References

Lazar, G. (2009). Literature and Language Teaching. Materials design and lesson planning: Novels and Short Stories. Canbridge University Press, United Kingdom.

McMillan, J. H. (2007). Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice for Effective Standards- Based Instruction (4th ed). Pearson Education Inc.

Nilsen, A.P.& Donelson, K.L. (1993). Literature for Today’s Young Adult. Literary Aspects of Young Adult Books. Harpercollins College Publishers.

Ruddell, M.R. (2008). Teaching Content Reading and Writing (5th ed).John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Tompkins, G.E. (2005). Language Arts: Patterns of Practice (6th ed). Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

Warrican, S. J. & Spencer-Fernandez, J. (2006). Strategies for the teaching of reading and writing: A practical guide for teachers of Caribbean children. Mona, Jamaica: JBTE

Conclusion

I feel very privileged knowing that you are taking your time to read my blog. My name is Sirjean St. Helen and I recently finished the compilation of this blog. I must admit that completing this blog was a very challenging task. Nevertheless the content of what makes up the blog has helped me profoundly. I have learned a lot from the course. Throughout my two years as a student - teacher, I have been wondering about why and how an English teacher can use literature in language lessons. I have always felt afraid to use inappropriate strategies to teach students. This I know is a very important issue to consider if the students are to be taught well. Through this course, particularly working on the different tasks in this blog, I believe that I have a more extensive view on the different approaches that English teachers can use to teach literature with the language learner. All of the literatures I have read have been very helpful to me although some of the readings were not as interesting in comparison to others. However, they really helped me with my blog entries.

I would like to thank Mr. Emmanuel, the course lecturer for the exposure to blog in order for us to share our ideas and reflections and I do hope that the rest of the class has benefitted from the blog as well. It is my sincere hope that we all will use some of what we learnt as we look forward to going to Teaching Practice soon.

Thank you.

The Reading - Writing Connection

Reading and writing are multidimensional and involve concurrent, complex transactions between readers and writers (Tompkins, 2005). Writers participate in several types of activities: reading other author’s works to obtain ideas and to learn about the structure of stories, informational books and poetry, but they also read and reread their own work to discover, monitor, and clarify. The quality of these reading experiences seems closely tied to success in writing. Readers are writers too. They participate in many of the activities that writers use - generating ideas, organizing, monitoring, problem solving and revising. Although administration, the curriculum, the education system and more specifically the teacher’s attitude and belief may be major factors that hinder the development of reading and writing in the language classroom, it is advised that teachers nevertheless, should plan literacy activities so that the students can connect reading and writing primarily because this connection enhances students learning when used.

Tierney (1983) explains that “What we need are reading teachers who act as if their students were developing writers and writing teachers who act as if their students were readers.” Teachers can:

• Involve students in daily reading and writing experiences.
• Introduce reading and writing processes in kindergarten.
• Plan instruction that reflects the developmental nature of reading - writing relationship.
•Make the read - writing connection explicit to students.
• Emphasize the processes and the products of reading and writing.
• Emphasize the purposes for which students use reading and writing.
• Teach reading and writing through meaningful, functional and genuine literacy experiences.

Making the language of the poem the basis for classroom study is a helpful first step towards enabling students to read and write poetry. Since many students are not exposed to poetry, reading and writing poetry may seem a daunting prospect. Teachers can therefore incorporate reading and writing of poetry into their lessons. Students can read poetry in literature focus units and theme cycles or in literature circles and reading workshops. Students can write poems as projects during literature focus units, literature circles and theme cycles. Once students learn how to write poetry, they can choose to do so during writing workshop.

Planning for Writing: The Pre- Writing Stage

I used pre - writing strategies when I felt like it but it never occurred to me that thorough research has been carried out which proves that different prewriting strategies such as brainstorming, free writing or use of graphic organisers can enhance the writing experience for students and clarify the task at hand.

Prewriting is the getting ready to write stage. Gatz (2004) states that “pre-writing is the key in the development of a “good” essay and the evolution of “good” writing skills.” Pre-writing is a different process than drafting, revising, and the final draft; because it is the delineation of the initial idea of the topic they will be writing about. It will guide the writer into an organized outline of possible ideas, topics, and/or comments. The traditional notion that writers have a topic completely thought out and ready to flow onto the page is ridiculous. If writers wait for ideas to fully develop, they may wait forever. Instead writers should begin tentatively- talking, reading, writing- to discover what they know and decide what direction they want to take. Pre-writing has probably been the most neglected stage in the writing process; however, it is as crucial to writers as a warm- up is to athletes (Tompkins, 2005). Murray (1982) believes that at least 70% of writing time should be spent in prewriting. During pre-writing stage students should be engaged in choosing a topic, free writing, considering the purpose, forming an audience, generating and organising ideas for writing.

Brainstorming can help you choose a topic, develop an approach to a topic, or deepen your understanding of the topic’s potential. A brainstorm is a sudden insight or inspiration. As a pre-writing strategy, brainstorming uses free association to stimulate a chain of ideas, often to personalize a topic and break it down into specifics. When one brainstorms, he or she starts with a word or phrase and spend a set of time simply scribbling a list of ideas as rapidly as possible, writing down whatever comes to mind with no editing or going back.

When I brainstorm, I generally use this approach:

I start with a key word or phrase - one that will launch my thoughts in a productive direction. If I need a topic, I begin with a general word or phrase (for example when I needed a research topic for my Communication II course, I simply put the phrase “economic integration” on paper and these are the steps that I followed:

• I set a 10 minute time limit to think.
• I then rapidly list words or phrases or short sentences so that I could scan later
• I pay no attention to spelling, repetition, absurdity or relevance. I simply record whatever comes into my head.
• When I am finished, I circle or check anything that suggests a provocative direction. I scratch out whatever looks useless or dull and then I try to organise by ideas by grouping them.

It never occurred to me that there were so many other brainstorming techniques that can be used during the pre-writing stage instead of using the same approach all the time. Such techniques include: 3 perspectives, Cubing, Similes, Relationship between the parts, Journalistic questions, Thinking outside the box, Using charts or shapes. However I am familiar with the Clustering/mapping/webbing technique since my secondary school English teacher as well as my General Paper teacher highly recommended them as a means of generating ideas before we wrote our essays.

Sloane (2010) states that “good brainstorming skills can take children a long way/ The better your class is at brainstorming, the more they will get out of any curriculum area that requires their input.” Therefore, as teachers, we need to structure children’s experiences with brainstorming so that they receive enough direction to keep them on track, but not so much that we take over. As I read through the article, I can remember giving my students the word “Planets” and they were required to form as many words as they can from the word during a period and the activity was very engaging. Basically, the more children brainstorm, the better they will be at it.

As teachers, I suggest that we encourage brainstorming in every classroom. We also need to choose topics well. If we cannot think of at least 10 responses, we should not be surprised if the children cannot either. Furthermore, we need to choose topics that offer real opportunities for generating a large number of varied ideas. It is also important to genuinely want children’s input. For example, we should not hold firmly to our own ideas or see them as acceptable and reject the ideas of the students.

Equally important, Lee (2007) states that graphic organizers could be useful revising tools in the pre -writing stage. I have always liked the idea of working with graphic organisers. As a student we were encouraged to use them but it was limited to mapping, t- chats and cluster. After reading the information presented in this unit on graphic organisers, I realize the diversity in the choice of graphic organisers. I like the idea that when I return to the classroom there is a wide range of graphic organisers that I can expose my students to and more importantly they will be able to use those which best apply to the activity they will be doing. The graphic organisers which I found more interesting are:

• The Spider Graphic Organizer: This organizer can be used for helping students understand how a central theme can have several convergent ideas or issues. Further, they can describe some of the details that are associated with each idea.
• The Fishbone Graphic Organizer: This organizer can be used for helping students understand how a result can have several convergent causes. And further, they can describe some of the details that are associated with each cause.
• The Cycle Graphic Organizer: This organizer can be used for helping students understand how events or issues can be circular or cyclic.

Graphic organisers may be a viable choice in scaffolding revision in addition to text because they enable writers to see better what they are revising. I learnt that this ability to ‘see’ better may be better offered by organisers with perceptual operations as opposed to those without. This is because organisers with perceptual operations differentiate main ideas from sub-ideas clearly and provide an overview of how the ideas in the organisers are related to one another which facilitates categorization and diagnosis of writing problems in the revision process. This possible advantage however precludes that students must be properly trained over a period of time to understand the form and function of each organiser so that they would not misinterpret the ideas in the organisers when generating or revising ideas in their own organisers or when providing feedback on their peers’ organisers.

My concern lies chiefly in getting my students to develop the necessary skills from the following strategies; but I believe if we as teachers plan and execute lessons which emphasize the development of these skills effectively, then the students can indeed acquire the skills.

Self - Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD): writing where the focus is on learning task specific strategies for composing. This approach is designed to make the use of strategies habitual, flexible and automatic in writing. The procedure involves developing and activating background knowledge, discussing the strategy, modeling the strategy, memorizing the strategy, supporting the strategy and student independent performance (Harris & Graham, 1996).

Cognitive Strategy Instruction (CSI): this approach emphasizes the development of thinking skills and processes as a means to enhance learning. The objective is to enable students to become more strategic, self-reliant, flexible and productive in their learning endeavours.

The Rhetorical Modes

Every essay has a specific purpose. Sometimes the primary purpose of an essay is to entertain- to make us laugh, cry, remember the past - to stir our emotions. Sometimes the primary purpose of an essay is to explain something. Sometimes the purpose is to change our minds or behaviour- to make us choose one path over another. The purpose behind an essay - its reason for being-controls the essay's approach to a topic and profoundly affects the way the essay is organized. Essays with a specific purpose and organization are said to conform to a particular rhetorical mode. Simmons - McDonald (1997) states briefly that there are four modes of discourse namely: description, narration, exposition and argument which writers may use individually or a combination depending on the purpose they want to achieve.

Description

Purpose: Descriptive prose is used to express what a thing looks like, smells like or tastes like. In short, it portrays how we perceive the world through our five senses (sight, hearing, touch smell and taste).

Audience: Reader - to help create a mental picture of what is being written about.

Content: It answers the question ‘what’. For example: What is it like? What is he/she like?

Style: Explicit use of adjectives, data that appeals to sensory faculties and descriptive sequence.

Voice: Description uses details that appeals to the senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch).

Organisation: The organising principle of description is spatial as it creates a virtual image in the minds of readers.

Narration

Purpose: It recounts a personal or fictional experience or tells a story. Narration is concerned with actions in a temporal sequence, with life in motion. It seeks to present an event to the reader, a sense of witnessing an action.

Audience: Reader- to recreate an incident for readers rather than to simply tell them about it.

Content: This mode answers the question of what. For example: what happened?

Style: Apparent use of action or dynamic verbs, dialogue. The point of view if the narrator is usually first or third person narrator. It should include story conventions such as plot, setting, characters, climax and resolution.

Voice: To convey a particular mood (feeling) or to make an incident come alive, narratives employ the use of the first person or “I” narration and the third person or he/she/it persona.

Orgnisation: The organisation principle of narration is temporal in nature meaning that its events are sequential.


Exposition

Purpose: This discourse is concerned with making an idea clear, analysing a situation, defining a term, giving instructions and the like. Its primary function is to inform and explain.

Audience: Reader- conveys information to the reader so that a level of understanding can be achieved.

Content: This mode has the types of questions that a piece of expository may answer. Some of these are: Hoe does it work? What are the constituent parts? What is its importance?

Style: The distinguishing features and style of exposition incorporates the following functions: analysis, classification, definition, illustration, cause and effect, comparison and contrast and analogy.

Voice: In exposition, the writing is engaging and reflective of the writer’s underlying commitment to the topic.

Organisation: There is not one single method of organising exposition but rather a variety, with majority being based on logic: analysis, clarification, definition, illustration, cause and effect, comparison and contrast and sometimes analogy. The method chosen dictates the organisation of the piece as each method has its own distinguishing characteristics.


Argument

Purpose: An argument is an attempt to convince or persuade an audience that a claim is true by means of appeals to reason or to emotion.

Audience: Reader- It moves the readers to take an action or to form or change an opinion.

Content: Answers the question why is this so?

Style: For the presentation of evidence, arguments use facts, authoritative opinion, and personal experience for its development whilst the rebuttal or refuting side uses persuasion in the form of repetition, rhetorical questions and emotional appeals.

Voice: The voice of argument has a strong and definite position on an issue from the beginning of the piece and has enthusiasm from start to finish.

Organisation: Argument is organised by way of formal elements and logic. The formal elements include at least two claims, the first of which being the conclusion and the other, the remaining claim or claims that are the grounds which support or justify the conclusion.

The strategies used by the writers to communicate with his/her audience in the following essays:

1. Narrative Essay: “Alina”

Like any other narrative essay, “Alina” tells a story. The writer is recounting a personal or fictional experience or possibly telling a story based on a real or imagined event. It involves characters, setting, and event/action. The characters, the setting, and the problem of the narrative are introduced in the beginning and through the story form we learn about the people in the story, events, conflicts or crises and the resolution of conflicts or crises. In the narration, the writer uses insight, creativity, drama, suspense and some humor to create the central theme. The details all work together to develop the plot. The narrative essay is written in the first person, that is, using “I.” The writer uses concrete, sensory details or to convey his point. These details create a unified, forceful effect, a dominant impression on the reader.
For example:
“First of all I remember there was a commotion. It was something familiar; like waking to the sounds of my neighbours’ usual morning affair. The loud voices that hurled threats and insults relentlessly, the single bang, sound of collapse or scream that suggested an attempted attack that had everybody scuffling, grabbing at the combatants, and trying to prevent an outcome that would never be in the first place – these were the sounds that roused me from a conversation with Paula and Miss Charlery, my uncle’s wife who had also flown in from St. Lucia to attend the funeral. Since it was her house I naturally watched Paula first for some indication that it was time to act, to ascertain the point of the scuffle – who was involved and why? But she sat there on a long low kitchen bench. Actually she fixed herself onto the bench as if expecting the earth to move. Noticing my unease she looked at me reassuringly. She needed to say nothing. I reached for my drink, Bells I think because it was another cold evening, and tried to show my own indifference. But that did not work. The noises were getting louder and I could now discern a clear argument, a line of incensed reasoning.”



2. Descriptive Essay: “Lou’s Place”

The descriptive essay “Lou’s Place” creates an image of a place, a café, where the images seem concrete and clear. It draws on all of the senses, not merely the visual. Its purpose is to enable the reader to share the writer’s sensory experience of the place. The descriptive essay portrays people, places, things and moments with enough vivid detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being written about.
It appeals- to-the-Senses Description: It allowed me to see, smell, hear, taste, and feel what the writer was bringing out. For example:
“It is not a fancy restaurant. The hundreds of booted loggers, railroad workers, and oil field roughnecks trekking through have worn the carpet thin. Chunks are missing from the carpet at the favorite tables of the workers. The hardened veneer on some of the tables is missing a notch here and there. The paint on the walls has cracks and there is a perennial smell of hamburgers permeating the air.”

The essay also provided a Spatial - Order Description or the layout of the café: based on the description, the reader can visual the physical layout of the place. The description provided, showed me where things are located. The setting is described in some sort of order. For example, in describing, one can go in a clockwise direction, or start at the front and go to the back, or go from top to bottom - as long as things are listed in some kind of logical order. In this descriptive essay for example, the writer began with the entrance, then each section was described until the writer got to the most important table at the café.
“When entering the door at Lou’s, two things are immediately noticeable: the place is rarely empty and seems to consist of a maze of rooms. The first room, through the door, is the main part of the restaurant. There is another, rarely used, dining room off to the right. It was added during the oil well boom of the seventies. Through the main dining room is yet another room; it guards the door leading into the kitchen. This room contains the most coveted table in the place. The highest tribute Lou can bestow on anyone is to allow them access to seats at this table. This table is the family table; it is reserved for Lou’s, and her daughter Karen’s, immediate family and treasured friends.”



3. Expository Essay: “The Faceless Teacher” by Dennis Gardner

Expository writing conveys information to the reader in such a way as to bring about understanding, whether it is of a process or procedure, or of the writer’s ideas about a concept as in the case of the persuasive essay ‘The Faceless Teacher’. Persuasive writing moves the reader to take an action or to form or change an opinion. The thesis statement takes a definite position in the introduction: “In facing the twenty-first century, a fearless inventory of the role that the World Wide Web will play in global culture must be taken”. This states the writer’s viewpoint at the beginning of the introductory paragraph following the interest - catching device.
A brief statement of the supporting reasons in the introduction, to be fully expanded in the body of the argument , sets the pattern of reasoning required to support the claim :
“Overzealous use of computers, even in innocence, to ease the burden of solid research in favor of convenience or for the sinister purpose of cutting costs, will reduce learning from a creative process to a point-and-click procedure, effectively diminishing students from social-learners to a cyber-tribe of hunters-and-gatherers relying on the ability of machines and the rote memorization of monitors’ displays.”

The writer uses many factual examples to bring his point across throughout the essay. The writer recognizes the opposing point of view that “the computer can calculate and display”, but the writer’s position is presented last in the concluding sentence so that it has a stronger impact on the reader that a “teacher can calculate and devise.” He also stresses that people work and learn best with other people. By interacting with other people you acquire social skills that are vital to our survival. A computer cannot do that.” While the introduction and conclusion set the framework for the argument, the paragraphs of evidence and support in the body are the argument. While the writer wants to create reader interest, the tone of an argument is generally formal. It considers the nature of the audience and marshals evidence accordingly. It is neither completely objective nor wholly emotional. Instead, it uses the controlled feelings of the writing to persuade the audience.

The conclusion summarizes the reason students should not rely on the Internet for teaching. They should use the Internet as an aid and a tool rather than a teacher. What do you learn when you sit in front of a computer all day? You become non social and cyber- stuck.

The writer’s purpose in the expository essay “The Faceless Teacher”

This persuasive essay states an opinion and supports it convincingly. The writer’s purpose is to convince the reader to accept the view that students should not rely on the Internet for teaching. Rather, the Internet should be used as an aid and a tool. The writer presents alternative views in a way that makes his position clear that no matter where we live or where we go to school, the Internet will be present since students are comfortable using the computer to learn; however, the computer can only do so much. The computer can calculate and display, but a teacher can calculate and devise. The human teacher can explain different solutions to a problem, demonstrate objectivity and understanding, and illustrate alternate approaches to obstacles. People work and learn best with others. By interacting with other people you acquire social skills that are vital to our survival. A computer cannot do that.


Evaluation of the descriptive essay “Lou’s Place” using a rubric:

The following rubric will be used to evaluate the descriptive essay. The 4 point rubric defines the criteria for each level of writing development, attribute by attribute, from “poor” to excellent.” The total score is 24. The level I have chosen for each attribute in the piece is in bold.

KEY:
Poor - 1
Fair - 2
Very Good - 3
Excellent - 4

INTRODUCTION, BODY TEXT AND CONCLUSION ARE PRESENT
1: Lacks two of the essential elements
2: Lacks one of the essential elements
3: Has introduction, adequate body text and conclusion.
4: All elements are present at high level of skill - appropriate proportions; high comprehension.

INTEREST LEVEL
1: Simplistic in style and content - uses simple sentence structures; not original in ideas nor execution.
2: Addresses the topic in cursory manner. Mixes simple and some compound sentences. Has adequate content.
3: Intersperses higher level content with adequate content. Uses compound and complex sentences as appropriate.
4: Excels in content and creative content with original ideas.

USE OF DETAILS AND DESCRIPTIVE PHRASES
1: Has only basic details -uses few descriptive terms, and they are mostly concrete.
2: Has basic details with some descriptive terms, a few descriptive phrases, and some abstract descriptive terms
3: Skillfully uses more descriptive terms and phrases and other modifiers.
4: Exceptional use of abstract and concrete modifiers, phrases and descriptive language.

COHERENCE - USE OF TRANSITIONS
1: Little flow of ideas; blocky and disjointed; relevance not always clear.
2: Ideas have some flow, and are mostly on topic.
3: Ideas flow with transitional words, yet organization remains evident. Included parts address the topic.
4: Exceptional use of vivid transitions. Topical flow and organization are evident. All parts highly relevant.

USE OF SUPPORTING IDEAS
1: Expresses ideas with few supporting facts or opinions.
2: Expresses ideas with some supporting details and/or opinions
3: Ideas are well supported with adequate detail and facts/opinions.
4: Exceptional use of supporting detail. Facts and opinions are distinguished

CONVENTIONS
1: Numerous errors in rudimentary mechanics.
2: Shows a grasp of rudimentary mechanics: capitalization of first word in sentence and correct use of end punctuation but has several spelling, punctuation, or capitalization errors
3: Few errors in spelling, punctuation, or capitalization.
4: Exceptional use of supporting detail. Facts and opinions are distinguished

Total score: 17

Reflection on the Product vs. Process Approach to Writing

“Chooooooops!” /“Boring!”/ “I hate writing essays!”

These are just a few of some of the negative comments that my colleagues made about writing during the earlier stages of my school life. This should not be a surprise to many persons because I am certain that some of us had this similar experience. Judging from my experience, I believe that writing seemed ‘boring’ because we were taught writing using the traditional approach and this was nothing exciting to look forward to. At school, we were encouraged to mimic a model text, which was usually presented and analyzed at an early stage. This was much more apparent at the secondary level where teachers were ‘teaching to the test’ such as in preparation for the CXC Examination. I can specifically remember that model texts were read, and then the features of the genre were highlighted. For example, when we studied report writing, our attention was drawn to the importance of paragraphing, organization and the language used to relate or express information. We were required to practise the language used to make formal reports, such as "I wish to report that …/The incident occurred during…" In addition, when we studied narrative writing, the focus was on the techniques used to make the story interesting, and the focus on where and how the writer employs these techniques. Organization of ideas was very important. Individually, we then used the skills, structures and vocabulary we were taught to produce the product; to show what we could do as fluent and competent users of the language.

I believe that students usually imitate their teachers and as a novice teacher who never had any formal training on how to teach writing, I taught my students the same way that I was taught, primarily using the product approach. I always gave the students samples of the kind of work that I expected of them. I 'think' I went through the first stage (prewriting) of the writing process where I had my students to think about the topics based on their own experiences and to identify their target audience but I ignored or paid little attention to the following stages. On rare occasions, I would have the students to edit each other’s compositions. My main concern was on getting the final copy of the students writing in order to assess and to grade their essays.

As a teacher in training, I am currently being taught best practices that I can now use to better my teaching of writing when I return to the classroom as a trained teacher. The Communication Course I did with Ms Biscette made me realize that the process approach, with its emphasis on message as opposed to the mechanics, is a powerful tool for teaching disabled writers. The focus in the writing process is on what students think and do as they write; it is writer centered with five stages namely: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Students learn to use the writing process as they write compositions in literature focus units and theme cycles and as they participate in writing workshop. Learning to use the writing process is more important than any particular writing projects students might be involved in, because the writing process is a tool(Tompkins,2005). The students will therefore need many opportunities to learn to use the writing process by writing class collaborations and the teacher will be required to teach minilessons on the procedures, concepts, and strategies and skills that good writers use.

One way to introduce the writing process is to write a collaborative or group composition. Collaborative compositions are an essential part of many writing experiences, especially when students are learning to use the writing process or a new writing form. I will model the writing process and provide opportunities for students to practice the process approach to writing in a supportive environment. As students and I write composition together, we move through the five stages of the writing process, just as writers do when they work independently. I will demonstrate the strategies writers use and clarify misconceptions during the group composition, and the students will be encouraged to offer ideas for writing as well as suggestions for tackling common writing problems.

The following is the pattern I will follow to teach the writing process to my students:
The teacher begins by introducing the idea of writing a group composition and reviewing the project. Students dictate a rough draft, which the teacher records on the chalkboard or on chart paper. The teacher notes any misunderstandings students have about writing assignment or process and, when necessary, reviews concepts and offers suggestions. Then the teacher and students read the composition and identify ways to revise it. Some parts of the composition will need reworking, and other parts may be deleted or moved. More specific words will be substituted for less specific ones, and redundant words and sentences will be deleted. Students may also want to add new parts to the composition. After making the necessary content changes, students proofread the composition, checking for mechanical errors for paragraph breaks and for sentence to combine. They correct errors and make changes. Then the teacher or student copies the completed composition on chart paper or on a sheet of notebook paper. Copies will be made and given to each student.

Teachers can also use minilessons to teach students how to gather and organize ideas for writing, how to participate in writing groups, how to proofread and how to share their writing. Teachers teach these procedures, concepts and strategies and skills during minilessons. Minilessons can be taught as part of class collaborations, during literature focus units and theme cycles and in writing workshop. The editing stage can be used as a time to informally assess students spelling, capitalization, punctuation and other mechanical skills and to give minilessons on a skill that students are having trouble with.

It is of no doubt in my mind that more than any other subject writing lends itself to assessment. The product is there more for all to see and can be analyzed in many different ways. Yet while an analysis of the final product will yield important information, it is also important to examine the process of writing. Combining product and process information provides a fuller understanding of students as writers and so helps the teacher to plan the best possible program for them.

Reflection on the NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing

All teachers know how much writing matters. Writing is a very important skill in the 21st century. One's success in school and the world of work all depend on one's ability to write well. Therefore schools need to prepare students to write for may different audiences. It is also necessary for students to be able to make connections between academic and non- academic writing. However, the diversity in the classroom: increasing number of English language learners, students with disabilities or exceptionalities and marginalized students can make this assignment challenging for teachers. I think that teachers can be much more effective when administrators position themselves as instructional leaders who believe in the importance of writing and exhibit knowledge about effective writing instruction. It is of my opinion that administrators play a key role in creating the conditions for effective writing instructions. The quality of teaching, the nature of assessment and the structure of the writing program in a school or college all bear the shaping influence of administrators. Support for writing teachers and programmes should include policies on class size, access to computers or necessary technology, attention to writing in all subjects, special provisions for diverse learners, and professional development that addresses teacher areas for growth identified in evaluative observations. It is of no doubt in my mind that if these policies are not put in place, then the views proposed by the NCTE would just be words on paper. In other words administrators should be supportive towards making writing instruction more meaningful and purposeful to both students and teachers.

Writing is not only necessary to students but writing teachers also need regular opportunities to continue their own growth; a well developed system of professional development will facilitate this. Effective professional development relies on a rich mix of resources, including a theoretical base, a research base,and illustrations of good practices. Evaluation of teachers should contribute directly to the creation of professional development opportunities so that teachers who demonstrate a need for growth in a given area will be able to turn to professional development to address them. Regardless of the specific content, all professional development should include opportunities for teachers to write, as a means of developing, shaping, representing, and communicating experiences, beliefs and identity; to read and respond to the writing of students and colleagues; to experience writing as a way of learning; to assess the progress of individual writers by responding to complete pieces of their writing and studying changes in their writing; to study writing in relation to other disciplines and to study research on the teaching of writing.

In as much as I agree with the points presented in the 'NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing', I conclude by stating that teachers deliver writing instruction, but the ability to achieve goals is often shaped by administrators; hence they should ensure that they make the necessary provisions to maximise the students success in writing.

Welcome

Hello everyone.
It is my expectation that in this course we will explore some of the underlying issues and concerns relevant to using literature with the language learner. I hope some of the thoughts and ideas from our discourse will help us in making more principled and coherent classroom decisions about why and how to use literature in language lessons. Every literary text is different and every theory exploring literature itself or how to use it in the classroom is different. My task is thus to draw on the range of insights discussed and presented through this blog and this course to develop an approach appropraiate and relevant to students.