The Importance Of Teaching Writing

Over the past week and a half of teaching writing, consistently, I have learned a lot about the learners needs when it comes to writing and the importance of teaching writing specific to each discipline. In kindergarten, writing is a dreaded subject for many learners. There are so many basic skills that learners have to focus on (such as writing left to right, using spaces, forming letters, etc) that they do not truly get to enjoy their time to write. They cannot just focus on the writing aspect, they have to focus and think about all the little things as well. During this lesson, I wanted to use writing as a time for the students to reflect over the text, rather than for pure assessment (p. 63). The pressure of writing and doing everything

Many of my students do not like writing or are below grade level in their writing abilities. As a whole, students need more opportunities to engage in and practice the writing process without the pressure of assessment. Allowing students to simply engage in and practice the writing process gave me, as a teacher, a better idea of students abilities as well as specific things that I need to focus on in future lessons.

During my observations, I noticed that six students were writing top to bottom, rather than left to right. During my next writing lessons, I am going to use this data and alter my instruction to provide some guidance on concepts of writing. I also noticed that students need practice with writing the letter “s.” Many students are writing their “s” backward. Lastly, I discovered that Ju-Zahria needs some one-on-one instruction on letter formation. I plan to pull Ju-Zahria for extra guidance and instruction for the first ten minutes of free center time. We will practice tracing letters and forming letters with

Since my goal for the lesson was to allow students to truly explore writing, I think that I did not set my expectations high enough for the quality of work that I was expecting. I think that if I set my expectations higher, the students will rise to those expectations even if they are just practicing and engaging in the writing experience.

Were learners engaged in learning? Provided specific examples. What could you have done to better engage them? Yes, learners were engaged in learning. I used hand motions, as a during reading strategy, to help students define vocabulary and engage them in the reading of the text. I also asked students to help generate facts to put on our fact chart. To better engage students in learning, I could have had a quick shake break between the book reading and creating the fact chart. I think that a quick break would have helped students get their wiggles out and come back focused on the task at hand, engaged, and ready to learn.

Did your activities give learners an opportunity to explore, discover, be creative, and/or work independently?