Reflection on NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing

It has often been said that one should teach a man how to fish and not give a man a fish. I believe that the NCTE shares the same beliefs although they are more explicit in their discourse. As teachers, we are taught about the importance of scaffolding, using the real experiences of students and integrating and combining the reading and writing curriculum. The question, however, is how often do we put into practice what we have learnt.

Initially, some of us come with the ideology that writing is something that is innate. We seem to believe that writing can just transmit itself psychically to the students and that our jobs will be to only hone those skills. We seem to believe that the traditionally methods of teaching writing are the only ways to achieve success. Fortunately for us, the NCTE has sought to disabuse of our false ideologies. It is so easy to fall back to the same old routine of talk and chalk, never remembering that the students are separate from teaching strategies and that like the times, the teaching strategies to teach writing are evolving and to quote scripture : “One cannot put new wine in old wineskins...”

As teachers, we need to be cognizant of the fact that everyone can write despite the age of the person or even how successful academically that person is. According to the NCTE, “Evidence shows that anyone can get better at writing...”- this really helps to clarify some of the misconceptions that we have as teachers. We seem to think that the older a person is, the less likely it is that the person will be able to write. We seem to forget that to be able to write, developing writers require support from teachers who are well versed in the art of writing and who also have a vast knowledge of strategies used to teach writing. Too often it seems that we remove ourselves from the equation. We seem to become complacent and blame a student’s lack of writing ability on laziness rather than on our ineffective strategies.

In addition, we seem to forget how we were at the student’s age when we had to complete the laborious task of learning to write. We forget the boredom, the frustration and the lack of motivation that we experienced. We forget how we grumbled about the boring topics and the stories that were just of no interest to us. In order to get the students to write, we must be able to provide tools for motivation, knowing as we do that the more they write, the better they become and of course, the higher their levels of motivation. This, according to the NCTE can be remedied by giving the students opportunities to choose books and topics outside of the school that they can relate to. We, as teachers, seem to have some misconstrued ideas that writing is only the finished product of thought processes. NCTE subtly reminds us that although we seem to be doing some of the process automatically, our students need to move step by step through the pre-writing, drafting, redrafting, writing and publishing stages. For some reason, we have become more concerned with ensuring that the students pass an exam instead of attending to their level of success in the process of writing. How can they know if we do not tell them about the multiple strategies for a wide range of problems faced in writing such as audience, task analysis etc?

We often complain about our students do not have imagination and that they have no imagination. What better tool can be used to hone those skills than writing? According to the NCTE, writing is a tool for generating ideas. Imagine how much more expressive our students can become with the use of personal journals and reflective observations! The pride that one experiences when we see that they learn how to write for different purposes and as a result, how to relate reading to writing, and eventually, how to talk, all through learning how to write is almost inexplicable. This is like a teacher’s paradise! So why then do we ignore the benefits of it or overlook it?

To conclude, writing, according to the NCTE, is the one tool that can develop many of the language strands. It should not be overlooked or underestimated but instead tapped to reach the students’ full potential.

Reflection of Activity Two

As a teacher at a secondary school, and most especially a novice teacher, it was impossible not to have previously formed ideas concerning the teaching of writing. I am fully cognizant of the facts that writing is the primary means of communication. I believed, however erroneous that assumption may be, that my students should have come equip with the skills needed to be able to at least write competently. I never thought that the onus was on me to teach my students how to write properly. I honestly believed that when someone reached a certain age, it was nearly impossible to get them to write better. It is one thing to be able to tell the students that you need to be able to write more or write properly and quite another thing to teach the students the skills that they need. I never really thought that my teaching skills (especially where it concerned that of my teaching strategies and the materials that I would need to deliver these methods properly) would be questioned.

I have learnt through the reading of this article that:
1. Anyone can get better at writing. Through the reading of the article, I have been able to open my eyes to the fact that despite the age of the individual, they can improve their writing abilities. These developing writers require support and proper instruction. Everyone has the capacity to write. Teachers, however, need to be well-versed in the art of teaching in order to teach writing. If I as an instructor cannot write properly, how then can I instruct someone else to learn how to write?

2. People improve their writing through practice. This also increases their levels of motivation. Writing is an active and not an inactive learning process yet we seem to treat it otherwise. The writing process, especially, encourages persons to become better writers. Through the drafting , revising and rewriting phases, the students have no choice but to practice. Through this practice, the students get to see how much they have improved. This will greatly improve their levels of motivation which in turn will lead to a better competency at the literacy skill of writing.


I believe that I can certainly use these new insights in my practice as a teacher of writing. I believe that this new knowledge will make me more tolerable in the inevitable discovery of students who do not have the appropriate writing skills. It will help me to not panic but to settle down and identify the problem that is hindering the students growth in writing (whether it is that my teaching strategies are not appropriate, integrative or motivating enough or whether the student lies in the student itself) and seek measures to help correct these problems.

Certainly, it goes without saying that as teachers we need to remember that the act of learning to write is an active one that is constructivist in nature and should not fall back on the traditional methods of being teacher-centred. I will then seek to make my teaching more student-centred and motivating for the students.

Indubitably, we will come across teachers who are vehemently opposed to the idea of going from teacher-centred to student-centred. I am of the opinion that the best way to sway these teachers would be to help them recognise the benefits of these "new" thinking. Our fate of success in the classrooms lies in the hands of the co-operating teachers and the students. If we are able to successfully carry out these new student-centred strategies, the probability of us persuading the teachers to implement the ideas would be far greater. In addition, I believe that the teachers who are not so set in their ways may be able to, after seeing videos of the strategies and having workshops to practice the strategies would be more inclined to want to adopt the new ideas.

The appropriate materials will have to be made available to the teachers so that they can implement the strategies. The classroom should be more "technologically-abled" and there should more tools to help the student be active in their learning of writing.

All in all, our teachers need to be more equipped with the necessary tools and knowledge in order to improve our students writing/ literacy skills.

Writing- An Introduction

In this course, I hope to have the opportunity to explore my potential as a teacher of literacy. through the many aspects outlined to us by our lecturer, I hope that I will have the fortitude to inhale the perfume that is the essence of writing. In this way, I hope that I will be able to improve my capabilities not only as a teacher of literacy but also as a student of literacy ( knowing as I do that one never stops learning). I hope that I will be able to change my attitudes to teaching literacy- instead of teaching a book in isolation, I hope that I will be able to teach my students the skill of using literature not only in the classroom but in everyday life experiences.

God help us all.