Tim Gillespie's newsletter article, "Becoming Your Own Expert - Teachers as Writers," was very insightful and informative and served not only as an eye opener for me but also cemented some truths that I have realized about my skills as a writer and teacher of writing.
One of the eye openers for me was the point mentioned that we should write with our students. What I gleaned from this point which was further reinforced later on in the article is that, by doing so we teachers provide a model for our students writing. I gather that this not only mean, jotting down statements on the chalkboard, given by our students as we question them to develop ideas for a topic we wish for them to write on , but to write along with them throughout the entire writing process. To let them see how we do our brainstorming, our drafting, our editing etc., sharing along in the same experiences we are putting them through to write good pieces. As he says, "becoming partners in a community of writers." He also noted that this experience leads us to becoming expert writing teachers.
Another eye opener for me was the point he made in saying that by not writing daily, he loose a lot of steam, taking longer to begin to write and build momentum. This is so true of me, and I believe others can relate. Lacking daily or even regular writing practice, really sets me back. Even knowing what I want to write about, and having an outline in head, I fumble a lot in where to begin, how to state my ideas and make them really connect. When faced with the tasks and time-limits of writing an essay for an exam or even to write a class report, I struggle to put what I want down on paper. Gillespie drives home the message to us teachers that students (in my opinion, who probably go through the same things) need sustain time to work and rework a composition, than we really give them, and that we ourselves would want for ourselves.
It is true for me that I like getting feedback on my writing, telling me specifically where I would have gone wrong, what my strong or weak points were etc., as opposed to some of the similar vague remarks and grading techniques he mentioned. And I like having as many resources as possible to help me with my writing projects.
So going forward I plan to do as as this article urges me to do and would hope the same for other teachers. I plan to interactively engage in the writing tasks that I give to my students, as though I am a student myself; provide them with the necessary resources; give them adequate time and the helpful feedback, that they need to help them become good writers, while in the process making myself a better writing teacher.
Very good points Sherry-ann. I specifically liked the point you touched on, which is that students need the appropriate resources or tools to help then in writing their chosen pieces successfully. I also agree that receiving vague feedbacks are not helpful to the students, but stating exactly where and what need correcting will help students identify their own weakness in future writings. Also I understand the concept of daily writing is needed otherwise students will loose steam and the drive to keep writing, I have experienced this with my eleven years old son. He complains of the amount of writing he has to do in the classroom, and sometimes turn out sloppy work because of his dislike to writing. After reading the article, I will now practice with my son to do daily writing for two purposes 1. to develop a love for writing and 2. to improve his writing skills
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. You made some very good points. I believe if we as teachers act on the article and write with our students and give specific feedback where they went wrong, we would help develop our students writing abilities and even our own writing abilities. In addition, students will love to write and become better writers.
ReplyDeleteThis summary really causes us as teachers to challenge ourselves and have some introspection. You referenced by not writing daily he/she may loose some steam. I can identify with this statement because I have realized that sometimes we may think we are "good" writers based on our previous writings. However, as we develop as writers looking at some of our previous work you would be astonished to see how much of a difference in quality of work there is.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you on these very important points that you have highlighted, Sherry Ann. As you mentioned, students should be given feedback on their work in order to know where they are going and also given adequate time in which they need to compose a piece. Even as adults and when we produce some kind of work and present it and doesn’t receive feed back or if we do so receive it late we get turned off. In addition, If we as teachers expect good writing from our students we have to ensure that they are given enough time as sometimes students are not familiar with the topics and they would need some extra time to use their imagination.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with those valid points made by Sherry-Ann. As teachers, we need not to only instruct our students but to also demonstrate/model what we expect from our students when they are composing their pieces. Teachers also need to work along with their students throughout the entire writing process to provide the guidance that they may need whether they are struggling or independent writers. Adequate time is also another an important factor as sometimes we may limit our students;' composition time to two or three sessions per week which is not enough time for them to effectively master such craft especially based on the topic they may be given to write about.
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