Week 2 Reflect

Week 2

Makiba Ward:

As we continue into week 2, this week focus will mainly be the essentials of writing, integrating technology into writing and using writing to promote critical engagement and participation.

In order for students to become better writers within the classroom environment or on a whole they are certain essentials of writing students need to engage in such as students need time to write, students need a regular response to their writing, students need to publish their writings, students need to choose most of their topics they write about, students need to hear the teacher talk through what they are doing as they write, students need to maintain a collection of their work to create a portrait of their writing history and students need a teacher who explicitly teach writing. Essentials for Writing is specifically designed to help students write with clarity and purpose. On the other hand, once teachers provide daily writing assignments it will ensure that students focus and structure their thinking, as well as learn strategies for accomplishing specific types of writing tasks that teachers incorporate for example, “I do it” – focus lesson, “We do it” – guided instruction, “You do it together” – collaborative learning and “You do it alone” – independent task.

Additionally, new forms of technology are being created each day and it is important for teachers to incorporate these technologies into the classroom. By integrated technology, teachers are providing more opportunities and strategies to increase their students‟ abilities to write more detailed, more expressive, and have deeper interactions. Some of these techniques which are used for the integration of writing are blogs, digital storytelling, and wiki. Just a few to mention.

In conclusion, over the years teachers express concern at the lack of student engagement and participation in classroom discussions. Some students find it difficult to maintain concentration during a lesson. They are a few specific strategies that have used to create active, participatory within the classroom environment such as: Writing to Start Class: Whether or not students complete a homework assignment alongside their reading for the class, it makes sense to give each student a chance to refresh his or her memory at the beginning of a class, for example, pass-back stories, guess who character cards, quirky prompts and using story starters. In-Class Writing: Informal writing during class can help break up the class session and encourage students to remain mentally engaged. Consider having students write briefly in response to a new idea or to “use” that new information in some way. Gallery Walk: One way to get students out of their seats is to plan a “gallery walk.” In a gallery walk, students move from one station to the next at regular periods of time. Writing and Small group work: Putting students into smaller groups can also help to promote student engagement. Many students who will not contribute to a classroom discussion will take an active role in small-group discussions. Writing at the end of class: A good way to end class is to have students do some writing in the last five minutes. Sometimes called “exit slips”.

           

Derika Joseph:

In order to be good at writing, it is required we maintain and perfect the trends of writing. In doing this, we must allow our students time to write. When students are given a block time to write (45-60 mins daily), they come prepared with ideas for topics and text construction. It is also important to give regular responses to student's writings. Students look for this from their teachers, peers, or others. By doing this, students comprehend the needs of their audience and know what to keep writing to keep them reading and interested. Thus, students require the need to publish their writing. They will begin to consider themselves as real authors and will continue to perfect this skill of writing. In addition, it is important that students choose most of the topics they write about. If students write about what they know or can relate to, they can be more flexible with their writing. For example, they can try writing poems as well and not just stories. However, they still need teachers who will help them to build their knowledge base. Likewise, students also require to hear their teachers talk through what they are doing as they write, maintain collections of their work to create a portrait of their work and they need teachers who explicitly teach writing. As a result, it would be easier for them to then begin to integrate technology into writing. For example, if students are comfortable enough, they can begin to blog and share with the world what they have mastered by showcasing their writing skills. Or, they can begin to tell their stories digitally. In order for this to be a success and be consistent, teachers must motivate their students to keep their writing creative and fun. They can do so by doing many different activities that bring out and promote writing. For example, doing pass-back stories. This involves the teacher giving the students prompts which can start off or end student's stories. To make it more interesting, after a minute has passed, the teacher can tell the students to pass the paper to another student to continue the story with 1 or a few sentences. This will allow them to build a story as a class and see how exciting writing can be. Therefore, students will then also being to be comfortable even more in writing in class individually or in small groups with the confidence to continue to showcase their writings in bigger projects like gallery walks too.

 

Shaquan Williams:

Research has proven that quality writing programmed has a number of key features that make it effective. Writing is an art that needs to be perfected in all students. In order for this to be done, one of the suggestions is that children are allowed 45 minutes to an hour to write. This allows their mind to be set and ready with information which they will express in written form. In addition to the allocated time to write, students will need to be given feedback from peers, teachers, and other individuals in order to understand the expectations of the audience when they interact with the text. This direct feedback allows the writer to improve their writing since the responses are immediate and often with face to face contact. Another suggestion that is also effective is the posting of students’ work while will make them continue to perfect their skill of writing as they continue.

Technology has proven to be an effective and ever-growing medium in the learning aspect of education. Technology can be used in writing by allowing students to use different forums to showcase their work such as blogs to master their writing. To sum up, teachers need to find different, innovative ways to motivate students to keep their writing interesting. For example, the use of digital storytelling allows students to interact with peers and share their stories.