Writing is difficult and so is teaching it. At the beginning
of a semester, on day one of the class, I ask students two questions:
1-
Who is their favorite author?
2-
Do they like writing?
Usually, the first question gets a very positive and
enthusiastic response because most of them read fiction. The answer to the
second one is generally “not so much,” “just a little,” or a plain “no.”
In order to draw their attention to the importance of writing, I share with them Desiderius Erasmus famous saying:
Some students are surprised that how can writing something
lead to the desire to write more? I tell them to hold on to that question and
answer it at the end of the semester.
After sharing with them Steve Shipley’s I love writing, but it is hard work I ask them to write on any topic they appreciate or like and that’s the start of our semester-long journey of writing.
I teach writing (W 130) at IU South Bend. I also taught ESL to the undergrad classes at Al Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, many of the Arab students were very good at speaking English, and I expected the same performance in essay writing. After looking at their written work, I asked them how they have learned to speak English? The answer was “Hollywood movies.” That day for the first time I realized that there is some good usage of movies as well.
I aspire to create a love of writing in students. The primary reason for creating this blog is to share my teaching experiences and also learn from other teachers ‘experiences as well.
I would love to hear from you that as a teacher what are your ideas about teaching writing or teaching in general? How do you engender students’ interest in a subject they believe is difficult?
Photo credits: Pexels.com
I find your experience from Saudi Arabia very interesting. If they learned from Hollywood movies, were their language skills based on certain topics and more limited to others? As far as engendering students' interest in a subject they believe difficult, I find breaking big assignments into small sections a good way for them to tackle writing assignments. They can feel successful once they write the thesis, create an outline, write a rough draft, etc.
ReplyDeleteThanks for giving a valuable suggestion. It is really beneficial to move step by step, for instance, breaking the big assignment into small chunks as you have suggested. I have noticed that this idea is effective for ESL class and even for W130 classes as well.
DeleteMovies facilitated students learning of pronunciation. Sometimes, I felt that day to day classroom communication was a bit tough for them.
I completely agree with you that teaching writing is difficult. There are many layers involved in writing beginning with brainstorming all the way to final editing. I find my students usually are okay to write (not always eager), but they struggle to want to edit their writing. Once it's down, it's finished for them.
ReplyDeleteTeaching writing can be challenging. One activity I like to do with my students is work on revision. Many students think that writing is one and done, but it is not. I appreciated the quote you used in you post as well. I also started incorporating shorter writing assignments on current topics from the news. Students seem to like this. They also like peer editing activities.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has always loved to write, I struggle trying to instill the same passion I have for it in my students. In particular, my students who are English language learners struggle with the writing process. However with the right topic, my students who are English language learners appear to actually receive a thrill from the writing process. One of the techniques that pumps them up is the graphic organizer. Once they see the information organized in such a manner, they can piece together their work fairly easily. Then it's usually just editing the conventions.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog to be very interesting because, like you, I love writing but struggle to get my students to share that same passion. It seems that students have to find something they love that can translate to writing about the thing they love. By the way, I enjoyed reading the piece by Steve Shipley!
ReplyDelete