Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Be Efficient and Integrate Basic Skills

            Research has shown that drills and worksheets do not improve student writing. The problem with isolated skills is that children don’t know what teachers are talking about and why. This author states that lessons should arise from what kids are doing, or not doing in their writing. Skill instruction should be an ongoing effort to construct meaning from text.

            The author made four major changes to a writing program to shift away from teaching isolated skills. These included: identifying writing genres that would interest students, deciding who the audience would be for each piece of writing, modeling their own writing process and struggle, and having students share their writing regularly. After having implemented these skills, children took more chances with their writing and some kids were asking if they could write more.

            One of the best ways to get quality writing is writing for an audience. Students need to provide information that the reader will need to understand their writing, and when writing for a teacher they fail to do this. Teachers need to provide students with opportunities such as writing as real as possible and topics of their choice. Voice is another important part in holding a reader’s attention. Voice is the writer’s personality on paper, and no student’s voice is the same. Voice and passion will go together, and teachers need to make an effort to make sure students are interested in their writing topics and the audiences.

            One part of this chapter that I’m guilty of is assuming that because I have modeled the writing, the students understand what they are supposed to do. It is important that I ask the children to repeat what they are to do before they start writing. Word wall words are helpful with children when they are beginning to write and read. This allows students from getting frustrated and develops a strong spelling consciousness.