Best Practices In Writing

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Pages: 2

One of the many appealing aspects of teaching is the chance to do something repeatedly, observing what works and what doesn’t, puzzling over how to solve a problem, trying new tactics. Writing is an intricate process, and teaching students to write is often problematic. In math, one formula works for many applications, but even casual conversations with writers reveal that each has an individual process, usually self-discovered. Teaching students to write, therefore, becomes a twofold challenge: first, helping them find their own process, and second, applying that approach to a specific product. Beginning teachers, myself included, tend to follow the textbook which says nothing about the first part and volumes about the second. For years, I walked writers through ideas, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions, …show more content…
However, they describe themselves as dual representatives of thinking: linear and discovery. One carefully plans ahead; the other thinks aloud on paper, revealing ideas and connections as she writes. Further, the kind of planning changes depending on the nature of the task. Poetry demands a different approach than persuasion, for example. Instruction, therefore, must teach students to consider the assignment and themselves before strategizing their procedure. They outline five steps which writer can move among in any way that seems logical: contemplating the task, activating prior knowledge, considering language and vocabulary, organizing ideas, and ongoing planning. Additionally, teachers should introduce their classes to the strategies of simple inquiry, sketching, graphic organizers, free-writing, quick-writes, talk-to-text, note cards, and peer