Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools Chapter 3

The Writing Workshop

For the most part; language arts was divided into units. Each unit consisted of an overall goal that touches many bases. I don’t remember having a unit that was guided towards one specific feature for instance, writing a poem. It always involved various components. In eleventh grade we had to do a research paper on a person who had an autobiography written about them. This unit consisted of reading a book, conducting support research, giving an oral presentation, and writing a paper. The point I’m trying to make is that as far I can remember: In language arts and English no unit consisted of solely one thing. In college I’ve learned more about creating outlines, and making reference sheets. It seems that college has recognized what secondary English consists of, and college picks up the missed pieces, which isn’t a bad thing.
In my secondary schooling, I don’t remember ever having writers work shops to learn about one certain writing aspect. I also don’t remember having mini lesson to gain quick digestible knowledge (as the book put it). I have a good decent memory. If I don’t remember it, it’s probably because it didn’t happen. In a couple of our classroom meetings we’ve did two small writing activities that were interesting, and stood away from my typical experiences when learning about writing. These examples are student focused, more fast paced, self reflective, and critical. I have a lot to learn about teaching writing to the youth, but these positive tactics will seek their interest and they’ll lead off into bigger components that make writing, reading, and the whole language arts concept more exciting to students and their teachers. It seems to be a trial and error battle, what works and what doesn’t.