It was very interesting to read the chapters that I did this week for class. I have not had the opportunity to see much writing instruction or students going through the writing process in my placement classroom, although I know that they do complete at least one writing task per week. Most of their instruction focuses on the reading portion of the reading and writing connection with regards to language arts. In the Gibbons chapter, the author discusses the importance of explicit writing instruction. There are four steps that the teacher should go through with all students, but especially ELLs, who do not have as much experience with the English language.
The first step is educating them about the content that they are going to write about. I see this done in my placement classroom when students are assigned a writing topic, then told to research it on the internet when they go to the computer lab. Although this is one way for students to find out more information on a topic, there are many other rich ways that students can explore new information. Some of the suggestions in the Gibbons chapter include building a semantic web, list student questions, use pictures to enhance and teach vocabulary, and compile a word wall.
The next step that Gibbons suggests is modeling the text. This gives students an opportunity to understand the purpose behind writing with a particular genre or using a specific structure. I have never seen the students in my placement go through this process, although they are expected to write for different purposes. At one point, one group of students was expected to describe what happened on a field trip to a student who was not able to go along. One of the pieces of writing I collected to bring to class earlier this semester was an informative piece that a student wrote about conducting a science experiment. One of the suggestions that Gibbons gave for giving students practice organizing different text structures was text reconstruction. Students are provided with jumbled sentences that they are to reorganize in a way that makes sense with the genre of text.
The next step to explicit writing instruction is called "joint construction". During this phase, teachers and students write together. It is important to understand that this does not consist of the teacher "thinking" their writing aloud and writing it down as an example for the students. It is intended to be a collaborative time, where the teacher guides a group of students in the compilation of an interesting piece of writing. I have never seen anything resembling this practice in my placement classroom.
After the previous three steps are completed, students are able to progress to the independent writing stage. This step could initially be completed in pairs so that students receive additional support, but eventually students should be expected to compose their thoughts individually. This is where a lot of the information from the Tompkins chapter would be helpful. Now students would go through the pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing stages. It is important to note that students will still need to be helped through these processes, especially ELLs and students with disabilities. However, helping students master their writing skills is an essential step in their journey to become literate, educated citizens.
I wish that I could have had more opportunities to be involved in the writing development of my students this year, but I have really only been able to be a part of it a few times. I was able to help one of the students with her report on volcanoes, but only took the editing role during the writing process. One thing that all of the students in my class participated in was the Calbery Writing Contest, a writing competition open to Lansing students in fourth and fifth grade. Students were expected to complete a fiction, poetry, or non-fiction book to give to judges who scored their books based on their text, form, and presentation. The week that these books were due was crazy in my placement classroom. I know that most of the students did not go through a pre-writing stage, and very few of them made it past the first draft of their book before it was due. If my MT had taken more time to go through the writing process with these students, it would have been a much more valuable experience for everyone involved. I was also able to participate in the editing stage for the students who had completed enough of their book for proof-reading. It was interesting to read the varied and interesting ideas of the students; I wish that they were given more time to engage in the writing process to maximize their learning.
An example of student writing:
