Writing is something I am very fond of. Truthfully though, rarely do I have anything of value to write that anyone else would want to read. However, some of my life goals involve writing. I want to write a book (still molding my ideas), and I want to write a comedy movie script (I’m more close to writing the script than the book). In fact I enjoy writing more than I enjoy reading (major works especially), which probably doesn’t make a ton of sense. But I enjoy the process of creating a picture – so to speak – using words. I’m not sure where I picked up this interest, but I suspect that over the years the education system has fed this interest. The joy for writing that I have incurred comes as a result of an inner urge/desire to improve it. If I had this same desire towards other things (perhaps cooking or learning to fix a car), major improvements to my home life could be made.
After teaching English at the intermediate and senior levels, I completely understand the value of writing in the classroom. The only negative – as far as I could see – was the increase in my marking load (tongue in cheek). I believe the focus on writing literacy has increased significantly since my days as a student. That being said, from what I experienced in the classroom, I think there is room for improvement. Students need to develop a joy for writing, and to do that they need to be taught (and given more time to practice) how to maximize their writing abilities. Learning the writing process is integral to this idea. Tompkins’ text identifies the writing process as “a process that involves recurring cycles” that focuses on “what students think and do as they write” (Tompkins p. 136). There are five stages in the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. It is important to remember that just because these stages are labeled and ordered, does not mean that the process is linear. Instead it is a revolving process; when writing is performed properly, these stages will be touched on multiple times. Teachers must play an integral role in this process. The teachers’ role in the writing process is to, a). Give students many authentic opportunities through a variety of assignments, to explore their writing abilities and improve on them, and b). “Serve as a model in the writing process by writing class collaborations” and by teaching minilessons that look at the procedures, concepts, strategies, and skills of the writing process. Much in the same way teachers need to be enthusiastic about reading, we must also express an eagerness to write, and to do so frequently in the classroom using a modeled and collaborative approach. The junior level is the time for teachers to instill in students a sense of “writing pride”, and fine-tune the skills and strategies for effective writing.
I am going to talk about the five stages more thoroughly in time, but before doing so I want to highlight ‘editing’ as a source of frustration in my teaching career. From students’ perspectives, I can understand some of the reasons why the editing stage is ignored. First, some students just want to be done with an assignment. The last period signals the end – it can be submitted and forgotten. Second, I imagine some students might be embarrassed by their work. I’ve heard a few students hand something to me – already shaking their heads, muttering “it’s bad” under their breath. I suppose the “great reflector” that I am must take some responsibility here. That being said, one of my strongest attributes was helping students take the work they hand in – and help them to turn it into something more special. I am encouraged by what I experienced in the classroom in this regard, and am eager to use these skills at the junior level.
Module 7-1 gave us an example of a grade six student’s work titled ‘Mummification’, and asked how I would help edit this piece. One teaching strategy that I found to work successfully was pulling students’ sentence errors from their work, and taking them up as a class. One day I might work on sentence fragments, the next run-on sentences. At the junior level I would include minilessons on capitalization and comma use as well. Editing checklists are also imperative. Checklists give students reminders of what they need to be looking for during the editing process. Figure 4-6 in Tompkins’ text provides a good guideline for a checklist, but I also would be inclined to add more boxes that should be checked after I have edited their work. Too often I found that students wouldn’t review my edits – and would either stuff it back in their notes, or perhaps put in the special filing cabinet they labelled “waste-paper basket”. By adding categories such as, “I have fixed all comma errors” they would expected to correct their work and then resubmit it. That being said, for this “Mummification” assignment, I might have been more inclined to assess their work from a research perspective, and just read this paragraph for enjoyment! I have to admit it is pretty interesting – if not a bit morbid (beeswax in the nose?!?).
Mythology has never been my strong suit, and don’t get me started on Clash of the Titans. However having students write myths as part of a theme cycle about Ancient Greece is an interesting place to discuss the teacher’s role in all five stages of the writing process. This will be fairly brief, only because this will be a grand generalization. I suspect my role in the writing process could vary significantly from student-to-student and from year-to-year.
1. Prewriting: It is important to give students the opportunity for choice in their writing. Not complete freedom perhaps, but allow them to choose the style of writing, or choose from one of four or five culminating tasks. For this assignment it is important to give students the choice of their topics from ancient Greece. But the more often students have the opportunity to choose what they want to write about, the more successful writing (and learning) opportunities will be. In addition, it is the teacher’s job to instill a sense of value for brainstorming in the classroom. Students need a framework or a roadmap in order to gather their thoughts and plant their ideas. I have written before about the importance of organization, and this stage is where that begins. Teachers can model several graphic organizers for students along the way – giving them options to use the ones that work best.
2. Drafting: I have seen far too many (and embarrassingly have done it myself) times where students write one draft and hand it in. A second, third, or fourth draft can improve an assignment immensely. Teachers encourage ‘drafting’ by forcing students through the process. Force may sound like a harsh word, but drafting needs to become habit-forming. Teachers must acknowledge when drafts have been written. Additionally, it is important not to emphasize spelling and grammar during this stage; the content and organization of ideas should be the main focus.
3. Revising: This stage is multi-faceted. The more eyes that view the paper prior to, and during the revising stage, the better. The teacher’s role is to be the last set of eyes, and (especially during major works) hold conferences with individual students to help them “make choices and define directions for revision” (p.143). It is important to keep in mind that conferences work best when the students speak first, when questions (rather than answers) are posed to the students, and ask students to identify the revisions to be made that were discussed during the conference.
4. Editing: As much as I like being redundant, I kindly ask those reading to refer above for information relating to the teacher’s role during the editing stage (and yes this sentence was edited for excessive sarcasm).
5. Publishing: The most important thing a teacher can do at this stage is to provide opportunities for students to be proud of their work. Tompkins highlights a number of relatively easy ways for teachers to do this: 1. Making books, 2. Sharing writing orally or by putting published work in the library, 3. Produce videos of the work, 4. Help students create a classroom blog, etc. I think all of these could be beneficial for a myth-writing assignment. I think creating some sort of mythological haven somewhere in the school to support the writing would be huge! The advantages of sharing work can really have a positive impact on a student’s psyche. Teachers can also create genuine audiences that know how to respond to their classmates, by modeling this behaviour when students perform in class.
The final necessity of this reflection piece before I can call it a completed draft (and this follows several drafts & revisions, plenty of peer- and self-editing processes, and a whole case of RedBull) is to acknowledge the importance of providing a variety of writing options in the classroom and differentiating between forms of writing. Common errors occur in the classroom when teachers fail to distinguish between informational (or expository texts) and narratives. Both forms of writing can be a joy to read – each should be essential bookmark holders in a junior student’s knapsack – and both can be a joy to explore in writing.
Thank you.
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