Lesson 11 Fundamentals of Writing
The use of words: teaching writing:
Introduction:
-the teacher of writing is always the student’s first step into becoming a good writer
-the teacher has to direct the student in the habit of mind so they are always thinking about a purpose to their writing so that they’re always imagining that there has to be some sort of logical connection between those things that they are going to put in a paper
-the teacher is the engine that is going to run this
-the teacher sends the student off in trying to think through these logical cohesive thoughts
-the teacher teaches student on how to be a purposeful competent writer
-teaching writing is both the most important skill to teacher 4th-12th graders, and, simultaneously, it is the most difficult skill to teach
-the reason it is difficult to teach is because there isn’t a simple formula to make poor writers good writers
-learning how to be a purposeful and competent writer is a long process
-we have to begin to create a habit of mind in our students to think about writing in a certain way
Fundamentals of writing means:
-what are the foundations of writing?
-the fundamentals are logic, organization, focus, purpose, and having clear goals in undertaking both writing instruction and the act of writing itself
-every part of an essay should be working in concert with every other part of that essay
A different focus is separate from the fundamental of writing: (the writing process):
-grammar
-prose style
-topic sentences
-thesis development
-all of these are very important in the writing process
The problem in student writing is much deeper and far more fundamental:
-the depth of writing is missing
-teachers have focused so much time with the writing process/form of essays that we have forgotten to teacher them the fundamental of writing
-students are taught forms, transitions, introduction has 3 parts, etc…
-what is missing is to talk about the content
-we miss talking about the underlying cohesive principle of the meaning students want to convey in their writing
-teaching forms is essential as well, but the meaning of the essay is usually the missing component
-writing should have a deeper logic and cohesiveness to that essay
Goal as an educator:
-teaching writers to be more deliberative and conscientious
-to think about what they are actually putting on the page
-to think about is deeply throughout each step of the writing process
-fundamentals of writing is fundamentals of thinking and fundamentals of communication which should be applied across the curriculum
Fundamentals of writing can be applied to biology, art, history, etc…all subjects
-1st principle is that we must not hide things in the process from our student
-we want to help students deliberative writers then they must know why they’re doing certain things in their writing
-we must make them aware of the why and how to do these things
-make them conscious of what they are doing with their writing and engage in the writing process
-the whole point in students producing writing is that they are consciously undertaking the process
-every writer has a writing process which can be individualized so we must teach them the process but flexible to fit into the students engagement with the writing they produce
Process:
-Pre-writing is the most crucial part of the writing process
-Pre-writing is how we generate ideas, organize principles, and see the connective tissue between the elements of our essays even before we begin writing it
-step begins even to think ahead about the revision of the writing
-it is essential that teachers engage in writing the comments and not just write them out on the essay expecting the student to understand their own writing and not just focus on the grade
-One strategy is to make students comment on their own work
-have students ask themselves why certain paragraphs exist, and then respond to their own reflections on their writing, and help guide them in those reflections
Two types of academic essays:
Report writing:
- basically informational writing
-students are asked to go out and research something and provide the information of what they have researched
Classical argumentation:
-student has an overarching claim
-student will use support to the claim
-students then explains the ways in which that support actually supports the claim
Principles:
-not with the form, but with clear, logical, cohesive, and writing-conscious thinking, whether it’s informational or argumentative
Ex. The praying mantis
-stop listing out the parts of the essay like the important elements are anatomy, habitat, lifecycle
-kids will just regurgitate the order that you list for them
-the set up leads students not allows them to think on their own on what they want to focus on
-we don’t know why they have information on that paper if we tell them what to write about
-the concern is that students have 3 things in their thesis and they will have each one of those three things
***nothing wrong with the form but we need to look at that form differently from the position of content
New tools:
-begin with pre-writing and don’t tell them what order you want the information
-let them decide which comes first, second, third, etc.. as it challenges their logical thinking process
-layer your instruction depending on the grade level
Ex. elementary you tell them the 3 elements you want in the easy, but older you let them think about what they want to focus on and in what order
-allow the students to list out the different components and figure out what are the 2-3 important things which may differ for each student
-once they figure out what 3 elements they want to focus on then they go from one element to another picking out 3-4 things to focus on in each element
-Students will find the most interesting about the topic
Ex. praying mantis life cycle mating ritual is that the female eats the male
-the student has just found the most exciting part of the story of a praying mantis
-they have found the most interesting hook to their essay
-now they go back and find they must write about the mandible because it is part of the female anatomy that gnaws off the male’s head
-everything in the essay centers around this key idea they have found
***it is in the discovery process, prewriting process, they are going to find that hook, the crux, that thing which excites them about this essay
-now everything is built around it so we no longer have a list
-no longer just have the purpose of this essay to just write stuff about the praying mantis
-no longer to just give information about the praying mantis
-now they have an organizing principle
-now they have a connective tissue for that essay
-they now have a goal
-now every paragraph is working in concert with every other paragraph, building towards something
-there is a vision for this now
Ex. report on historical figure like Martin Luther Jr./biological report
-not tell the what to put in the paper
-student researches upbringing, his father, his mother, early childhood, education, work in the civil rights movement, his assassination, how we celebrate his birthday, so his entire live in 5 pages
-each paragraph only related to the other one because they’re all somehow about Martin Luther King Jr.
-this is not teaching minds to think logically, cohesively
-now, maybe a student runs across the “I Have a Dream Speech” and is moved so that becomes the central theme in their essay
-then the center intertwines with the other paragraphs because it switches the students essay to what means to them
-the love of that speech inspires the student so gives the foundation of their writing
-now instead of focusing on everything about Martin Luthers King Jr., but a specific moment in his life
-now when they go back to look at his early biological information they are looking through the lens of of his life and how he got to that speech
-now when they look at his life his dad being a preacher matters
-they may emphasize that he won all sorts of speech contests in his youth
-that he was an incredible public speaker even in grade school
-the he himself was preacher; that he went on to get his degree in divinity
-emphasize his training in divinity school honed his rhetorical skill
-all information surrounds that one thing that they’re working towards which is that one thing in his life, that “I have a dream” speech
-the student has a purpose and a goal to their writing
-not just simply information on a page but the student wants to know what led up to his being able to deliver this speech, which means they would have to give some background of his work in the civil rights movement
-the key idea that the students work towards in their prewriting as they find their ah-ha moment
-students write their own lists to make connections between each of these things
-the teacher can ask to show the list and then ask about the connections between these things (to explain the list)
-ask the student to explain the connections between what is listed
-think of it like this: we don’t enter a conversation to just give lots of information
-there is always a goal of whatever it is we’re talking about
-there is a purpose for conversation
Ex. writing a letter is not just giving random information but always has a goal in mind
***organizing principle, all the paragraphs working with that one vision in mind
***this is what we have lost in our writing instruction which is supposed to be simple because when we write we write with a purpose which is communicating
-writing is not just to provide information but it’s about having a purpose
-argumentative writing is much easier to do because there’s a clear purpose
Instructors of Writing:
-have students write their own essay prompt
-don’t take an essay prompt out of a book because the prompt may not have the goals for writing that you have in mind
-now reflect on the layers of how complicated you want the essay to be for your students
-you may want to give your students certain organizing principles
-But do not give them the prompt because students may not connect with the prompt provided because it is yours not theirs
Essay Prompts:
-make sure you don’t put in words in a prompt that needs to be defined
-the prompt needs to be explicit and if not then proved the definitions of the words in your prompt
Ex. who is more insane is not a good start because based on whose definition of insanity
-better: according to this definition of insanity—Don Quixote or Sancho Panza
-you provide the layers for students
-what type of essay am I going to assign: informational or argumentative
-do I want to give the students some organizing principles or do I want to make then wrestle with that
-am I going to give them passages from books or where they should be looking in order to get this information
-these are all layers they’re going to have to go through in the writing process
-you should make them very conscious about what you’re giving to them and why you're giving it to them
-the most important thing about essay prompts and about writing instruction itself
-you give students a purpose and a goal for writing then the essay shifts from boring to exciting
***we have to remain conscious of what we want from our students
***stop assigning an essay when all you want to see is what they learned
-writing is there to communicate our thoughts on a given topic in a clear, organized manner; not just to see what they learned
-stay conscious on the goals for my students in their writings
-to help them with organization, then hold back a bit and see what they can do
be very clear in your mind of what you want from your students in the way in which you put the essay prompt together
-know your goals are for that specific writing project
***writing is like a chess match
-as a writer, you know what your purpose is
-you know what your goal is
-every single paragraph is working in concert with other paragraphs to achieve that goal
-our moves have to be thought and rethought throughout this match
-the beautiful thing is about writing is that the final product you give somebody
-we think when we write
-when we write we confront our own thought process
-writing can be messy and we have to revise it
-writers have to be flexible
-teachers of writing have to let their students understand
**writing is hard work
-writing takes the mix of architect and poet
-the formal ticks that are helpful but only takes a writer so far
-clear, cohesive, logical thinking really helps transitions
-one of the best pieces of advice for transitional sentence is the best transitions are the ones that don’t exist
-this means that the ideas are seamlessly from one to another because you have thought them through that you don’t need those signposts telling your reader that I am transitioning to a new topic
-the organization is just there that the ideas are working in concert with one another
-writing is a habit of mind
-getting students to know that when they sit down and start making their lists, they have a purpose, and they have a goal
-they need to know they have to discover what that is and to go back and be able to communicate that
-a habit of mind, to be able to think cohesively and logically
**begin when they are young, the elementary years, 4th grade, we start teaching them prewriting, that there has to be a purpose, even in rudimentary exercises
***if we put this in practice then we have 8 years of education to teach them this habit of mind