Writing Reflection

I believe that writing instruction is important to incorporate into my classroom because it

gives the students the opportunities to become great writers. By giving the students time to
practice their writing, we are giving them the opportunity to improve their quality of writing
and fester a love for writing. I also feel it is important to give the students choice when it
coming to writing. Fletcher states, “When you give young writers choice, you are giving them a
clear signal: This writing is yours. It’s part of you.” (pg. 55) By giving the students the choice to
write freely, the teacher and peers within the classroom are able to see each students’
personality. While participating in a writing workshop, the students learn many skills, such as
prewriting, drafting, rereading, revising, editing, and publishing. Before the student dives into
the writing, they are taught to prewrite, which means they are jotting down topics, ideas, or
phrases, which may be done by using a graphic organizer, outline, or a story map. Next, the
students will learn drafting, which is where they will begin writing by using the topic or idea
they have chosen. When drafting, students will be able to introduce an idea, sequence events,
develop a character, etc. Then the students will reread their work thinking about whether their
writing works for the topic, they wondered off topic, their character seems believable, etc.
Rereading is a critical part of writing because it makes the student switch roles from writer to
reader. Next, the students will revise their writing and it is important for the students to
understand that revising is not editing. The students will be adding or deleting something to
their writing and switching parts around. Then the students will move on to editing their
writing. This is where they will be looking for and fixing errors in spelling, punctuation, and
errors in their paragraphs. Lastly, the students can publish their work. This teaches the students
that anyone who writes, can have their work published. Publishing their work may look like
adding it to the publishing wall in the classroom or making a book and adding it to the
classroom library. It is important for students to read each other’s work because the students
can learn from each other and spark new idea to write about. Not only does this make better
writers but it can create a sense of community within the classroom.
One thing I learned while reading part 4 of the The Writing Teacher’s Companion that
writing is supposed to be messy. Fletcher says, “Let’s be careful not to present writing to our
students as a neat, linear process, because it’s anything but. This process of writing is recursive,
often random. Everybody is different, so anybody who sits down to write should feel free to
customize the process to suit his or her particular needs and preferences.” (pg. 97) The writing
process is very flexible to how the writer needs or wants to write, and I think that is an
important fact that we need to stress to our students. The second thing I learned is that it is
critical for the student to reread their own work. Fletcher states, “Rereading is a crucial part of
the process, but many young writers skip it. They are more than happy to hand a story to the
teacher and ask: ‘Is this good? Will you check this?’ Don’t fall for this. We don’t want to corner
the marker on what makes a good piece of writing. They need practice developing their own
criteria.” (pg. 109) As an educator, I have learned that it is critical for the students to determine
what is “good” and what is “bad” writing by making their own criteria for writing.
One area that I would like to develop more when it comes to writing is brainstorming. It
very difficult for me to sit still for a whole hour and write. A lot of the time that I sat there
writing was brainstorming, but my brain kept letting things creep in such as the next assignment
I needed to work on or whether I remembered to take out the hamburger meat for dinner. I
believe that brainstorming is an important part of writing. Not only does it help us get all the
thoughts we want and need to get out, but it also helps us decide what to write about. I think
something that will help me develop my mind and brainstorming skill would be sitting and
writing once a week or once every two weeks. Not only will this be beneficial for me and my
writing, but I think that it will be beneficial for my future students.