This is one area of teaching, amongst many others, that was not touched upon during my studies while in college. Over the years, there has been a great emphasis on writing in almost every subject area. Students are being asked to explain their thinking in writing on standardized tests which requires them to be able to cohesively put their thoughts together to express their thinking for an unknown audience. This can be very difficult to do, especially when the writer does not feel equipped with the necessary skills and tools to do so.
This led me to this question: Why is writing left out of the mix? I wish I knew the answer to my own question. What I do know is, writing can be difficult to teach and requires the teacher to do the work she wants her students to do. In order to teach writing, the teacher has to become a writer herself and go through the writing process in order to teach students how to write. The writing process does take time and with so many demands put upon teachers it can easily be left off of the schedule just because.
For me, writing has always been an area that I struggled in to teach. For a long time, I didn't see how writing and reading connected. Reading and writing was always presented as it's own identity and never seemed to connect. I told myself that I can't love reading and despise writing. It didn't make sense.
It always seemed like I couldn't get it right. So many questions started to swim around in my head as I wondered if I was really meeting the needs of my writers. Not until, I grew a love for literacy did I really understand and appreciate how reading and writing intertwines. Through my own studies and research, I learned that the art of writing is just as important as reading. One does not exist without the other. I knew something had to change in the way I looked at writing and began my journey on becoming a better teacher of writing.
In the beginning of my journey, I posed questions to my Twitter #pln around writing to see if I was the only educator out there who struggled with teaching writing. There were several educators who expressed that they too did not have any formal education in teaching writing and ultimately had to learn how to teach writing on their own. I knew I wasn't the only one and set out on this journey to spread the knowledge that I learn throughout my studies.
One day, I received a message from Writeable (@getwritable) asking to host a Twitter chat around the questions that I posed on Twitter. I was excited to embark on this journey of spreading my knowledge and peak the curiosity of others. Here were the questions asked during the chat:
1. Why is teaching the mechanics of writing so important?
2. Why can teaching writing be so difficult to do in the classroom?
3. How do you make writing fun and engaging for students?
4. What small steps can teachers do to ensure that writing occurs everyday?
Throughout the chat there were a lot of great responses to the questions. I wasn't able to catch them all but was able to catch a few good ones. Here is some of the feedback:
"Teaching writing is difficult because so many of us were never explicitly taught how to teach writing." @shfarnsworth
"Correct usage of grammar and mechanics make writing readable by a broader audience."
"Only difficult when there's no student buy in."
"Present writing as a process rather than a product." @dbuckedu
"Meet students where THEY are. If they can write a word, let them. If they write 5 sentences let them. If they can write an essay-guide them. @emilyfranESL
There is so much to writing than just writing words on a paper. There are so many components that has to be put into place to meet the needs of all writers. Teaching the art of writing cannot happen over night and will take time to grow and develop. The first step in becoming a better teacher of writing is to become a writer myself. That's my first step, to continue to express my thoughts and love of literacy through my own writing here.
I want to thank Writeable (@getwriteable) and Shaelynn (@shfarnsworth) for reaching out to me to host this chat. Not only was I able to connect with some awesome educators but I was able to begin to grow my writing toolbox that I have began to use in my classroom.
I would love to hear your thoughts about writing and how you have become a better or expert teacher of writing. Tell next time. Chao!
