Teaching Writing, Part 2

I was writing last time about the teaching of writing and how I experienced it in my 8th grade dyad placement. I'm coming back to the same subject this week because I had the chance to read my 8th graders' latest essays. Most of the essays did a good job of following the formula that the teacher had presented, but otherwise I had a very hard time identifying good work. The students' voice and opinion was not coming across, the essays did not have a flow, and all in all they did not reach their target. It was supposed to be a persuasive essay, but after reading all of them I realized that the students had no idea what the purpose, look or feel of a persuasive essay is. All they had understood was that they had to fill in the missing parts of the persuasive essay template. So I guess the ideas that I have expressed last week still stand: writing is much more than standardized forms and templates. Teaching it this way does not work. The conclusion would be that new methods have to be adopted, but I am afraid that this was not the conclusion that my cooperative teacher reached... If these methods do not work, what other methods would work? How can you make a better job at teaching writing to 8th graders? How can you engage and motivate students? And how can you change these techniques that do not work if the whole school uses them and has probably been using them for some time?

Formative Assessments

While reading the article Up Close and Personal, by Lynn Olson, I realized that today's teaching can and should be very different from the teaching that I received only a few years ago. Why wouldn't it be when it seems so simple and natural to be the way it is described in the article? I am referring to the use of formative assessments to see where the students are and what needs to be worked on. When I was a student the sole purpose of assessment was grading. Students were being assessed in order to get a grade and not because the teacher wanted to find out how much they had learned and understood. This aspect of formative assessment goes hand in hand with the "no secrets" policy by which teachers announce the learning goal to their students and conduct open discussions about the students' needs. I ask myself now: Why not? I have never thought about this before as something important, that the students had to know. I used to think that the objectives represent teacher tools meant to help them plan good lessons. I never considered the fact that the students could benefit from knowing what they are actually learning. This idea of transparency and open communication between teacher and student about learning goals, needs and reasons makes complete sense and it is like waking up in a different world from the one you went to sleep in. In this new world that I envision the teacher is no longer the holder of sacred secrets that she has to hide away from her students. In this world the teacher and the students are partners in the learning process and they work together as a team in order to achieve learning and growth.