Chapter 8 Blog Post

Chapter Eight

The Importance of Writing

The Chapter discussed how writing may be the most complex communication process within the communicative arts because of the different ways it can be used to challenge and enhance thinking skills.  I think this is very important to keep in mind.  Writing is very important for communication and more emphasis should be placed upon refining students writing abilities.  Reading and writing go hand in hand.  It is important to always continue to work to improve students abilities in both because they both are important.  When teachers themselves do not have a lot of confidence in their writing ability they do not always include instruction for students or there is frustration when trying to include instruction on it.  Because of this teachers need to continue to work on their writings abilities as well and teacher education must have instruction for all content teachers on how to teach writing skills to students. 

Writing as a Product/ Writing as a Process

Writing should be viewed as more than just something for evaluation.  Writing can be used as a unique way to build students comprehension.  Writing is a process and it must be taught this way for students not to feel too overwhelmed.  Rubrics and check lists are great ways for students to understand what is required in their writings before they even start the process.  It is important for students to know what the teacher expects them to include in their writing. These can help students when developing a writing plan and executing it.  I plan to use both of these when assigning my students writing assignments.  As a teacher I want my students to succeed and giving them these I can help them do their best. 

Computers as Writing Tools

It is the Digital age and students must be exposed to writing using computers. Teachers should encourage students to use this tools both at home and school.  Not every student has the ability to use these writing tools at home, so teachers should make sure that these students are able to use them at school.  Writing is more and more done on computers instead of paper and pencils and it is important that teachers do this as well. 

Writing and the PAR Framework

A great activity for the preparation phase of writing is cubing.  Cubing has students prepare as both writers and readers by using all six levels of cognition.  This is good to remind students what they should be asking themselves when writing and reading.  In the assistance phase, a teacher needs to be reminded that when giving a writing assignment it must have importance to the students.  This will help engage students with the assignment.  Learning logs are a great way for students to journal when they are reading material.  This logs can then be used to help students write about the material just read.  In the reflective phase, guided writing procedure is a great way for students enhance their comprehension.  This strategy includes all phases in PAR as well. I will use collaborative writing and C3B4Me in my future classroom.  I think these would be good activities to use with high school students. 

This chapter was very informative to me because I want to use a lot of writing in my classroom.  Social studies is reading and writing based.  I want to not only my students to do both, but I want to improve their skills while they are doing them.  This chapter had a lot of very useful activities that I will use in my future classroom.