Saturday, September 12, 2009

Why not writing?

Writing is one of the skills we learn when we are in school. Unfortunately, not many students are very fond of it. Consequently, they have difficulty in expressing themselves through writing. Others don´t even know how to start. I remember that when I was a high school student, I enjoyed my writing classes. I would spend hours trying to find the right words for every story that I wrote. That´s right, I was very careful when writing. I would make use of my dictionary everytime I was not sure about a word. I remember getting excellent grades on my papers, too. All the effort paid off. I´m not afraid of writing and I´m not a lazy writer either. For this reason, I am worried sometimes when I see that my students don´t want or don´t like to write. Whenever I assign homework, the exercises that require crossing out or checking, or making an X or filling in the blanks are all done but the ones that require writing are not. Why is that? There is something I have learned during all these years. We only learn to do something by doing it. If students don´t write, they will never learn to write. Of course I´m talking about formal writing, compositions, contextualized sentences , etc... Students do write, they write emails to friends, they text messages on their cell phones, that´s true, but what about school? I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that someday my students enjoy writing as much as I do. I also hope that this blog thing helps me to achieve that.

11 comments:

  1. Dear Cleide,

    Writing is certainly a skill that we develop and improve as we keep practicing it. For years now, I've found in blogging a way to frequently write and connect to others. We won't ever reach every learner in the same way. However, I do think we can find creative ways to engage them in writing and blogging could be one of these ways. There are many. However, depending on the way you develop the activity, students' response can be more positive. Interestingly enough, sometimes I ask my adult students to write a paragraph and they don't. However, through blogging they practice writing. Plus they have some time for reflection in English with the advantage of getting feedback from a wider audience than just the teacher.

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  2. Yeah...I can see that now. As someone said in on of the comments, I don´t remember who, he said it´s not fair being the only one to read students´ compositions, why not let others do too. It could even give them a different sense of accomplishment, it would not just be something the teacher reads and grades. It would be more than that, reach more people and see how they react, their responses. And it could go on and on depending on how nteresting the topic is.It´s fabulous just to think of it.Thank you my dear for being there for me.I appreciate it.

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  3. Hi, Cleide.
    Welcome to Blogger.
    Nice post!

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  4. Cleidoca,

    Maybe blogging is a nice way to make students feel interested in writing....

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  5. I agree Ricky and I guess this is what made me start this blog.

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  6. Cleide,

    I can't believe I am here and I'm so happy that you're here with me. I remember a workshop I attended. Painlesswriting was meant to give suggestions on how to motivate and help students write. I want to share it with you, they talked about using visual prompts, Maybe we could give it a 21st century twist, adapt and present together. I'd love that! I even thought about using commoncraft type of show instead of my old pictures to tell the stories. Hope we can all work together.

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  7. Dani, love, I´d love to work with you. You have so much experience, I could learn a lot from you and use it in class. I really want it to happen but I just don´t know how,yet. Let´s talk about it.

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  8. Hi, Cleide.

    I "resonated" (as people often say, nowadays, on the Web) with your reflections on motivating students to expand their writing skills. I've had similar experiences; as a matter of fact, I think all writing teachers have those same experiences and ask themselves the same questions. (Actually, some writing teachers don't seem to have those experiences, but such teachers are either extraordinarily gifted or they know how to write well themselves and enjoy it but can't understand why others aren't like that.)

    And I came to the same conclusion that you did: "There is something I have learned during all these years. We only learn to do something by doing it. If students don´t write, they will never learn to write." Yes! I also agree that the comfort many students have with e-mail and texting and doing online text chats is no guarantee that they will feel comfortable with doing more formal writing—or even know how to begin a formal writing "piece" (paragraph, essay, research paper, business letter, etc. etc. etc.)

    I think blogging can be very useful in helping students "find their voice" (discover a need to express themselves in writing), but I also think it would be a mistake to expect blog posts and comments (especially when someone is just getting started with blogging) to be well-crafted writing. Instead, I think blogging can be used as part of a process of developing skills which are necessary for formal writing, and an integral part of that process is getting students engaged in writing and in writing on a regular basis. In that process, students can be helped to become gradually more aware of audience and style and the conventions of more formal writing—and the key word here is gradually.

    Your final thought ("I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that someday my students enjoy writing as much as I do. I also hope that this blog thing helps me to achieve that.") is a very worthy goal—one that all of us should have.

    Best wishes as you continue on your journey of discovery and learning!

    Dennis in Phoenix

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  9. Dennis, I totally agree that learning is a gradual thing and I agree that blogging is part of the process. I want to take advantage of the novelty, of the fact that blogging is such a hype thing among teeangers nowadays, it´s so present in their lives, that it would be the perfect way to get them started.

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  10. Hi again, Cleide.

    I'm glad you and I are on the same page about how blogging can be useful in engaging students in the process of learning to write.

    You've put together a wonderful blog here, and have found ways to elicit responses from a number of readers, so I think your class blog project will be a success. I wish you boa sorte and look forward to hearing about how things go!

    Dennis in Phoenix

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  11. Dennis, I have a good feeling about it, too. I´ll keep posting about it! You won´t miss a thing, I promise.

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