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My Philosophy on Teaching Writing

Exposure to writing, in a variety of ways, is necessary for teaching writing and allowing

students to find their identity, speak for themselves, and form their own well-reasoned opinions.

In my classroom, students will read other author’s writing in order to learn about writing.

Additionally, there will be a lot of time dedicated to writing. I believe that students must

constantly practice writing, in larger in small assignments. With this practice, there will also be

workshops with peers and the teacher. Overall, these practices will lead students to form

individual identities and learn how to form logical arguments and opinions.

What Do I want my students to learn from writing?

I want my students to learn about themselves as an individual. Preface Quote: In the

article, “Making Room for the Writers: Creating Time and Space for Secondary School

Writing”, Buckley-Marudas focuses on the change in teaching writing in a way where students

write with no grade and share with a particular audience. The article touches on the positive

outcomes of allowing students to spend a long amount of time on one particular piece, offering

the opportunity to share with an audience outside of the teacher, and omitting a grade on the

assignment. Particular, when I think of what I want my students to learn, I think about Buckley’s

demonstration of what happens when students spend time with their work and share. Buckley-

Marudas discusses how when students spend time with writing, and share it with others, they

begin to understand other perspectives, cross boundaries, watch others take on different ways of

being in the world, and move past differences (Buckley-Marudas). In summary, by writing,

students are learning about the world around them and how they fit into it, thus helping them

develop their own identities. While writing, students are thinking about their own ideas, their

communities, their friends, and other aspects of their lives. By doing this, students are attempting
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to make understanding of these aspects of their lives, thus helping them form their identities.

When I was in high school, once a year, for a week, we had an event called “Writer’s Week”.

This week-long event allowed students to sign up for a time slot, offered each lunch period, to

share their work. It could be work created inside, or outside of school, in any form of writing that

they created. Classes were encouraged to take at least on period of the week and go watch these

students share their work. I never shared my own writing, but the writing that was shared was

impeccable. It ranged from slam poetry, to poems, letters, reflective essays, excerpts of novels in

the making. Each topic was about something the student or the student body was experiencing as

high schoolers. I learned a lot about myself, others, and about various cultures, family dynamics,

and hardships that I’ve never had to go through. Because of this example and the article, I

believe that writing is essential to help students form their identities and begin to make

understanding of the world and their place in it, therefore that is why I will be constantly using it

in my classroom.

Additionally, I want my students to learn how to develop well-reasoned arguments and

opinions in order to form and voice their own thoughts. When writing, and even speaking, it is

important to have a logical argument that is back by correct information. In the article,

“Teaching Informed Argument for Solution-Oriented Citizenship”, Olsen describes ELA

classrooms are situated to teach students the value of informed and compelling arguments.

Olsen argues that “A well-rounded education” requires “genuine learning opportunities that

teach students to curate their own sources of information, and solutions to the issues they

encounter in that in- formation, and make compelling arguments for those solutions” (Olsen 94).

It is important for students to have their own opinions, but it is even more important that students

have the skills and abilities to express these arguments in a well-reasoned intelligent way.
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Therefore, my teaching of writing will also emphasize the need for an informed and well-

reasoned idea and writing.

How will my Students Learn to Write?

One of the ways that my students will learn these skills through writing, is reading

various author’s work, including my own. When learning how to write, it is important to read

and talk about how other people write. That is why my students will constantly be reading

professionals, and their peers’ work. In Buckley-Marudas’ article, she writes that "Students

explained in great detail how powerful it was to hear what their peers wrote” (Buckley-Marudas

50). By reading and hearing what their peers wrote, students gain an understanding of the writing

assignment and expectations, additionally, students get to see a variety of ways to approach a

topic. When reading other perspectives, students also get to “address their confirmation biases,”

which helps student gain an understanding of themselves, their opinions and where they are

situated (Olsen 96). Reading others writing helps students gain understanding and empathy for

their classmates, exposure to various modes and ways of writing, and understanding about

themselves and their potential biases.

In order to teach writing, I will also allow plentiful of time for students to spend writing. I

will emphasize that writing is important. Students will learn to value writing, if a teacher value

writing too. Personally, as a student, I do not spend nearly as much time writing as I do reading.

Therefore, I believe that as a teacher it is important to show students that writing is as valuable as

reading. One way to show this appreciation for writing is allowing students a significant amount

of time to write. By doing so, teachers are allowing students to take time with their work and put

the most effort into it. Then, they may just appreciate the piece they wrote much more. In

Buckley-Marudas, she explains how when asking researching spending time on writing with
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students that "Analysis revealed the significance of time in creating space for meaningful

writing” (Buckley-Marudas 48). This demonstrates that time is important to the creation of

meaningful writing. By giving students plenty of time to write in class, a teacher is

demonstrating the importance of writing, and also helping students create more valuable work.

As mention before, students will spend an adequate amount of time on writing. In this

time spent writing, students will complete practice assignments that start small, and build upon

each other. This makes assignments and tasks seem easier to accomplish for students. By starting

with mini, or smaller assignments and building upon them into larger ones, students are able to

use time in a way that allows them to really focus in a develop themselves as a writer Buckley-

Marudas explains that “the way time was structured offered students space to develop a different

kind of relationship with themselves as writers, their writing, and their peers” (Buckley-Marudas

49). By having different assignments during your time to write, students will be situation

amongst different positions and perspectives with their work, which gives them the space to

develop writing and practice more and more.

During appropriate writing assignments, I will have the student’s write to a particular

audience that they will eventually share with them, thus making it more authentic. In the article,

Buckely-Marudas states that there is a value to sharing writing with more than just the teacher.

She argues that students’ “capacities to recognize the value of their ideas expand[s] when their

writing [is] situated in relationship with others” (Buckley-Marudas 52). Students will attach

more meaning to their work, and value their ideas more when it is shared amongst an audience

that is authentic. To make writing more meaningful for my students, I will attempt to make

authentic sharing experiences in order to make writing more valuable and meaningful to the

students.
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Grading: How will I Handle the Paper Load? When Will I Use Rubrics?

I will handle the paper load by assigning majority of the practice assignments as completion,

and choose a different 5-10 students each assignment to provide more detailed and in-depth

feedback on, and rotate between students. In my personal experiences, I had a teacher who did

this. During our smaller, completion type of assignments, she chose a about 10 students, and

looked at their work more in-depth. The students were on a rotation, so they all received detailed

comments an equal amount, just on different assignments. The other students, were receive brief

comments only addressing the things that stand out or need to be addressed immediately. At the

end of the unit, or at the culminating assignment, each student will receive in-depth comments on

their work. I think that this is useful because it allows me to spend quality time looking at a

select students, while not imposing too much of a paper load onto myself. Each student will

receive some type of feedback, some students will just receive a more detailed account. This

allows a lighter paper load for me to grade, but it also allows students to have some low stakes

assignments to fluff up their grades. However, to make sure students always give their best

effort, they will never know which time their assignment will be given in-depth feedback on.

Overall, I think that a rotation of providing feedback to select students is beneficial to me and the

students. For the final unit assignment, each student will receive in-depth feedback with the use

of the rubric. The rubric will hold me accountable to give students equal grades and will allows

be to defend and explain to students why their particular grade was given.

Grammar/Mechanics

Grammar and Mechanics will have very low stakes in the beginning of the year. Throughout the

year, I will conduct mini-lessons on various grammar, mechanic, and writing techniques. We

will spend time solely focusing on certain grammar and mechanics, and in the next assignment,
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the students will be expected to show a mastery of those specific concepts. By the end of the

unit, the students will be then graded on their grammar and mechanics that culminated together.

In our class discussions, we have touched upon that it is important to note that you do not always

know what your students know before they enter your classroom. For grammar in particular,

students may have had teachers that focused on more concepts than other, so their knowledge

will vary. Additionally, to me, grammar and mechanics comes secondary to being able to form

well-reasoned ideas and make an argument, so this will be a smaller aspect in my rubrics. I think

that because student’s knowledge will vary, it is important to focus and emphasize various

grammar and mechanics concepts that are prevalent in the student’s writing. Mini-lessons are a

way to teach the important grammar concepts, so that the students can practice them correctly in

their writing. I will use mini-lessons throughout the year to emphasize and focus on particular

concepts. Then, the students will be expected to show correct usage and understanding of the

concept in the next writing assignment. This will continue on, and by the end of the year, the

students will have set expectations of all the grammar and mechanic concepts that they should

use correctly and show that they know.

Conclusion

As a teacher, I will emphasize that exposure to writing is necessary to learn. I will expose my

students to writing by reading people’s work, their peer’s work, and their own work. Students

will also spend significant amounts of time writing. Additionally, students will also be exposed

to writing by sharing their pieces and listening to other pieces in an authentic audience. Students

will practice constantly, with small assignments that build into larger assignments. These

strategies for teaching writing all are to help the students becomes better writers, but also to help

them develop their identity and learn to how make compelling arguments about their opinions.
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Students will learn the mechanics of writing, underneath writing with the purpose to discover

themselves and learn to compose well-reasoned arguments.

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Works Cited

Olsen, Casey. “Teaching Informed Argument for Solution-Oriented Citizenship.” English

Journal, vol. 107, no. 3, 2018, pp. 93-99.

Buckley-Marudas, Mary Frances. “Making Room for the Writers: Creating Time and Space

for Secondary School Writing.” English Journal, vol. 107, no. 3, 2018, pp. 47-53.