I just received an assignment from Dr. Dean to write an inquiry paper on a topic that I wanted to learn more about. So, I wondered—as a teacher, how can I help my students to become life-long writers, not just writers in the classroom? It sounded like an interesting topic, at first. Then, I realized that I had no idea where to go with it, because it all just seems like the idealistic (and slightly naïve) goal of a budding future teacher. How can I actually help kids to not only like writing, but to want to write, especially once they’ve left my English class? I’ll admit, this paper is starting to intrigue me and I think that it is an extremely important concept to understand before I get into the classroom, but I’m not sure I’ve got enough information and thoughts on it to fill the entire ten pages that are required. I’ll keep you updated on my findings, though.
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3 comments:
WHAT THE? You have a blog? Where the heck have I been??
I'm no writer. I'm no teacher. What I do know is kids. Kids and teens like to think they are in control. In control of the whole situation. They don't like to be put down for their choice of topic. They don't like to be put down for their ideas. Just completely in control...the secret is to let them think they are in control. Give them rights to choose what crazy topic they want and let them go with it. Just give boundaries. Another thing to remember is not all kids are writers when you want them to be. Maybe they'll take the bait now that you dangle in front of them. Maybe they will remember it later on in life. Just go in with the hopes that you can at least touch one person...like when you bear your testimony. You hope at least one person is awake/be inspired!
I'm full of hot air.
Oh my gosh-I just read the rest of your blog-is your blog some sort of assignment? Don't tell people my name, cause I'll forever be the fool that commented like an idiot.
-Josephina Pafoofnik
One of my favorite English teacher was known as a creative writer. EVERYONE LOVED her and and fought to get into her class, after having her I could see why. We never wrote an essay about what we learned in such-and-such chapter of such-and-such book. We did many other projects that made us think deeper and allowed us to really internalize and make the book our own.
One story we read was a true story about a little girl that was trapped in her village that had been destroyed by a volcano. We wrote a story about us being at the scene of a disaster and what we saw and did to help the people. Another story we read was a crime mystery. For the project, we divided in groups and wrote and had to record a crime story, complete with sound efrfects, where the crime has to be solved by looking at a mirior or through a camera lense. My favorite project was that we picked a song and wrote a story to go a long with the song while it was playing. We did MANY other projects like drawing, poetry and other creative expressions to show how and what the story means to us. I want to be a teacher JUST LIKE HER!!! She realized that very few people were good at writing essays. She utalized other creative writen outlets to express our knowledge of what we read. Because we weren't confined to an essay we became great writers and creative thinkers.
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