Writing in the classroom

While I have not gotten to observe students actually writing in class, I have seen the before and after, the pre-writing and the presentation of the final product. Just yesterday, the eighth grade honors class I sat in on were preparing to write their final essay on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The teacher gave them a choice between two essay prompts, with the second one being slightly more challenging than the first; most students chose the first one, but it was nice that they had the autonomy to choose. After giving out the prompt assignment sheets, the teacher thoroughly went over each one, explaining what it means and what it is asking for (but first asking students to define it instead of just telling them herself) as well as going over all the components of the essay, breaking it down paragraph by paragraph. 

On the back of the prompt sheet was a planning page, where the required components were broken down for them to fill in: ie. “Rephrase the prompt in your own words,” “Which characters will you use to prove this prompt?” “Find a quote to support your claim,” et cetera. When she finished, students split into pairs with someone who was working on the same prompt as them and began to brainstorm together and work on the planning page. Partners often wound up using the same two characters, but not always—some had only one in common, or disagreed entirely but still wound up bouncing ideas off each other. I was interested to see that some were actually filling out the planning pages for both prompts to see which one they could come up with better ideas for. As they spent the rest of the period working on these, the teacher went around and provided assistance and input. They were instructed to finish planning and finding quotes for homework, then they would come in the next day to begin writing the essay in class. The teacher told me that she was having students write it in class only, and (this time) by hand only, because she worries about plagiarism.

I was glad to see that students had a whole class period dedicated to pre-writing/invention. This stage of writing is often neglected or not given enough time and attention, but it is an important part of the process which produces more thought-out writing and should not be overlooked. Christenbury and Lindblom point out that the more time is spent for pre-writing, the more students are likely to be invested in and successful in their writing (296); for this reason, I too dedicated a whole class period to invention in my recent unit plan for class.

In an 11th grade AP language class, I saw students prepare for a longer independent assignment (analyzing the rhetoric of a newspaper columnist of their choice) that was due in several weeks. In order to keep students on track, the teacher required that they submit their chosen columnist for approval, then write an introduction about the columnist with their thesis including the rhetorical strategies they had identified. The day I was there, they were required to read their introductions aloud to the class, and afterwards the teacher provided feedback. This did several things: 1. It held students accountable, as everyone would know if they hadn’t done the work. 2. It gave students an audience beyond just the teacher. 3. It ensured that students had begun the assignment, even though it was due in a few weeks, and gave them a starting point to work off of, with feedback from the teaching putting them in the right direction. 4. It let the teacher know that students had a grasp of the assignment and were beginning it on the right foot. 5. Other students were required to listen respectfully when their classmates read, and as they listened to others’ work they likely benefitted from the models and may have heard rhetorical strategies that they hadn’t considered. The only drawback to this was that it took up a lot of time (an entire class period) but I do think it was a valuable use of time. 

Lastly, I have seen several class periods where students turned in a writing assignment. Nearly every time, students were encouraged to read their final product aloud if they wished. There were usually only a few volunteers, but I believe this is worthwhile to encourage, perhaps to even offer incentives for. This is one way to ensure that there is an audience beyond the teacher, but it does not apply to everyone. I would like to see more creative and authentic writing assignments given--as Giouroukakis and Connolly emphasize, "writing for different purposes and audiences stimulates different kinds of thinking," and "leads to well-rounded individuals" (as well as being more motivating) (65)--but I do believe some of the strategies I’ve described in this post are useful as well.