"Writing is a key to a double gain. It enables the hand to master a vital skill like that of speaking and to create a second means of communication that reflects the spoken word in all its details. Writing is thus dependent upon mind and hand."
-Maria Montessori
The 24 second grade students that I have been working with since the beginning of February are an energetic, talkative, enthusiastic and highly capable group. They love to tell me stories about their home lives, families, interests and desires. I love listening to their stories because they are always filled with great detail, excitement and joy. These students display the same enthusiasm for reading, math, science and geography lessons, and will constantly share everything they know, or think they know, about the topic at hand during group discussions.
However, as soon as these same students are given a journal topic or reader response question to write about, the excitement seems to quickly disappear from their eyes and the first question they ask is always, “How long does it have to be?” After several minutes of most of the students staring at a blank page, I’ll then hear, “I don’t know what to write.” Ten more minutes might pass before students will turn in their papers with two to three simple sentences that may or may not relate to each other or the topic at hand.
My students’ quality of work and attitudes towards writing assignments prompted me to conduct a needs assessment through surveys, observations and analysis of student work. The data I gathered gave me insight into my students’ feelings towards writing, their current levels of writing proficiency and their confidence levels regarding writing. While my students are given focused lessons on writing conventions, spelling and vocabulary, I observed that very few of them apply these lessons to their writing pieces. Furthermore, most of my students seem to have difficulty with writing coherently about a specific topic and aim for the minimum requirements when asked to complete a writing assignment. Many of my students expressed a negative attitude towards writing, dislike the process of correcting, editing and revising, and do not view themselves as capable writers.
After reading different studies, books and articles regarding students and writing, I have realized that there are a number of things that can have a negative affect on students’ attitudes towards writing - lack of time, lack of resources, high stakes testing, an excess of corrections, a heavy reliance on external motivators and a focus on convention rather than expression, just to name a few. All of these factors were quite overwhelming and, disheartened, I thought, what could I do? With the time that I have and the freedom that I am given, what could I possibly do?
The answer finally came to me as I was rereading parts of Lucy Calkins book, “The Art of Teaching Writing,” - I could listen.
I believe that the whole purpose of writing is to communicate. I have noticed that the majority of my students’ writing pieces are not regularly shared with teachers, peers, schoolmates, their families, their friends or the community. So, who are they communicating with? All of the literature that I have read regarding teaching writing emphasizes the importance of writing with a purpose and for an audience. Lucy Calkins states, “As writers,
what we all need more than anything else in the world is listeners, listeners who will respond with silent empathy, with sighs of recognition, with laughter and tears and questions and stories of their own. Writers need to be heard.”
An audience is definitely something I can be and provide for my students. I can listen and I believe that my students are important and interesting enough for other people to want to listen to them, too. Perhaps writing for an audience will help my students understand and appreciate their power and voice as writers. And perhaps writing for an audience will help them develop a renewed excitement and enthusiasm for writing.
For my action research inquiry, which I will be conducting now until the end of the school year, I hope to discover:
“How does writing for an audience affect students’ achievement in and attitude toward writing?”
1. How does writing for an audience affect students’ image of themselves as writers?
2. How does writing for an audience affect students’ quality of work?
3. How does an awareness of different audiences shift the structure of students’ writing?
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