Writing and Representing in the Classroom

For this blog I decided to take a more focused look into the older elementary grades, namely 6 and 7. In this entry I hope to touch upon the importance of writing and representing, and how I would support it in the classroom for these upper grades. Looking back upon my own ELA experiences in school, I can attribute the entire basis of my individual writing style to these critical years. I can still remember my grade 7 ELA course with Ms. Beck, where we spent the majority of our year focusing on creative writing. While we still worked on the mechanics of the English language and writing, I loved discovering my own writing style. I could see how my style varied from the other students, and it became much more personal for me. My own experiences have helped me understand what is important in the writing and representing classroom, and allow me to reflect upon ways to support it through ELA.

Source: http://alanperry.1hwy.com/photo5.html

What is important in the writing/representing classroom?

I could write for days about every important aspect of the writing and representing classroom, but for the purposes of being succinct I will briefly outline what I consider to be the most important ideas. After taking personal experiences into account, I decided to expand my search across the Internet. After reading a few articles and education blogs, I compiled a list of the top 10 most important factors to include in an ELA classroom.

1.     Variety

2.     Challenges

3.     Ample time

4.     Revisions

5.     Feedback

6.     A safe environment for sharing

7.     Fun

8.     Options

9.     Encouragement

10. Covering important topics

Variety- No two students are alike, and with that in mind you need to be prepared to offer a range of different activities. Some students may excel in written word, while others may find a combination of visual representations and words to be more effective in illustrating their points. Continuously having students write on the same topic would not make for an effective or memorable lesson, so adding new activities makes the learning more enjoyable and unforgettable.

Challenges- Every student needs to be challenged, but not all in the same way. Some students will pick up material quickly, while others need more assistance. Just because a student needs more help learning the lesson, this doesn’t mean that you don’t provide a personal challenge for said child. As Jennifer Savage quoted in her article about the First Steps Writing Program when discussing the pleasure of having an exceptional student in her classroom, “Success is different for each of us…the growth of this student may seem small to most, but…I can tell you the success has been huge” (Savage, 48).

Ample Time- Writing and representing don’t happen in a short period of time, and the amount of time an individual student will take varies. As a teacher we must ensure the students receive enough time to create the best writing and representing possible. There are many revision stages that the child goes through in writing, and as the text book points out, “ the process requires time, thought, and the reworking of multiple drafts” (Bainbridge, 275). As “[The student] loved writing at home because she could give herself the right amount of time: ‘At home I do as many drafts as a I need’” (Casey and Hemenway, 71).

Revisions- One of the most important skills a student will learn in ELA is how to make self-directed revisions on their work. “Am I meaning what I say and saying what I mean?” (Bainbridge, 276). Looking at your own work with a critical eye and reflecting upon your desired meaning is a skill that will be reflected throughout one’s entire life. I find this to personally be the most important factor of ELA’s writing and representing, and has been the most helpful to me throughout my University years.

Feedback- Much like revisions will help students reflect upon their work with a critical eye, feedback from a teacher will help the student improve in places they did not notice themselves. Both positive and constructive feedback are extremely important in the classroom to help students advance their writing and representing skills by outlining strengths for reinforcement and changes that can help improve their work.  “Feedback that supports learning describes strengths upon which further learning can build and areas that need to be improved. It gives learners the information they need to adjust so they can get better.” (IRP, 28) We have to make sure that feedback is individualized, not generalized as well, pertaining to each student as an individual. “Praise by paying attention to the writer. Praise by becoming involved in the writing…Praise by describing the effects of specific techniques on you as the reader” (Atwell, 225).

A safe environment for sharing- One of the most nerve-wracking aspects of writing and representing is having to share your work with your peers. By creating a safe environment in the classroom where students feel safe sharing their work, you open the door to so many possibilities. Viewing other students work helps them to form a greater critical eye and understand differing perspectives and comparisons. It also opens doors for conversations about the students work, and assistance from student feedback for their revisions. This falls wonderfully into the PLO for grade 6 pertaining to C6 “considering and applying feedback to revise ideas, organization, voice, word choice and sentence fluency” (IRP, 378).

Fun- Ideally, every ELA lesson should be fun for the students to ensure it is memorable. Students learn more when their lesson is both informative and fun, and this certainly holds true for writing and representing!  Generating interest can sometimes be a challenge, but with all the resources available to us online it is amazing what you can find! Creativity is the key here, and you can’t be afraid to think outside the box.

Options- As mentioned above, no two students are alike, and some students thrive in writing while others may excel in representing. For this reason, and reasons of personal enjoyment, options should be offered in ELA. While structure and rules are important, it is critical to include options in many of your lessons. It is a great way to get students more involved in the lesson and they are more likely to enjoy it. This is a crucial point in Casey and Hemenway’s writing program (Casey and Hemenway, 68), and is reflected in many writing programs across the world.

Encouragement- Much like offering feedback and maintaining a safe classroom environment, encouragement is important to help students want to continue writing and representing. So many children seek validation, especially in the younger years where we see them “crave ‘adult resonance’ for their work. They need to know that someone is ready to respond patiently, appreciatively and knowledgably” (Thompson, 10).

Covering Important Topics- This may seem like a very obvious thing to remember in the classroom, however it needs to be mentioned! Thankfully the IRP outlines what the students should be learning through the PLOs. In the upper elementary years we can see a clear definition of what to teach through the Features, Purposes, Strategies, and Thinking sections (IRP, PLOs).

These 10 factors are by no means the only important things in the writing and representing classroom, but act as a quick guide of factors to remember when teaching an ELA class. Writing and representing are so critical and are used so often in our daily lives that its critical that we don’t neglect any aspect. 

Source: http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles

How would you support student writing/representing in the ELA classroom?

So now that I’ve discussed a few important things to remember when teaching and supporting writing/representing in the ELA classroom, one question still remains: “How should I support effective writing and representing?” This question can be answered in hundreds of different ways, but I am going to be focusing on supporting writing and representing in the upper elementary classroom. It varies quite drastically from Kindergarten to grade 6, and writing and representing become more structured as the students grow older. I’ve decided to answer this question by offering up some strategies I will be using in my teaching future, and different ways to include writing and representing throughout the later elementary years.

Following the PLOs- I bet you’re thinking “well no kidding Madison!” However, this is step number one for the proper fostering of writing and representing! In grade 6 I find that ELA is becoming much more specific. Focuses on organization of writing, reflecting upon writing, and providing evidence to connect work are becoming prevalent. If you look at the grade 6 and 7 PLOs, you will find that the majority of them refer to call for connections and understanding of the text—A8, A10, B1, B2, B4, B5, B7, B8, B10—which we see has become so much more important than the earlier grades (IRP, 79-90). By including all aspects of the PLOs (Purposes, Strategies, Thinking and Features), we can create a well rounded year that helps children not only in writing and representing, but all aspects of ELA. Writing and representing can truly be covered within all PLOs in some form or another, and that’s what makes ELA so broad but inclusive.

Teach with choice, help them develop a voice- I’m not sure if this is a real saying, but I believe I made it up to help illustrate my point. Students shouldn’t feel beat down by essays and “boring” writing and representing. By offering choice in writing throughout lessons, you can keep students motivated and interested. Not every lesson needs to have creative options, but it still a large consideration! I know in my personal writing experiences, when I got to choose what I wrote about, I found myself becoming more creative and developing my own unique style of representation. In the article Structure and Freedom, the authors discuss why we are seeing a decline in motivation for writing at such a young age starting at the grade 6 level: “Why were students losing their motivation for writing at such a young age?...according to Page, narrative and expressive writing were largely prohibited because the five paragraph essay dominated the sixth grade writing curriculum” (Casey and Hemenway, 70). While we do need to teach the necessities to students, beating them down with them in boring ways doesn’t help anyone! When given a mix of fun activities to learn the lessons, with choices available to satisfy different learning styles, you have a recipe for the perfect lesson! For example, learning the essay style can be done in a fun way about a topic of the student’s choosing. You could even incorporate a fictional story into the same model! Being creative is key here because you want the students to be able to develop their literary voices.

Include writing and representing across other subjects- One of the greatest things about the upper elementary years is the advanced material and skills the students now have. Writing and representing are used so effectively across all subjects at this age. As a teacher, writing and representing can be used in every subject from Math to Science to Social Studies—and they should be! I like to use ELA in every subject, so I know I would be using journals in less traditional ways including in Science and Math. I love the idea of crossover lessons that improve writing and representing while gaining knowledge in other subjects. A simple science experiment can be turned into a report, detailed visual representations of the experiment, then further research into something that interests the students.

Help students develop critical reflection skills- This is something I touched upon in the section above briefly, but it is the most important skill gained in grades 6 and 7 (in my opinion). Being able to look at one’s work and reflect upon how it can be improved is a skill that will never become outdated or unnecessary. It is also one of the main PLOs and has representation across all categories of outcomes. School truly began with teacher feedback, then moved into limited self reflection, then onto peer feedback, and now we see a culmination of all three. Being able to take all types of feeback and reflection and combining it into a final product is what will help support writing and representing the most in the ELA classroom.

Offer lots of writing/representing time- The best way to learn a skill is through practice, and writing and representing are no exception to this rule! By creating a classroom environment where writing is encouraged, and encouraged often, I believe we will see a greater understanding of ELA. Growing up my teachers offered so much time for writing, and it was honestly my favorite part of school each day. I looked forward to working on a story or paper, and never felt as though I didn’t have enough time. As I pointed out earlier, the article Structure and Freedom pointed out that the students enjoyed writing at home so much because they didn’t feel pressured for time and could enjoy the entire process. (Casey and Hemenway, 71). There are 5 major stages in the writing process: planning, rough draft, conference, and editing, and these stages take time to complete successfully (Savage, 42).

Follow my top 10 writing/representing importances- The list of 10 important things to include in the writing/representing ELA classroom that I created above must be included as much as possible. Nothing can be neglected because they are the building blocks for successful ELA—especially in the older years. I went into reasonable depth on these, so I won’t repost what I said, but they are just as important as the suggestions I made above!