1) Writing Strategies 7) Prewriting
2) Summarization 8) Inquiry Activities
3)Collaborative Writing 9) Process Writing Approach
4)Specific Product goals 10) Study of Models
5) Word processing 11) Writing for Content Learning
6) Sentence Combining
Each element has a specific purpose and goal for aiding students in the writing process. It's important to remember that these elements are not in a particular order nor do they constitute a curriculum. Meaning that, students don't have to fallow every element one after the other. However, the more elements the student includes in their writing process the better the result will be. According Graham, "The elements should not be seen as isolated but rather as interlinked...A mixture of these elements is likely to generate the biggest return." This reiterates the idea that the elements correlate and intertwine with each other and the more elements students use the better their results will be.
But what do these elements tell us? Franky, it tell us that our students need a lot of help when it comes to writing. According to Writing Next the percentages of students who need writing assistance are cause for concern. These are just some of the statistics.
Seventy percent of
students in grades 4–12
are low-achieving writers
Every school day, more
than 7,000 students drop out
of high school
Only
70% of high school
students graduate on time
with a regular diploma,
and fewer than 60% of
African-American and
Latino students do so
The numbers don't lie, many students are low achieving writers. Many of the student who fall somewhere in these percentages enter college not writing at basic college level and therefore, have a difficult first year. As teachers we need to prepare our students as much as we can so that when they do enter college they wont fall behind or feel daunted by the work load.
I really liked Graham and Perin's strategies for supporting students in writing. For me personally, writing has always been an intimidating process. To this day, I sometimes still struggle to put my thought into a cohesive well-written essay however, I have used some of the elements mentions above and they actually do work. The thing that I will mentions is that writing takes time, hard work, patience, focus, and discipline, which adolescents sometimes don't care about.
Along with that, it's important to remember not to procrastinate; I know I'm guilty of it a lot. The first thirty seconds of the video describe exactly how I feel when I'm writing a paper that I'm procrastinating on or that I'm just not that interested in doing.
The lesson here is to plan your writing a head of time. Meaning that, students should write outlines and plan accordingly to avoiding cramming and procrastination and meet deadline
I agree that these elements are a great approach to effective reading and writing, but I do not see all of them as interlinked. Yes, it is important to teach pre-writing and processing writing approaches together, but I do not feel that each student requires such a lesson. If we focus on possibly only a few elements that we feel as educators are necessary for our class, we can effectively educate the students. Universal Design, in my studying is strict and ordered and I do not advocate the approach entirely. It is more important to focus on some elements that are ignored and being done incorrectly in the class. For example, sentence combination and structure of essays and assignments is largely a problem for students. We should focus on these aspects and introduce elements listed above to facilitate education, but focusing on all eleven within the class as interlinked seems like a waste of time and effort on our part.
ReplyDeleteCindy, I really enjoyed your post. Writing is a very important skill our students will need to be successful in college. Providing constructive criticism on our students' papers, will help them understand where they need to improve upon. For example, if a student needs help creating a concise argument, then we should have mini writing lessons or offer them resources where they can learn more about developing a strong and clear thesis. Proof-reading is another very helpful strategy that will prove beneficial for our students. I think it is a skill one must practice in order to improve the flow of our thoughts. Teaching our students how to proof-read will also develop their confidence in writing. Outlining is another very essential strategy that our students should learn. It will help them organize their thesis and support their arguments.
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