Introduction
As a language arts teacher I believe I must continually work toward an understanding of how to incorporate all the elements of literacy and language arts in my classroom, and further, I believe that I will never fully arrive, but will be in the process continually shaping and reshaping my understanding and practices as it relates to powerful literacy teaching. I define literacy as including reading, writing, listening, speaking, spelling, grammar, communication, and reflection. My undergraduate teacher preparation methods courses emphasized teaching students how to be better readers, thinkers, spellers, and communicators. However, teaching writing specifically seemed to fall by the way side. I have learned through my coursework at OSU and my own classroom work, that writing is a skill and that it is its own form of language that must be carefully taught and supported in my classroom.
In this paper I will discuss how writing is missing in many classrooms across the country. I will then talk about the purposes that writing serves and why it is important in middle school classrooms. Finally I end with how I currently use writing and how I can incorporate more writing in my classroom.
The Missing Writing Curriculum
While examining my classroom writing practices I realized that writing is subject taught less than other basic subjects including math, reading, writing, social studies and science. I have come to understand that writing requires and needs more of a place in my classroom and from the research and scholarship regarding writing this may be true of all classrooms. “Despite the evidence that writing supports students’ acquisition of content knowledge, in some secondary school classrooms, many students go days without being asked to write” (Indrisano & Paratore, 2005, p.146).
Given that writing is very important to include in all classrooms across grade levels, so the question remains, why don’t more teachers spend more time with writing in their curriculum? Also, when writing is included in classroom instruction, the quality of instruction may suffer along with opportunities to make writing a meaningful part of the classroom. One reason this is happening may be that writing takes a lot of time, for teachers and students alike. “Writing, always time consuming for student and teacher, is today hard-pressed in the American classroom. Of the three ‘Rs,’ writing is clearly the most neglected” (The National Commission on Writing, 2006, p.41). In order to produce proficient writers, more time is required for both writing and the opportunity to write. The National Commission on Writing is asking teachers in all grade levels and subject areas to spend more time on writing in their classroom instruction. Hey ask this because this commission has shown a pattern emerging across the country where writing is often pushed aside in order to focus on state mandated tests and preparation to take those tests.
Many language arts classrooms focus on reading and grammar instruction. This leaves very little time for the instruction of writing. “Most language arts teachers still spend little time on writing activities, instead spending most of their language arts time on language mechanics instruction and using grammar instruction” (Stevens, 2003, p.141). Stevens goes on to state, teachers instead need to spend their time on writing instruction and teaching skills and strategies that will support students’ growing writing ability. Giving students more time to write and providing in-depth writing instruction will in turn motivate students to keep writing, see the importance and relevance of writing and writing will become more meaningful.
As I continue to reflect on the status of writing in my classroom, I think about the other subject areas that I teach. In math class, I have my students practice their facts and problem solving. The same requires to be done with writing. “As is the case with many other things people do, getting better at writing requires doing it -a lot” (National Council of Teachers of English, 2004). Students need to be able to work on their writing skills often in order to develop them and utilize them outside of class. Meece also agrees as she states, “Writing is more difficult and less practiced in everyday life than speaking, so teachers need to provide extra support to help students’ abilities to grow” (2002, p.298). The trend of teachers focusing more on other areas in literacy appears very often throughout many books and research done in the field of language and literacy.
The National Council of Teachers of English recognizes that writing instruction is missing as well from classrooms across the country, especially in the older grades. “A recent study of writing instruction reveals that 40 percent of high school seniors never or rarely write a paper of three or more pages” (2007, p.1). Students at the high school and middle school level need more attention paid to writing and the skills that will prepare them to go into college or a career path. NCTE and other organizations dedicated to the teaching of literacy offer many tips and suggestions on how to incorporate more writing in the classroom. Some of these include having teachers become more knowledgeable teachers of writing, allow students to see the connection between reading and writing, include technology into the teaching of writing and use different measures of assessment to grade student writing.
Writing is a process that is continuously built on at all grade levels and ages. “Literacy learning is recursive and requires continuing development and practice” (NCTE, 2007, p.2). Good writing instruction does not stop in the elementary school level. Instead, quality writing and experts in writing instruction ask that teachers continue to teach and guide students in their writing skills throughout middle and high school as well. Only when the writing curriculum is strong and evident throughout classrooms will teachers and schools begin to produce strong and successful writers.
What Is the Purpose of Writing?
There are many purposes for writing in the classroom, including for both cognitive and affective purposes. When writing for a cognitive purpose, writing helps focus ideas on a topic. Writing is used to communicate thoughts and ideas with others. While using writing for cognitive purposes is also used to prepare for new activities, review and consolidate material, reformulate and extend on information and reflect on information learned (Johnson & Holcombe, 1993). Also for cognitive purposes, writing is often used to respond to prompts, think about material learned and written and practice producing quality content and correct conventional writing.
When writing for affective purposes, students can use writing to help gain self-understanding, build up their confidence, let others know about themselves, personalize home and school matters, and simply express their emotions or thoughts. In this capacity, students can see a different, but important use for writing in and out of school. Teachers can also use this type of writing to get to know their students better as well as respond and interact with student on a one on one basis (Johnson & Holcombe, 1993).
I also need to take a look at how my students view the purposes of writing. Currently, many of my students think of writing as something that they do to earn a grade. Students in my classroom admittedly would prefer to text message or instant message instead of write. In relation to this, I often have students ask me why they need to be able to write complete sentences or use correct spelling, especially in the age where computers have programs that check for them. I usually respond that computers cannot help students get ideas down: quality instruction and practice writing allows students to develop their ideas. Computers should be used as a tool to help check writing and conventions, not relied on to fix all aspects of the writing process.
My students also ask why they will need to know how to write beyond their K-12 experiences. “People who cannot write and communicate clearly will not be hired and are unlikely to last long enough to be considered for promotion” (The National Commission on Writing, 2004, p.3). Students will use writing for the rest of their lives in almost any career path they choose. Knowing how to effectively communicate their ideas on paper will help them successfully obtain a job as well as advance in their field. In their lives students will use writing when filling out college and job applications, in higher education, making a grocery list, sending greeting cards, filling out insurance and similar forms, and many more instances. Writing has many purposes and goes beyond the walls of the classroom and students have to understand the real-life applications of writing.
Why Writing is Important in the Middle Grades
“Writing can and should be taught, not just assigned, at every grade level” (National Writing Project, 2008). It is the job of teachers in every grade level to teach students how and when to use writing. As a middle school teacher, I often feel as though my students should already come to me with the necessary writing skills. However, I am always surprised when my sixth grade students cannot write a complete sentence or keep a paragraph on one topic. I find myself re-teaching skills I thought they should have came to me with. The fact is that students still need to be taught and guided in writing in every grade level. It is especially important in middle school due to the social and cognitive development students are experiencing as well.
Quality writing instruction requires that teachers do not assume students already know certain skills. Often, in previous grades, students may not have been taught skills needed to build on previous writing knowledge. As schools and teachers prepare students for the assessments every year, some subjects get pushed aside. According to Meredith Pike-Baky (2005), state tests have harmed the instruction of writing, “As states have adopted lists of standards and multiple choice tests, meaningful writing instruction has developed into a series of fragmented assignments driven by test priorities” (p.27). Some years students may spend so much time focused on test preparation that subjects like writing are not addressed as thoroughly as needed, making writing missing in the overall curriculum. In turn, every year writing should be addressed, taught and used in classrooms.
Writing in middle school is also important because the cognitive and social development students are going through. During middle school is when students begin to truly develop skills and abilities to think abstractly, develop their own ideas and opinions and skills to solve real-life problems (De La Paz & Graham, 2002). Students in middle school are able to experiment with different cognitive abilities, “Writing is a very demanding task, requiring the orchestration of a variety of cognitive resources” (De La Paz & Graham, 2002, p.687). In middle school students are developing those resources and the abilities to draw conclusions, use language in more complex ways and are able to see writing for multiple purposes. As Meece (2002) explained during adolescence, “Language takes on an entirely new dimension for creative expression and comprehension once the child understands how figurative language, such as metaphor, conveys meaning” (p.260). It is an exciting time in writing in the adolescent period as they know more about language and how to use it in many different ways.
Students in middle school also desire and need interaction with peers as a part of their social development. Peer relations are very important and essential during adolescence. “Language, an essential component of social interaction, provides opportunities for young adolescents to interact and socialize with other people” (Manning & Butcher, 2001, p. 40). Writing allows students to communicate and convey thoughts and messages at a time in development where they benefit socially from the opportunity to do so.
Writing does need taught in the middle school as well as elementary and high school. Ata time when students are able to develop deeper thinking skills and use writing in new ways, the process should be nurtured and encouraged. All middle school teachers can be writing teachers and all middle school classrooms can be writing classrooms.
How Do I Currently Use Writing in My Classroom?
Taking courses in writing and the teaching of Language arts has made me reflect on how I currently use writing in my classroom. I teach writing in a number of ways in my classroom. Some of my teaching stems from the goal of getting students to communicate their thoughts while other teaching practices are intended to support rehearsal of information and checking comprehension. I also have reshaped my day to include more writing to support more creative writing.
In my first year of teaching and at the beginning of this school year, I used writing mostly in the form of journal responses. I would give students a prompt and they would respond in the paragraph perimeters that were given to them. For example, I may have students describe a time they worked hard to reach a goal and met it and how they felt in one to two paragraphs. If they got stuck, I would allow them to write on something closely related to the prompt. This type of writing serves an affective purpose, it allows students to explain their thoughts and feelings about a topic.
I also had students write when they were responding to something they read or when they were answering questions from a text or other teaching material. This writing serves as a cognitive purpose. In this type of situation, students know they are writing for a grade, therefore they are very aware of their conventions and less so of their actual content.
One aspect of literacy includes visual representation which can be expressed through art work. I know that I have some strong writers and strong artists. I often use writing and artwork hand in hand to help students see that there are many ways they can express themselves. This is something that my students seem to enjoy very much. They can relate and learn more when they compliment their writing with some form of art. For instance, one of my students prefers to draw what he is thinking first. In this way he gets his initial thoughts on paper in the form of art work. Then, he will begin to write what he has drawn. I also have students who like to write a story and then illustrate to help convey their message. In these instances, writing and art go hand in hand.
Since taking some courses on campus, in January I began to look at my teaching of writing a little more differently. I have been giving my students choices in what type of writing they would like to do in class. I also tried a new type of research where students have more options and control on the writing they do in class. As Camille Allen (2001) stated, “When given the chance to select their own topics to research…students change” (p.1). My students enjoyed writing on something they chose and utilized writing in fun and different ways.
I have also used writing as a way to communicate more personally with my students. I believe that asking them to respond to questions or topics helps them communicate their thoughts. I then respond back to their comments with comments of my own. In this way I create opportunity for personal dialogue. Often I do not use these for a letter grade because I want students to view writing as an authentic means of communication.
From the beginning of the school year to present, I can see a change in the way I use writing in my classroom. However, there are still suggestions and ways I can incorporate more and better writing instruction into my teaching.
Reflection on What I Need to Incorporate into My Writing Classroom
Through my coursework and research, I learned quite a few things about how to become a more effective writing teacher. First, I need to try and connect a better bridge between home and school writing. Quality writing instruction allows students to see writing both as a school and a home function. Currently, I do not utilize a writer’s notebook in my classroom, so this would be one way of building that bridge between home and school. This can help make writing more authentic, therefore getting students more involved in their own writing. “Students, whatever their level of competence, must be assigned authentic and challenging writing tasks if they’re going to be engaged” (Dunstan, 2003, p.6). My students need to have a bridge between home and school writing and be challenged with their writing tasks. This allows them to put quality time into their writing if it is used for multiple purposes. It also allows students to write more on what they are interested in versus simply in class assignments. Writing will become a more regular part of their school and home routine in this way. I can also use this as a way to get to know my students better.
Along with connecting the home and school cultures, using multicultural literacy practices is very important as well. This means not only literature that reflects different cultures, but also responding, writing and thinking in a way that is multicultural. I may have students write from different cultural perspectives which will allow a stronger multicultural literacy into my teaching. For instance, we may read a book on the Holocaust which is very hard for many middle school students to comprehend. However, having students place themselves in the Jews’ position will make them take on a different perspective and view the situation in a new light. The same can be done when reading about the Civil Rights Movement. I can have students of diverse races take on the perspectives of the whites and blacks in the conflict in order to view the situation from different angles. Confronting issues of race, ethnicity and prejudice in students’ writing is another way I can utilize a more multicultural literacy in my classroom. Incorporating multicultural literacy into my classroom will be an ongoing process as I learn more about both writing and multicultural practices.
I also realized that in my teaching of writing, I use a lot of prompt responses, which is important in preparing for OAT writing; however, I also should allow time for fictional writing and opportunity for children to make choices about their writing as well. Many students appreciate and thrive in the fiction genre and it has an important place in a writing classroom. Changing genres allows students to explore different writing forms such as fiction, poetry, songs, non-fiction and many more which will make writing more enjoyable and allow for their individual voice to be expressed.
Familiarity with the National Council of the Teachers of English also helped reinforce the idea that reading and writing are related and can help one another foster ideas and learning. NCTE has acknowledged and discussed how these two areas need to be used together. When teaching writing I need to correlate reading and writing together to help my students see how important they are to be used together and how they can use one to help build on the other.
In addition, I realize that I will need to serve as a guide for my students in regards to their writing skills. I need to model good writing and let them know that I myself am a writer, especially if I expect them to be writers as well. This will help them in their own writing along with teaching the conventions of writing. Modeling good writing is such an important aspect of teaching writing that it is necessary with helping my students learn to become better writers, and this is truly a good way to guide them.
The writing I use in my classroom also needs to be authentic and meaningful. “Writing for authentic purposes in authentic contexts can be vital to quality instruction” ( Wilson, 2008, p. 486). Having people my students respect share their writing, writing for purposes that will later be used outside of the classroom and writing in many different genres allows my students to see and use writing authentically. I need to broaden how I use writing in my classroom and how my students view writing. This will lead my students to valuing writing as more than simply a tool to earn a grade in the classroom.
Along with building the bridge from home writing to school writing and making room for more fictional writing in my classroom, I need to make room for fun writing for my students as well. Writing that is not for a grade, but for pleasure. My students need to understand that writing will take place in my classroom in many different contexts. They also should expect writing to take place often. Fletcher and Portalupi believe that having a set time to write is very important in the language arts classroom. “It is crucial for students to have frequent, predictable time set aside for them to write” (2001, p.8). Having a time set aside every day will let students know the expectations for writing and understand writing holds an important place in the curriculum.
Students ought to be able to enjoy writing as well. As Routman states, “Excellent and enjoyable writing needs to become more central to the everyday life of the classroom” (2005, p.4). This way, students see writing in many different ways: communication, expression, assessment and fun as well. NCTE also states that writing is for many purposes. Therefore, I need my students to see the purposes that writing can have. It is important that students see writing for all these purposes to get a total view on what writing can and should be for them.
Overall, I learned many things and got many ideas from my courses and my own research on writing in the middle grades. I validated some things that I am currently using in my classroom and reinforced things that my readings have talked about that I need to be incorporating in my teaching of writing. This paper and past writing coursework was an insightful and educational experience for me as a teacher as well as a student. I feel I can take what my research and class work has stated and begin to evaluate and apply those things with my students. From my new knowledge, I can have a stronger writing structure in place that will help support creative and expressive writers.
References
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