My Philosophy on the Teaching of Writing

My philosophy on the teaching of writing is one that has evolved immensely as my experience with teaching has grown. Prior to my student teaching experience, I was under the nave impression that writing was just a skill that every student already had. In my own experience, writing was something that just came naturally to me (largely due to my strong reading skills from a young age), and I just assumed that everyone was the same. It never occurred to me that writing is indeed a very difficult skill that is rapidly dissipating as students become more and more accustomed to the informal, unpolished forms of writing common in social media, and less accustomed to the style and formality of academic writing. Student teaching in a low-level English classroom and conducting a formal writing assignment truly opened my eyes to the importance of teaching academic writing. With lower-level and LEP students, the task of teaching writing is much greater, as these students do not have nearly the amount of exposure to standard written English as generations before. Strong readers are very often strong writers, as they first learn to mimic the writing styles of authors which later allows them to grow and develop their own distinct voice. However, reading has gradually been replaced with television (the why read the book when you can watch the movie? mentality) and the effects are detrimental. In addition, students are becoming more and more exposed and accustomed to informal discourse of social media, where it is perfectly acceptable to ignore basic English conventions while communicating. These factors have created a large hurdle for English teachers who are often left feeling helpless when

their 11th students essays reveal that the majority of students are unable to write in grammatically correct sentences, let alone meet the requirements of a specific essay format. I believe the key to teaching low-level students to become strong writers comes down to one method: practice. Students need to become accustomed to writing. They need to practice writing. Daily writing journals are a great way to get students to express their thoughts
into written words without feeling the restrictions of more formal writing assignments. Take away the stress, take away the pressure, and just have them write about anything that comes to mind. At first these journals may be written in a casual and simplistic manner, but as the students become more comfortable with their writing they will be able to apply these basic skills towards more advanced writing assignments, such as essays or research papers.

Furthermore, students need to enjoy writing in order to effectively improve their skills. Writing teachers should provide students with writing assignments that appeal to their interests. High school studentsespecially lower-level studentsgenerally respond better to classroom material that is relevant to their own lives. Asking students to write an expository essay about the themes and values in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great exercise in academic writing, but the topic is one that might be a difficult pitch to the students. However, asking them to write an essay that discusses an aspect of modern American values is a task that allows them to relate their work to their own lives.