Within the chapter “Conditions for Effective Writing,” the
author outlined how important writing is to students’ educational growth and
how to go about setting up the best conditions for quality writing to happen.
One of the points that I agreed with the most was adding the opportunity for
choice. It is so important to allow students to choose their own topics to
write about because it combats the trend of assigning topics to students and
getting poor writing in return. When
students have to opportunity to choose, they tend to be more motivated to
explore the topic, try harder to get their point across, and produce honest
pieces of writing. I know from experience how this affects students. In my high
school language class, we were given specific topics to write about throughout
the semester. I usually enjoy writing, but I did not enjoy this class at all. I
felt like I was constantly writing about issues that had no relevance to my
life and it caused me to not try as hard. However, at the end of the year we
were given the opportunity to choose our own topic for a research paper. I
remember thinking how amazing this was and ultimately getting an A on the
paper. This shows first hand how essential it is for teachers to allow students
to explore their own topics of interest. This way, they will have a better
chance of creating quality pieces of writing.
I also agree with the point about allowing the opportunity for choice in writing. I am actually doing a research project right now about if books children choose on their own are more effective than the books assigned by the teacher. It is based all around choice, and then from those books, the children get to choose what they write about as well. There are definitely times when there should be prompted writing, but I think it is great to allow children the opportunity to chose what to write about on their own. It displays their creativity and allows the teacher to get to know their personal style of writing as well.
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point, Rachel! I agree with you that having a choice in what we write about makes it so much more enjoyable and makes us try harder and give it our all! Even as a college student I feel that way! My case study student is like this too; she loves writing her own stories but hates writing anything her teacher makes her write. I notice that her good writing skills then come out in her works that she enjoyed more than her works that her teacher made her too! This is interesting to me! I really think that enjoyment in what you are doing has more of an effect on performance than what we may think!
ReplyDeleteI also think choice is super important for students. It gives them the freedom to write about what they want. This will lead to better writing because they actually care about it and want it to turn out good. They will also be able to use their background knowledge about this topic and make it more interesting.
ReplyDeleteRachel I can agree whole heartedly with your opinion about choice in writing. I believe that there's a time for certain prompts too but students should always have some kind of choice. At my time at Ball State, I took an English class where the whole semester our papers had to be out about one of two movies Star Wars or The Wizard of Oz. This includes several papers including a 20 page research paper! How I dreaded that class! Nothing I wrote had any meaning to me which made it dreadful! Students need choice so that they begin to be passionate and feel like what they believe ultimately matters in some way even if it just to them! What kinds of times do you believe students should be prompted and how often? I personally believe that they should only have specific prompts with times maybe once a month just to help them get in a test mode and understand that way to write too!
ReplyDeleteRachel, I couldn't agree more with your opinion about students having a choice in their writing. When students have the freedom to write about their interests or personal experiences, they put more effort into it and get more out of their writing. However, I think it is important that we monitor this and make sure the students are still writing to their full potential, perhaps conducting writing conferences after every piece of writing. Some students may not enjoy writing even when they have the choice to write about whatever they desire. It's important that we help those that are struggling and do everything we can do make writing an important part of their education.
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