Learning to write is essential, it broadens and deepens learning. Learning to write and writing to learn needs to happen in our classrooms. Writing is a necessary skill and one of the most difficult to teach and to learn. The process of writing can enhance creative expression and boosts college and career-readiness.
Don’t ask why students can’t write, instead ask how can you help them to become writers. Writers collect lots and lots of ideas as they go through their day. We should teach students to live with the perspective of a writer, seeing potential for stories, non-fiction writing and poems everywhere and encouraging them to think “I should write this down, I may make something of it.” Teachers need to get back to the basics of teaching the skill of writing. The articles below contain ideas for introducing writing strategies into our teaching. They delve into strategies for improving and enriching writing instruction in schools.
Deepening the Skills
Natalie Goldberg
Natalie Goldberg advises to listen … listen deeply and keep writing your thoughts. Don’t cross out, just keep writing and use verbs. They are the energy in your writing.
Writers live twice. They go along with their regular life …But there’s part of them that they have been training. The one that lives everything a second time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and details.
Giving Students the Right Kind of Writing Practice
Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle
The one-shot “big essay” approach is not the answer. Using the spiral curriculum, revisiting the same topics and increasing their complexity practicing their newly learned skills incrementally.
Research Matters / The Magic of Writing Stuff Down
Mike Schmoker
Writing can foster deeper learning in every content area—if we let it. Every teacher needs this skill – thinking on paper.
Writing encourages creativity, self understanding, reinforces materials, improves communication and helps educators determine if students comprehended the concepts.
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