My Experiences with Writing Compared to the Textbook

 

 

Freeman (2014) states that students “learn language” through activities that engage them in applying or identifying what they know orally on paper. I remember times in elementary school where my teacher asked us to give an oral report about a field trip or experience and she would write our words down on paper and show the final product to us. We learned how our oral words were spelled and formed. We could see how they were spaced.  This teacher would also have us copy down a shared message from the board, so we could read and write it at the same time. Students are continuously “learning through language” as they listen to fellow students and teachers describe new ideas, thoughts, and experiences orally or through papers and books. Classroom discussion is a very important facet to learn writing because it prompts the learners to engage with the topic and each other to learn. When all the teacher does is lecture or require a quiet space, the brain disengages from the content. Kindergarteners have something to share about everything.  If I mention a prompt for pets or characters from movies, there will be raised hands with someone wanting to share a story about their dog or what they watched.  Teachers should be able to get the same response about the curriculum because students should feel engaged. Lastly, students “learn about language” to discover aspects of it like grammar and punctuation. The teacher needs to find ways to make learning grammar and punctuation interesting. Teachers know their audience and what makes them excited about a topic. They know if students love music, art, building with Legos, or playing outside. These things can be inspiration for writing examples to read and edit (p. 5).

According to Freeman, students are taught the prescriptive approach as teachers lay down rules to memorize and apply their knowledge to worksheets. While the descriptive approach has students conducting “linguistic investigations” to become hooked on learning about language. (p. 17).

Looking back on my elementary and middle school years, there was a lot of focus on the correct or incorrect way to do things. If there was a reason for doing things a certain way, it was because we follow such and such rule. Memorizing these rules took time and practice, but for me it was rarely interesting. Although I learned how to write or how not to write, there were very few explanations.

I have an aversion to red pen marks to this day. Seeing the wording in red signals an incorrect statement or answer to me. It is funny how programed humans can become from repeated experiences. I use red pens as a last resort to mark students' papers. I typically buy purple, blue, or green pens or markers to write scores.  When students write in Kindergarten, I am just happy to see them put words on paper. I want to encourage them and not be the person to kill their joy of learning to write. That may mean that I only grade one out of five daily journal entries. The student may even choose which is their best work for me to grade. I use stickers to show that the assignment is complete and has been viewed before going back at the end of the week to grade it. I will sit down with students occasionally to counsel them and set goals, which will be worked on during mini lessons.

High school allowed some freedom to my writing because it was assumed I knew the rules and now I needed to write inside of that box built in my early school years. This is when book reports and essays became the focus. Mini lessons should assist students with understanding a certain area in their writing. We may look over picture books as a whole group to find good descriptive word choice for students to discover vocabulary that describes objects through the five senses. Students may discover voice through listening to different audio picture books read by men and women. They may take a highlighter and underline transitional words for learning about organization. Students need to be engaged in their learning, so they don't just know what to do but can apply it in their own writing.

Reference

Freeman D., & Freeman Y. (2014). Essential linguistics: What teachers need to know to teach. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.