Best Practices for Writing

In the past I have been unhappy with how I was teaching writing in my classroom. It seemed as if it was limited to language arts time only and the topics were always picked by me. This left the students with little ownership for the writing. How could I really expect them to learn the writing process or how to truly express their thoughts in writing when the experiences I gave them were so vague? I decided I had to change this. I always loved writing as a child and I had a 3rd grade teacher who let us explore our ideas and take time to really work on our writing. Even back then, my teacher worked with us one on one and we were allowed to conference with our peers. I let this, along with other ideas from Best Practices (Zemelman, 2005) to help guide me into what was best for my students. I really wanted them to create authentic, expressive pieces of writing. I chose to let my students have a decision in what they were writing. I help give them ideas if they are having trouble getting started, or I help them narrow down their choices. This has really seemed to get many of my students motivated and excited. Second, I have started conferencing with them instead of just teaching writing as a whole group. It is hard and time consuming, but it helps me to see what each students' strengths and weaknesses are. Last, I am trying to model more writing in my classroom. This allows them to see me as I think out loud and go through the writing process. There are many other things listed in Best Practices, but I chose to pick a few and implement them and then move on to others. It has been tough, but my students are definitely worth it.

Learning Theories

We know that individuals such as Piaget, Skinner, Gardner and Vygotsky all have views of how children develope and learn. Although I do not fully agree with just one view, I do see many parts of these theories in my classroom today. I also noticed that scaffolding played a large role in many of the technolgoy lesson plans that I saw for our last assignment. For example, many consisted of a teacher (or peer) explaining and showing how to use the computer (or create a power point presentation). Then the students were helped to create their own. Scaffolding creates just the right amount of support for the student. This follows closely to Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. Vygotsky says what a child can do today with help from a teacher or more able peer, a child can do by self later.