I am going to admit it. I am guilty of teaching correctness more than I teach quality of writing. I know that I struggle to look past errors in student work because I pride myself on writing papers and work that is grammatically correct. I learned all of the grammar rules in school and even helped others in college by checking their papers. To look past errors seems like such a disservice, but now I see that I am the one doing the disservice to my students.
When I conference with students about their work, I need to take a step back and realize that the students have valuable things to say in their writing. I need to stop focusing on the trivial (grammar and conventions) and start with their ideas. If the students have great ideas, then I can go from there and work with them on the polishing components.
My main concern is how to incorporate grammar and conventions into their writing instruction. I know that the school in which I teach does not have a school-wide writing program. In addition, teachers do not teach the different writing components. Students cannot even tell you what is a noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc. or even what is a subject and predicate.
Are these necessary components to writing instruction? Do students need to know subject-verb agreement in order to be accomplished writers? Should I focus my mini-lessons on these types of skills, or should the focus be on their thoughts and ideas?
I realize that I do need to celebrate student's writing more for what they can do and not focus on what they cannot do. I just wish I could understand how to find a balance of teaching the students the skills of writing grammatically correct without losing the fun of writing.
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Comments by: Jacinda
ReplyDeleteI struggle every year with exactly what you wrote about in this chapter. I seem to teach more grammar than focusing on content. This book shows me ideas of how to incorporate all into writing for fun.
I have tried to work with my older kids on nouns, verbs, pronouns, ect, and even though they know what they are, I don’t see them using more in their writing samples. They sometimes can’t even identify those things in their writings. How do I encourage that without focusing too much on it? Let me know if you have any ideas.