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.
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