The need to know in writing

During this week our focus was on the essentials of writing(things children need to know about writing), students developmental stages and the six (6) traits of writing. This week can be considered an educational week for us in that the information received was of utmost importance as it regards trainee teachers entering the profession. We must have a thorough understanding of what writing entails, how writing should be done and what can be done to aid writing. Additionally knowledge about the phases in writing from a previous course our understanding was strengthened. As we reflect on this week’s sessions it appealed  to us that on entering the classrooms we must implement what was learnt this week as this is the only way our students can grow or mature in writing.

Moreover this week we discovered that writing is a social act. Therefore when we write academically others will interact with our writing, being teachers, advisers or classmates. There are times when we as adults write, edit and revise our work and yet there are still some hidden errors. These errors however are revealed when another individual reads over the piece of writing. Similarly what this means to us is that we must take the time out to correct our students writing.This means ensuring that students are spelling words correctly and also using them in the correct context. Students may often feel that they are writing correctly based on their knowledge. However this is not always the case, therefore we as teachers must ensure that we interact with our students work on a regular basis.

In addition we noted that as teachers we must not always dictate what must happen in the classroom as it regards writing. Students should have choices at times. Therefore topics that we consider to be interesting and fun may not always be appealing to students.We learnt from psychology classes that if students are not interested in what is happening within the class they will become easily distracted and therefore hinders learning. This appeals to us as teachers that we should incorporate the idea of giving students choices as it regards topics they are interesting in to write about. In doing so motivates students to write. However teachers cannot always allow the students to choose their topics as this can create a problem in them following direct instructions.

Furthermore we learned that their are six (6) traits of writing which we understood by implementation can aid the development of our students at the different phases. The first trait we zoomed in on was  idea.

It is critical that we enforce that our students think or generate ideas before they write, this will aid students in staying on course when they are writing as their ideas would be clearly outlined making writing easier.  Similarly organization is equally as important as generating ideas. Students must be taught how to organize their ideas in sequence (firstly, secondly). They must also realize that they have a voice, one’s way of expression one’s self in writing may differ to that of someone else. They must understand that their voices are their words and must ensure that their voices are heard. Additionally as mentioned before students must understand that their word choices are critical in the way that they express themselves.Therefore this means that students should be constantly engaged in reading to build their vocabulary.

Moreover students must be aware of the conventions in writing( rules to govern how writing should be carried out).Sentences written must be cohesive and transitions must be evident from one (1) sentence to another until the paragraph is completed. Also it is important that there is fluency within each sentence.

This however brings us to the additional trait which is presentation. As teachers of writing we understand that competency is critical and therefore it is important that we know what the six traits of writing are before teaching them to our students, for we cannot teach what we do not know and students cannot develop these traits on their own.

In concluding it was clear that some of my classmates did not remember the phases in the writing process. Various questions were asked that was link to our prior knowledge on the different stages in the writing process. The lecturer was trying to help us understand the connections between the traits of writing and the writing process, therefore questions were asked like “what stage in the writing process is the first trait link to?”. Some individuals were unable to give a comprehensive reply. This affected the pace of the lesson to an extent as we were recapping on previous sessions. Similarly it is with importance that we recap daily on what was done in each class session, as this  aids us as students in effectively using our prior knowledge to make connections to present sessions. For future sessions we encourage our classmates to go over what was previously taught before coming to class, this would aid in the lesson being more productive.