QUESTION

Explain how (writing skills) principle can be applied in your classroom. You may wish to combine some of these topics such as : listening, speaking, reading,  vocabulary , grammar; if so please discuss this with me.

SOLUTION

Application of writing in classroom

Fusion of writing in a classroom can benefit students in numerous manners. Apart from underpinning the learning it also creates an in depth understanding of concepts in the minds of students. This technique also provides them a chance to engage with their beliefs and make their concepts crystal clear. Writings provided by students also reflect how they are mastering their topic. Writing assignments can be used by teachers as informal as well as formal tools of assessment. Writing work by students help in discovering the gaps between what has been taught and what students have understood. This helps in designing future teaching strategy. There are many forms of writing activities. Informal activities like short essays, report; creative writing like assignments and long term assignments thesis which require detailed research, explanatory writing and group projects are few examples of writing activities.
Following are some of the directive principles for Assigning writing in the classroom

• Tell your students well on time whether the writing activity that is being assigned to them will be rated or not.
• Brief them about the structure, material to be written, mechanics to be used and systems to be followed while doing the writing work. This will enable students to fulfil the expectations which match the level of the grade.
• Prescribing the time frame in which writing activity is to be submitted is another important factor. The timeframe can be few minutes, a day, a week or the entire semester depending upon activity to activity.
• In order to make learning more strengthening, group or cooperative writing activities can be introduced.

Quality of writing instructions

The manner in which the instructions regarding the writing are given and their standards play a major role in developing the idea about the writing in the minds of students. Use of writer’s notebook can help in making writing more bona fide and will positively impact the students’ involvement in the writing. In order to get students more involved in writing, assigning reliable and thought provoking writing assignment is must (Dunstan, 2003). This will also result in increasing students’ interest in these types of tasks and they will spend quality time on the assignments.

Use of multicultural literacy

The students doing the writing assignments come from various cultures and backgrounds. Their thinking, approach and style of writing are majorly impacted by their culture and background. Thus using multicultural literacy practices is very important as well. A teacher should be able to think, write and respond in different culture along with literally educated in multicultural styles.

Give students choices about writing

Students should be given freedom to chose and discover various forms of writing as per their interest. There are various forms of writing such as fiction, poetry, songs, non-fiction etc. They should be given liberty to chose from various alternatives the form which they enjoy doing.

Become a good writing model for your students

A teacher is a guide for its students. Thus to enhance the writing skills of your student you first need to be a good writer yourself.

Use authentic and meaningful writing

The writing that is being used in the classroom should be reliable and meaningful. In order to make instructions qualitative, reliable aim and reliable reference is must in writing ( Wilson, 2008). Getting grades should not be the only purpose of writing, but it should be used as a tool of enhancing the knowledge. Opinions which get a backing of data from various sources such as statistical findings, surveys, research papers etc has an added advantage and it makes one’s writing more credible and interesting. Examples can be used to make the points mentioned more clear and understandable.

Set aside time for writing

It is pivotal for students to have often, predictable time set aside for them to write” (Fletcher and Portalupi 2001). 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.

Give students the aim of writing

One should be very clear about the purpose of writing. Whether the aim is coming out with an executive summary or a detailed report, the writer should be crystal clear about it because further the approach of writing will depend on this only. Thus, knowing one’s objective is very important for an appropriate beginning. For a bad writer, filling pages is an easy task; while a good writer will find it very difficult to write even a single page (Kalitera, 1983). Thinking and writing go hand in hand. A good writer is one, who writes what he thinks. A writer who writes just for the sake of writing can never produce an effective piece of writing. (Walter Benjamin, journal entry, Selected Writings: Volume 3, 1935-1938). A bad writing is like a woman who is dressed badly – without any magnitude, unimpressive with wrong choices of colours (Williams, 1938). Same way a bad writing is a wrong choice of words with never ending ideas.

Fix all aspects of the writing process

Generally students are of the view that writing is something which they have to do to earn grades. It is the duty of the teacher to make them realize the importance of proper writing purpose. Following are some points which one should keep in mind while writing:

• There is a reader for every report. The profile of the reader may not be known in advance. Hence, the language used should be such that it can be read and understood by one and all
• The exact purpose of the report should be decided before the same is started. It must therefore be ensured that each sentence framed ultimately contributes to meet that purpose
• The language used should be simple, concrete and familiar
• Every section must have an introduction, a body and a conclusion
• The document must be attractive with no unnecessary accompaniments
• The sentences should be small and simple. Usage of long sentences must be avoided as far as possible.

Give quality instructions of writing

It is wrong on the part of the teacher to assume that students are familiar with the writing skills. In every new grade, students are taught new skills to strengthen their present knowledge. In few grades, maximum time of the students is spent on preparing for tests; in that case writing subject gets neglected or may be is not addressed as purely as it should be. Thus equal emphasis should be given on writing in every grade.

Every field has different approach of writing

The approach and method of writing differ with different subjects. When a student is writing about science, he is thinking like a scientist and when writing about maths probably like a mathematician. First and foremost, acquiring knowledge about the topic is most essential part of writing.

Provide a reliable environment

In order to win students’ enticement for writing, it is very necessary to provide them a suitable environment. For example, a student is good and comfortable in writing a report and teacher gives him an essay to write then probably he will not be in a position to deliver his best work.

Writing should be genre specific

The most important thing in writing is that it should be reliable and person who is writing should be amorous about it. No matter what critics say, write what you want to (Goldsmith, 1918). It is the duty of a teacher to encourage students to write demurely and honestly.

Cognitive and affective are the two broad purposes of writing. Under cognitive purpose, writing is done in order to focus on an idea or a topic. Writing is used as the source of communication of ideas and beliefs with others. Under cognitive purpose, it is not necessary to stick at the available information, new ideas are generated, new content and material is delivered and information is regenerated (Johnson & Holcombe, 1993). Under affective purpose, attainment of self-understanding is the main objective behind writing. One expresses his/ her thoughts and emotions through writing. They want to tell others about them through their writing. It also helps in construction of their confidence. The affective purpose help teachers to get better understanding of their students and lead to better interaction between the teacher and the student (Johnson & Holcombe, 1993).

People who lack good writing skill are not able to communicate their ideas and beliefs properly. This becomes a big bottleneck in the path of their career. Writing has become an integral part of every job these days. An effective presentation of idea on paper can be very advantageous for a person to take his/ her career to new heights.

Just like other basic subjects including math, social studies and science; writing should be given equal weightage. Writing helps students in acquiring knowledge about the content (Indrisano & Paratore, 2005).

References

Allen, C. (2006). The multigenre research paper: voice, passion, and discovery in grades 4-6. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

De La Paz, S., & Graham, S. (2002). Explicitly teaching strategies, skills, and knowledge: Writing instruction in middle school classrooms. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(4), 687.

Dunstan, A. (2003). Any teacher a writing teacher. California English, 9(1), 6-7.

Johnson, J., & Holcombe, M. (1993). Writing to learn in a content area. Clearing House, 66(3), 155.

Fletcher, R., & Portalupi, J. (2001). The Essentials of Time and Space. In L. Bridges (Ed),The writing workshop (pp.7-20). Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Indrisano, R. & Paratore, J.R. (Eds.). (2005). Learning to write, writing to learn: Theory and research in practice. Boston: International Reading Association.

Manning, M.L., & Bucher, K.T. (2001). Teaching in the middle school. Upper Saddle River,NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Meece, J. (2002). Child and adolescent development for educators (2^nd ed.). New York, NY:McGraw-Hill.

National Council of Teachers of English. (2007). Adolescent Literacy. Retrieved April 17, 2008 from http://www.ncte.org.

National Writing Project. (2008). About the National Writing Project. Retrieved April 18,2008 from http://www.nwp/org.

Pike-Baky, M. (2005). Balancing instruction and assessment: Great writing prompts thatdouble as great writing lessons. California English, 9(1), 9-9.

Routman, R. (2005). Writing essentials: Raising expectations and results while simplifying teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Stevens, R.L. (2003). Student team reading and writing: A cooperative learning approach to middle school literacy instruction. Educational Research & Evaluation, 9(2), 137.

The National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges. (2004).

Bronson, S.,  2002. Importance of Correct Grammar . [online] Boots Group Plc. Available at: <http://www.ehow.com/about_6523732_importance-correct-grammar.html> [Accessed 23 April 2012].

Fenton, N.,  2006. General principles of good writing. [online]. Available at: <http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~norman/papers/good_writing/general_.principles.html

> [Accessed 23 April 2012].

Thornton, B., P.,  2006. Principles of good writing. [online]. Available at: < http://www.hodu.com/good-writing.shtml> [Accessed 23 April 2012].

Nordquist, R., 2006. What Is the Difference Between a Good Writer and a Bad Writer?

. [online]. Available at: < http://grammar.about.com/od/advicefromthepros/f/goodwritersandbad.html> [Accessed 23 April 2012].

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