Teaching Writing the Old Fashioned Way

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Teaching Writing the Old Fashioned Way

by subteacher86

May 10, 2012

Wow,

I'm beginning to think that I'm one of those people who can grasp a concept very well but has difficulty explaining that concept to someone else. I'm certified in English / Language Arts and was subbing at a high needs school for two weeks. On my last day, I decided to have the students do writing, but I had no idea where to begin, and, until the Science teacher--who was also certified in Language Arts, explained to me how to set up the lesson, I was completely lost. I graduated last year, and, frankly, I feel worthless. I don't really know how to set up a daily lesson plan, follow the pacing guide, grade certain items, and meet important objectives. My biggest problem, though, is that I don't really know how to explain things to the students. Confusion creates disaster.

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Jamie When I first started teaching, I felt that I was more effective at teaching math than writing, even though writing was my natural strength area. When something just makes sense to you, you aren't as aware of all the little techniques you are using--you just do it. When it's more challenging, you have to try different strategies until it clicks for ...See MoreWhen I first started teaching, I felt that I was more effective at teaching math than writing, even though writing was my natural strength area. When something just makes sense to you, you aren't as aware of all the little techniques you are using--you just do it. When it's more challenging, you have to try different strategies until it clicks for you. I had many more math strategies for students in my bag of tricks, because I needed to try them along the way.

Also, be aware that subbing at the end of the year is not the easiest thing to do. When you know the students, you can tap into their interests and predict what will challenge them. Subs are at a disadvantage without this information.

There are lots of resources to help design lesson plans, but I would suggest you start with the pacing guide and curriculum objectives. What do you want them to learn? How can they prove to you that they have learned it?

Ways to show they understand: They can take a quiz, they can build something, they can teach it to someone else, they can draw a diagram of it, they can write about it, give a speech about it, and a million other formats. Teachers often get stuck assigning a few familiar project formats, but it's easy to find lists of ideas (I'll post a link to one example from my site below).

Before they can show what they've learned, they'll need to take small steps to practice the skill and process the information. Anticipate where they will have problems, and plan activities to let them discover those things. For example, if students are using calculators to solve money problems, you can guess they won't all know to round their answers to two decimal places to represent cents, even if they have practiced rounding.

Consider all the activities and learning experiences that would help students be able to prove their mastery of the objective, and select the ones that are most effective, engaging, and worth the time it takes to complete them. Look for ways to connect these activities to other areas of the curriculum, but take care not to be side-tracked by shallow connections. When you have walked the students through a logical progression of smaller activities, give them the opportunity to prove their independent mastery with the task you chose.

Before you teach anything, do a pre-test to see if there are students who already know how to do whatever it is. This could be a written quiz, a performance task, or teacher observation of peer discussions. If some students already know how to do it, plan a replacement activity for them so they are learning new material, too.

Although it's a complicated process, it is a thrill when it all comes together. Practice is the only way to improve.

One other suggestion about your specific post--there are many great books with writing prompts that you could use as a sub or classroom teacher. There's a great one called Unjournaling by Dawn DiPrince.

Good luck!

On 5/10/12, subteacher86 wrote: > Wow, > > I'm beginning to think that I'm one of those people who can > grasp a concept very well but has difficulty explaining > that concept to someone else. I'm certified in English / > Language Arts and was subbing at a high needs school for > two weeks. On my last day, I decided to have the students > do writing, but I had no idea where to begin, and, until > the Science teacher--who was also certified in Language > Arts, explained to me how to set up the lesson, I was > completely lost. I graduated last year, and, frankly, I > feel worthless. I don't really know how to set up a daily > lesson plan, follow the pacing guide, grade certain items, > and meet important objectives. My biggest problem, though, > is that I don't really know how to explain things to the > students. Confusion creates disaster.

May 11, 2012

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Sara On 5/10/12, subteacher86 wrote:

It takes time to learn how to communicate students - there are some people who have a natural talent for it but most teachers need to learn how.

Keep it simple to start. You can practice at night - do you know that auctioneers actually practice before the auction begins? They practice to an empty r...See More

May 15, 2012

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