A Fresh Look At Writing

Sources:
Chapter 4: Day One: Help Children to Write and Keep Writing

Getting children to write and keeping writing can be very challenging. Most students say it is boring, time-consuming, or useless, but in the grand scheme of things writing is one of the most important things students should learn how to do. However, in order for students to be motivated to write, the teacher needs to introduce it in a positive way and show them where writing comes from and how to begin to write. Chapter 4 discussed this and talked about several approaches that can be used in the classroom whether it is individually, in small groups, or as a class. One approach that really stood out to me was the writing conference, and I think it stood out to me so much because I can relate to it and I have actually conducted a writing conference with my case study student at University Elementary School. The first writing conference I conducted with Braelyn (my case study student) was random and I did not prompt her at all because I wanted to see how creative she was and what she could do on her own without any assistance. She had some difficulties with this and ended up writing about the first time she learned how to spell her name. Before she started writing she put together an organizational graph and wrote who?, what?, when?, when?, and how?, and then from there she wrote her story. This gave me a good starting point and helped me see where I can help her writing abilities improve in the future. After she finished writing I talked to her about it and she explained her writing to me and why she chose the topic she did. The next week she read a book to me about Clifford and then I gave her a writing prompt based on the book; the book was about Clifford and his friends, so I had her write about her favorite memory with her best friend. She wrote a lot better when I gave her a prompt than she did when I had her randomly write for me the first time. She had clear ideas and had a introduction, body, and conclusion. This showed me that she can write well, she just needs something specific to write about in order to work up to her full potential; she needs some direction. With that being said, throughout these past couple weeks I have been introducing her to new topics and getting her to think and explore different areas that she may not be as familiar with.
Writing conferences really are beneficial, and it helps the teacher track the improvements of the student throughout a specific time period. This is something that I want to carry into my own classroom one day so I can help my students more effectively with their writing.