Ch. 11- Developing Content Area Writers

It seems to me that when many students are told that they must write something for school, they have the urge to cry, run away, and/or shout out a long string of obscenities; this is similar to the way I feel about math. These students have probably not had positive experiences with "writing" in the past, and they may have given themselves up as being "bad writers." What this chapter taught me is that "writing" does not have to be the same boring old five paragraph paper, just like we have learned that math does not have to be hours of worksheets and textbook problems. And while stiff papers and snooze-worthy worksheets are sometimes necessary, they do not represent a practical, real-world use of what is being taught.

Like Conley explained at the beginning of chapter 11, the writings that students will complete outside of school include memos, letters, charts, tables, schedules, and policy and procedure documents. The focus of these types of writings is not the structure of the text, or whether each paragraph has five sentences. The sole purpose of these writings is to communicate information. In the past, too much focus has been placed on the format of a paper, and too little focus has been placed on its meaning. Perhaps this is because it is much more difficult to assess the quality of a paper than its structure. Similarly, students will be required to write papers in college that do not follow a specific format. If students are only taught how to write in one way, there will be no room for creativity and personal expression. The papers will typically be stiff, redundant, and dull. It's no wonder so many students dislike writing!

Conley explained that teachers should teach their students that writing does not only occur in the school setting. E-mails, blogs, and even text messaging are forms of modern, technological writings. However, I believe that text messaging may do more harm than good in the long run. Last semester, Dr. Hanna expressed her hatred of text messaging and how its shortened form of writing can result in incorrect writing and spelling. This afternoon while I was tutoring my student, I asked him to write a sentence with one of our vocabulary words in it. He wrote "wat" instead of "what" and said that he is used to shortening his words when he uses text messaging. With the increasing popularity of such forms of communication, we must teach students that there is a casual way to communicate, and a formal and professional way to communicate.

I love the use of journals in content area classes. Students learn so much information in one day, and it is very difficult to retain it all. There are so many facts and ideas being shoved into students' brains that much of it spills out and it is forgotten. I have written things down that I learned in class, looked at them a few weeks later, and realized that I had completely forgotten most of what I wrote. When a student writes in a journal after a lesson, he or she can dump all of that information onto paper so that they can see it, organize it, and revisit it later without overloading their brains.