Let’s talk about writing……
Scott Rogers is using a blog, English 3840, in his “Writing Center Tutor Training” course. On one of his posts he followed up on the class discussion. Many of his students had disagreed with some of Murray’s approach to teaching writing. He asked them to write about how they were taught to write essays in college or high school and then connect it to what they think about Murray’s approach. I really like blogs like this because we can learn so much from them. Hearing what the students had to say about how they were taught is discouraging because their posts mostly centered around the “lack” of writing instruction from their teachers. This student made some good observations:
Writing needs to be guided and nursed by teachers that will ask you questions that will make you think. New writers need questions asked that will help them understand why they are writing and will guide their purpose to have greater clarity for them and others.
Teachers need to be taught to help their students find a purpose in writing not give them hours and hours to find their own. They need guidance not time. They need to feel a teacher‚s excitement for writing instead of a teachers dread at reading their papers.
This is where I think blogs could really shine. It is a way for us to show them the excitement and joy you can feel from writing. It’s a way to give them ownership and a place where others can respond to their writing. But what the student said above needs to be a part of the blogging/writing instruction from the teacher. We need to guide them and make them think, see purposes for writing, and see that they get responses.
Scott Rogers’ most recent post The Question goes like this:
So here’s the question: while considering all this material we’ve read on writing theory, I’d like to see you all talk about how you learned to write at the university. Did you come here knowing how to do it? Did a teacher teach you? Did you learn from a friend?
I can’t wait to read those answers. What good prompts and things to think about are being discussed on this blog for these students who are going to be tutors at a writing center.
I do wish all blogs had a clearly marked ‘About’ section so we could quickly read that. That’s one feature of Manila I really like (when the authors fill it out, that is!)
Anyway, I’m going to follow this interesting discussion. More and more I think we have much to learn about the teaching of writing and the pressing need in schools to make time for students to write (with guidance from teachers).
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