When we think of writing each one of us has a different interpretation on what constitutes the process of writing.
Different people tend to have different styles of writing, some brainstorm on paper, some not at all.
Some people revise again and again until it is perfect while some just go on the first draft.
So which way is the correct way? The answer of course, is all of them, due to the realization that writing is a fluid and ever changing process that lends itself to any type of style or ideas.
That is what makes writing so great, the ability to be able to put your thoughts on paper and not have to worry if they are right or wrong, but just that they are your thoughts and therefore have meaning.
What however, about writing in the classroom? Here you have many different students with many different ideas and only one teacher to guide the process.
What are the student's roles in the writing process? What about the teacher's? First of all, we must explore what it means to the students to write, and the processes they use in order to get their ideas out on paper.
Unfortunately students today are more focused on their cell phones instead of classical writings, so we as teachers must be sure to teach them how writing can be useful in life and what it can mean to them both spiritually and vocationally.
The student must then be to create what they believe is right, and not what the teachers expect of them.
The authors of the textbook give the analogy of the student that lost his father early in childhood and used that life experience to craft a series of wonderful writings, due mostly to the fact that the experience was real, and therefore was much more powerful.
Also the students must discover their own subjects, think of a possible audience, collect the material, create and revise in order to produce a piece of well thought out writing.
What are roles as teachers must be is to facilitate that process, to realize that there is no one way to create a piece of writing, and that the five paragraph essay that was taught for so long is not the way to teach the writing process.
As educators we must put the students on the path to good writing by answering any questions that may come up, as well as be a listener, a coach, an editor and a fellow writer, just as the authors of the textbook suggest.
What the teacher must be careful over is criticizing in an unconstructive manner, limiting student's writings to what they believe should be written about, and above all the student needs to feel safe and secure in the fact that they will not be ridiculed or judged harshly for any of their ideas.
By Anthony Lechota
Different people tend to have different styles of writing, some brainstorm on paper, some not at all.
Some people revise again and again until it is perfect while some just go on the first draft.
So which way is the correct way? The answer of course, is all of them, due to the realization that writing is a fluid and ever changing process that lends itself to any type of style or ideas.
That is what makes writing so great, the ability to be able to put your thoughts on paper and not have to worry if they are right or wrong, but just that they are your thoughts and therefore have meaning.
What however, about writing in the classroom? Here you have many different students with many different ideas and only one teacher to guide the process.
What are the student's roles in the writing process? What about the teacher's? First of all, we must explore what it means to the students to write, and the processes they use in order to get their ideas out on paper.
Unfortunately students today are more focused on their cell phones instead of classical writings, so we as teachers must be sure to teach them how writing can be useful in life and what it can mean to them both spiritually and vocationally.
The student must then be to create what they believe is right, and not what the teachers expect of them.
The authors of the textbook give the analogy of the student that lost his father early in childhood and used that life experience to craft a series of wonderful writings, due mostly to the fact that the experience was real, and therefore was much more powerful.
Also the students must discover their own subjects, think of a possible audience, collect the material, create and revise in order to produce a piece of well thought out writing.
What are roles as teachers must be is to facilitate that process, to realize that there is no one way to create a piece of writing, and that the five paragraph essay that was taught for so long is not the way to teach the writing process.
As educators we must put the students on the path to good writing by answering any questions that may come up, as well as be a listener, a coach, an editor and a fellow writer, just as the authors of the textbook suggest.
What the teacher must be careful over is criticizing in an unconstructive manner, limiting student's writings to what they believe should be written about, and above all the student needs to feel safe and secure in the fact that they will not be ridiculed or judged harshly for any of their ideas.
By Anthony Lechota