How to Teach Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools
Hollowell, Karen. (May 24, 2010). How to Teach Writing in Middle & Secondary Schools. eHow, Inc. Retrieved February 12, 2011, from: http://www.ehow.com/how_6547029_teach-writing-middle-secondary-schools.html
What are some ways to teach writing to teens?
Giving good feedback to students' work is important, so they can see ways they can improve and things they are doing well. Having students work together is a good way for them to generate creative ideas with one another. You can also have students grade each others work, and comment on ways they can improve.
Letting students write about what they are interested in, and know is a good way to get them excited about writing instead of doing standard topics and essays. Assigning prompts is another good way to encourage students to write creatively. Assign creative essays to students, and focus more on the originality and creativity instead of grammar and mechanics. This will allow students to think more freely if they are not focusing on the mechanics.
This is a great topic that I am also very interested in! I especially like the idea of having the students read eachother's work-I am a little worried about them giving each other a grade! Maybe instead they could rate it with symbols such as check, smiley face, ect! This would allow students to also compare their own work to the work of others that they read internally. Love this idea! I am not teaching right now, if you are do you use these methods mentioned? Do some work better than others?
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ReplyDeleteThis topic (post) is very similar to what I found regarding teaching writing skills. One thing I found, and you mentioned, was the importance of students understanding the purpose and meaning behind the writing assignment. In addition, it is important, as teachers, that we are very clear about what we expect from the assignment. Maybe providing a grading rubric could help clear up any questions or concerns. I am a little leery of having students grading their peers work. Students may be embarrassed to show and have another student grade their work. But I do like the idea of having them work together to generate creative ideas. Maybe having the students work in groups to generate those creative ideas and then break up individually to write a different component.
ReplyDeleteI have found that creative writing is difficult for my younger students. I think this has a lot to do with lack of exposure and lack of experiences. I think it is helpful to model the writing process for students when you want them to write creatively or for some other purpose. I also think it is important to expose them to a variety of texts that demonstrate creativity in writing. Recently, my students learned about poetry. I wanted them to write poems using their senses and colors. For example, Green smells like fresh cut grass. I realized this was very difficult for them, so I found a book completely dedicated to color poetry. After a lot of modeling and feedback, many of my students soared with creative poetry.
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