students develop this emotional investment by “offering choices – more and more and more.” I believe we need to give students choice in subject, and choice in genre. Choice in subject matter is essential. Students will be engaged, and put forth the time into process, if they write about topics that are important to them. As teachers, we must support children in choice. Nancy Atwell does this effectively in her writer’s workshop by creating writing territories with her students. The territories are a reminder of all of the areas the writer would like to explore. Just as choice in subject is important, so is choice in genre. It took me a while to get my thoughts around this idea, as I do believe that students should try to write in different genres. However, if students aren’t writing because they have no interest in a certain genre, their emotional investment will be weak and there will be no “rigor in process”. Therefore, choice is just as imperative in genre as it is in subject.
The IRPs state, “modeling and explanation are important in writing,” and help students understand what strong writing looks like, how to assess their own and others’ writing, and how to improve their writing through both revision and editing. Modeling can be achieved by introducing published authors, or more effectively, by using one’s own writing. Romano claims, “Those who teach a craft ought to do the craft.” He says that when teachers actively pursue writing they develop insider knowledge, have empathy for student writers, and gain credibility in student’s eyes.” I think it is important to model writing so that students have confidence in the teacher. I will use my own work to model writing because I believe it will effectively support the integration of new information into students’ knowledge base.
Nancie Atwell’s convention of teaching grammar through the integration of mini-lessons allows students to use and practice the new knowledge in their writing, and in effect makes the process more authentic. The IRPs advise, “Grammar skills should be taught in the context of the writing experience, using students’ and teachers’ own writing.” Atwell does this by taking one or two conventions that are misunderstood by students and incorporating them into a mini-lesson. This teaching strategy, a strategy that I will adopt, enables students to better integrate this new knowledge into future writing.
Of utmost importance, teachers need to hear their students’ voices. Casey and Hemenway’s case study of a student named Page depicted how disengaged English Language Arts teachers are from the writing process, and consequently, how this lack of enthusiasm for writing lessens students’ sense of self-efficacy, and in turn their motivation to write. In Creech’s novel, Love that Dog, Miss Stretchberry listened to Jack, and provided the nurturing and supportive writing environment that he needed to grow as a writer. Students need to know that they are being heard, so that they can see writing as a possibility to communicate their voices.
Atwell’s pedagogy of writer’s workshop is a successful way to realistically teach writers about process, time, genre, and grammatical conventions while still allowing for choice. Atwell asserts [in writer’s workshop], “When students have regular, frequent time set aside to write, writing can also play a crucial role in helping them grow up, making it possible for them to capture who they are, and then come back and measure themselves against their earlier selves.” This statement not only fulfills the IRPs aim of English Language Arts to provide opportunities for personal and intellectual growth, but also supports my goals for teaching writing in English Language Arts in a supportive, and realistic manner.
Atwell, N. (1998). In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Boyton/Cook Publishers.
British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2006). English Language Arts, Kindergarten to Grade 7: Integrated Resource Package. Britich Columbia, Canada.
Casey, M. & Hemenway, S.I. (2001). Structure and Freedom: Achieving a Balanced Writing Curriculum. English Journal. 90(6), 68-75.
Creech, S. (2001). Love That Dog. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Kittle, P. (2007). The Importance of Choice. In K. Beers, R.E. Probst & L. Reif (Eds.) Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise Into Practice. (pp. 209-212). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.
Romano, T. (2007). Teaching Writing From the Inside. In K. Beers, R.E. Probst & L. Reif (Eds.), Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise Into Practice. (pp. 167-178). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.
Stevenson, R. (2011). Personal Communication.
