Writing and Representing

I think it is safe to say that most parents look forward to their child’s first words.  These first recognizable sounds are one of the major milestones in a child’s path towards learning to communicate effectively.  Soon the child will speak in full sentences and soon they will be able to represent some of their ideas with pictures.  Children are ‘taught’ to represent their words symbolically through letters, and parents and teachers applaud them every step of the way.  However, at some point along this path the praise and excitement about language stops.  I can not imagine a parent saying “What a fantastic five-paragraph essay you’ve written about your summer vacation…let me put that in the scrapbook next to your first tooth…”  Where did the excitement for learning and language go?  Has language simply become a way to achieve a goal, and a means to complete the next book review for English class?  Are students simply completing the next assignment to please their teacher and make the grade? 

Although I believe book reviews have their place (somewhere…) there are more than 5-paragraph essays and Shakespeare plays for students to be exposed to.  Writing is a great way that young students can begin to communicate more than just summaries of texts they have read.  Writing can also be a way to communicate feelings and emotions.  Donald Graves defines writing as a “…medium with which people communicate.”  Communication for middle school students is seen in a countless number of ways.  From texting to talking to writing to drawing, it seems like all these young people do is communicate at some level all day long.  In order for students to improve their communication skills, they need to be exposed to various writing styles.  They need to practice writing in various modes and they need learn to respond to a diverse range of writing styles and do so in a manner that has some meaning for them in these formative middle school years.

Firstly, students need to be exposed to various styles of writing and representing so that they can further their understanding of the communication/writing process.  This blog could simply not cover all the range of writing styles available to students today.  Magazines, blog posts, web pages, twitter feeds, fiction, non-fiction, poetry and technical writing are all mediums that students should have exposure to.  They need to learn what makes these styles of writing unique.  Students should also realize that there are other ways of expression besides the written word.  The rise of the internet, picture books, graphic novels and the like are all viable mediums of writing and representing.  According to the IRP (p. 15) these all meet the requirements of a ‘text’ – showing the “diverse range of materials… from which we construct meaning.”

Atwell’s writing workshop approach gives students a lot of exposure to various styles of writing.  She believes that “social relationships come first” and that she can use those relationships in the classroom to help students see other styles of writing.  She gives an example in her book about a student that simply didn’t really see what poetry would do for him until he was exposed to another student’s poem.  The other student’s poem was about her parents’ divorce, and this showed him the power of poetry, and he soon wrote a poem for a recently departed friend of his that went to another school. (Atwell, p. 72)  Young Jack in Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog eventually wraps his head around poetry and realizes that it is a medium that he can explore.

Now that students have had some exposure to these various styles of writing, I believe they need to practice some of these styles of writing, and learn how to express themselves.  In Romano’s article, Writing from the Inside, he stresses that students need to write in a variety of genres.  Romano stated in his article “I don’t want students to become Johnny-One-Genres” and this speaks to this idea about exploring various styles and practicing various types of writing.  According to Romano, different genres have the opportunity to teach students different things and they will become better writers as a result.

However, I don’t believe that simply proposing a style of writing to these students will be effective; they need to care about what they are writing about and write about things that matter to them.  The article Structure and Freedom by Casey and Hemenway talks about students losing the motivation to write because they are forced to write about things that don’t really matter to them in order to “…please their easily pleased teacher.” In her article The Importance of Choice Kittle wrote “I want to...teach writers, not writing.”  Without choice students are “…unlikely to value any outcome of this…beyond a grade” and “…see no audience beyond the teacher, no purpose in their lives outside of school.”  Although giving the students choice presents its own unique challenges, Kittle writes that choice expands thinking, feeds the teacher and the writer and helps prepare the student for college.  Young people are filled with ideas, and choice may give them the opportunity they need to express those ideas.  The IRP allows teachers to have a very broad approach to this.  The overall aim of ELA from Grade 1-7 from the IRP is…

“The aim of English Language Arts is to provide students with opportunities for personal and intellectual growth through speaking, listening, reading, viewing, writing, and representing to make meaning of the world and to prepare them to participate effectively in all aspects of society.” (IRP, p. 2)

Can this be done simply by doing book reports, 5-paragraph essays and reading books that they have no interest in?

Adolescents are emotional young people, and are starting to realize that there is more to the world than just their own ideas.  Service-learning is one way that we can get students engaged and excited about matters in their local community, pushing them a little further into society as a whole.  In the article by Chiaravalloti (2009) students were engaged in a project that included “11 different multimedia projects to use in educating their local community…”  The students researched a real-life problem, that of global warming and researched ways that they could go about making real change in their community.  Students in this article wrote scripts for a radio commercial, wrote an advertisement in a local newspaper, made a tri-fold brochure, and created a webpage as well as other types of writing as representing.  The learning in a project such as this one that extends the entire school year is difficult to quantify, but it showed the students that they have value, which I feel is an innate desire of all people, and especially young students.  This project is one example of how to get students engaged and excited about writing and representing.  Students can learn that their writing can actually make a difference and actually “effect change in their community”.

Atwell echoes this theme of choice and meaningful writing in her book, In the Middle.  Her ideas about writing territories are a great way to get students thinking about things they would like to write about and a great method for keeping them engaged.  Young people have so many interests at this age, and Atwell uses her own writing territories to stimulate ideas for her students and allows them to add to their territories throughout the year as new ideas come into their heads.  This fits well into the IRP’s general descriptions of the three types of writing: personal, informational and imaginative.

With all of this exposure and practice, students need to enjoy writing and use their imaginations.  Using interactive activities and strategies such as jigsaw or tea party can help keep student engagement in writing. (class discussion, October 2011)  The book by Gail Thompkins, 50 Literacy Strategies has some interesting ideas for teaching literacy to students that can help keep them engaged and to help them use their imaginations.  Students are starting to be pulled in many different directions in middle school, and this is a critical time for students in the arts, and a time when feedback starts to mean something to them.  I don’t believe that we should be ‘coddling’ our students, but they do need to feel some success in their writing.  If students do not feel some sense of self-efficacy in their writing, will they want to continue?  The more anecdotal methods of assessment may help students feel more success in their writing instead of striving simply for a letter grade, and hopefully this will also help them enjoy writing more. (class discussion, November 8^th, 2011)

In order for students to succeed as good writers, they do need to learn about writing at the most basic level.  Effective grammar and proper syntax are skills that are essential to writing and communication at all levels.  I’m not saying that creativity should not be considered, but students do need to learn the basics.  Instead of boring worksheets and long-drawn out lessons on grammar and punctuation, Atwell presents the idea of mini-lessons.  These can be short 5-10 minute lessons about topics that come up in the students writing that are important to them, and that will make them better writers.  These lessons can also be longer and more interactive, but they are not the 50 minute lectures on punctuation that I remember in school.  Atwell uses texts and examples that are relevant to the student and also involves their own writing in these mini-lessons so that they stay invested in their own learning.

Finally, now that students are beginning to have a more conscious thought process, they can begin to respond to various writing styles by analysing ideas and forming opinions (IRP).  I believe that this stage in their writing career is a critical one for young students, as they are beginning to discover who they are and can begin to express this through their own writing.  When responding to writing styles, Knoeller notes that there are mainly two genres used: formal analytic essays and informal personal response.  Although these have their place in writing, his idea of imaginative response presents a much broader way to respond to texts.  In his essay, he defines imaginative response as “Imaginative response can be defined broadly as responding to a piece of literature by writing creatively in any imaginative genre other than exposition and argument.”  This could take the place of a writing a narrative, a poem, a drama or others as defined by Knoeller.  He feels that this creates much more insight and the students create much more “fruitful results” with a more creative approach to analysis.

In the digital age, writing and representing will continue to be a part of our culture and I think now there are more and more opportunities for young students to express themselves.  Casey and Hemenway’s article Structure and Freedom has a great example of a young girl that lost the desire to write.  This young girl Paige, really “…wished she could tell teachers what she knew about writing”.  If we, as teachers spend more time listening to our students and less time talking at them, we will begin to realize that students have things to say and need a medium to express themselves.  Students can have exposure to writing, practice writing/representing and reflect on their own work and others if writing and representing are presented in a way that is relevant to their lives.

Atwell, N. (1998). In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers. 

British Columbia Ministry of Education. “English Language Arts, Kindergarten to Grade 7: Integrated Resource Package 2006.”

Beers, K., Probst, R. E., & Rief, L. (2007). Adolescent literacy, turning promise into practice. Heinemann Educational Books, p. 167-178.

Casey, M. & Hemenway S. I. (2001). Structure and freedom: Achieving a balanced writing curriculum. English Journal, 90(6), 68-75.

Creech, Sharon.  Love That Dog.  HarperCollins, 2001.

De La Paz S, Graham S. Explicitly teaching strategies, skills, and knowledge: Writing instruction in middle school classrooms. Journal Of Educational Psychology [serial online]. December 2002; 94(4):687-698.

Kittle, P. (2007). The importance of choice. In K. Beers, R.E. Probst & L. Reif (Eds.), Adolescent literacy: Turning promise into practice (pp. 209-212). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

Knoeller, Christian.  Imaginative Response: Teaching Literature through Creative Writing.  English Journal, Vol. 92, No. 5, May 2003

Tompkins, G. (2004). 50 literacy strategies : step by step. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Woolfolk, A., Winne, P., Perry, N. (2011). Educational psychology. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall.