How Can We As Teachers Create An Environment Where Children Want To Write?
I believe that this is a difficult environment to create as many children and adults do not write often due to advances in technology. I think, for me, I would create and environment where writing is accepted in many formats and where children can be creative with their writing. I would encourage children to create writing pieces for fun. Perhaps if the group of children in the class enjoy writing fiction pieces then I would give lots of opportunities for the class to do so. I would also encourage the class to free write. In order to make the classroom one where children want to write, I would ensure that children are comfortable writing and where their work is accepted in each of its forms. In order to improve writing more practice would be needed but perhaps this would not encourage children who are not as keen to write?
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Charlotte,
ReplyDeleteDo you think there is a way we could use technology as a part of writing in the classroom? Especially with the formatting options computers allow us, creative works could be an interesting way to try this out. Though I do agree, with computers and such, many people are less likely to write in the way I think of formal writing. Perhaps this is a signal of a large change in the way we will teach.
I like the idea of open writing, or letting varied forms of writing be validated in our classrooms.
Practice can be fun, if it is part of a larger activity, and is low-risk (or doesn't involve scoring that might stigmatize the writing as weak or insufficient). One such way is single trait scoring, where we only look at one trait for scoring. When journaling in my own classroom, I have students journal daily, about 100 words, and I score (gently) on the word count, not content or grammar/spelling, etc. There are other ways as well, especially when it comes to more creative types of writing.