Respond to discussion 4.1 At least 125 per response
Cassandra
I do not remember being taught step-by-step to write. But I do remember teachers assigning essays. Recalling those memories made me realize I had a deep-seated hatred for writing because I was never taught writing. I was glad that it was only required once a year. In elementary school, students should learn to write (Hochman & Wexler, 2017). Having students learn writing in an early grade will plant the seed. Students retain more information when it is taught at an early age. According to the article “Best Practices in Teaching Writing,†it was mentioned that teachers should set up a positive atmosphere for writing (Whitaker, n.d.). Teachers must have an inviting classroom where students feel comfortable. They have a routine that will help them know what to expect. Teachers should understand the importance of teaching students to write. Learning to write is a part of the learning fundamentals.
Somewhere along the way, writing took a backseat. I have seen firsthand how teaching students to write in elementary makes them solid writers and readers. My daughter was taught writing in the fourth grade. She was introduced to using transitions, adverbs, appositives, etc., to make meaningful sentences. Then they practiced writing paragraphs and using supporting evidence from a text. The students were not expected to know how to do this by only doing once. The students practiced each step daily and received feedback. The teacher’s expectations were high, so her feedback was honest. They did this process until they knew how to write an essay.
Patricia
As educators, our attitudes toward teaching and learning are one of the most powerful tools we have for shaping our students’ academic success. By approaching writing instruction with a positive attitude, we can encourage our students to work to become better writers. Charles Whitaker gives us an example of how to do this in his article, “Best Practices in Teaching Writing,” when he states that we can help our students become better writers by providing them with a positive atmosphere in which to learn to write (n.d). We can do this by providing constructive instruction and modeling good examples of writing.Â
Hochman and Wexler state that the biggest problem students have with writing is that they have never been taught to write analytically at the most basic level (2017). It is our job as educators to provide constructive instruction that teaches students to form complex sentences that convey a deeper level of understanding of the material they have recently read. We can do this by providing prompts and questions to help students comprehend what they have read and then shkwing them how to combine those answers into more complex thoughts whicj build upon each other. We can also model good writing techniques by using our own writing as a teaching tool. Teaching students at the
