(Page 9) “It’s one thing to assign writing to students; it’s another to teach them how to write.”
I think this is a huge problem with students. My theory is that often when teachers give students a writing assignment, the teacher has in his or her head what that assignment should like but never parlays it to the student. Sure, the assignment seems simple, but so does anything that you have straight in your mind. All writing is not created equal. The things you do for a persuasive essay are different from those you to for a lab report or reasearch paper on the Holocaust. When giving a writing assignment, we must explain to the students how to do it…we can’t expect them to learn all types of writing in the English classroom because the English teacher isn’t an expert in all types of writing! By scaffolding writing assignments, we can make students better writers. I think those of you who teach resource or and/or on a freshman team are at an advantage because you get to see your students all year long, so you can “grow” them over a longer period of time. That’s not to say progress can’t be made in a semester, but it is a little more challenging. But, hey, what’s teaching if it’s not a challenge?
