Writing instruction Blog #2

When I look back and reflect on the writing instruction I received in school, the picture is quite fuzzy at best!  I remember being instructed in specific areas of grammar, underlining different parts of a sentence with different colors, correcting verb tenses and putting the correct punctuation into sentences.  These activities were done on worksheets that had been run off for the whole class to complete the task.  I remember that I usually had to get help from friends that I was sitting around and that very little if any of this ‘learning’ ever transferred into my writing.  This was defiantly a traditional writing approach where the teacher broke writing down into the different parts and taught each one specifically.  For me I do not remember a time when all of these parts became a whole, and I saw myself as a writer.

When I look at the writing curriculum/instruction I am giving to my young students I realize that there are some similarities in what I experienced as a student many, many years ago.  The ‘Every Child A Writer’ curriculum is very traditional.  While I believe there are many benefits to this program for students learning how to write, I also believe that it is missing qualities that could be addressed using an acquisition/process model.  My students receive direct explicit instruction in phoneme segmentation, letter and sound identification and letter formation.  When students know these prewriting skills they are taught first to label a picture and then to write one descriptive sentence.  The sentence needs correct grammar including upper and lowercase letters, spaces, punctuation, single subject and single predicate.  Students are taught how to use a web to plan their writing and how to edit a piece they have done and rewrite that piece for publication.  These are all skills and strategies that effective writers need to be successful, and having the specific objectives to teach these young writers creates a foundation for them.  At this point in students writing I believe traditional/formulaic writing that we ask our students to do should be replaced with acquisition/process view.  As we read in Essential Linguistics (Freeman and Freeman 2004) teachers can create conditions for authentic writing and then help students express themselves through their writing.  They go on to emphasize the importance of internalizing this process, which includes students having a choice in their writing. 

Knowing what I know now about writing instruction I believe what I was missing in my writing instruction and what is missing in the ‘Every Child A Writer’ curriculum is: writing for authentic purposes, giving students a choice in what they write about and that there is no connection between the reading and writing process.