Writing and Representing

Writing is a very important aspect in the British Columbia ELA curriculum.  According to the BC IRP’s, Writing and Representing account for 30-45 % of the ELA curriculum in grades 6 and 7, approximately a 10% increase from previous grades (IRP, 8).  Therefore, it is evident that as a teacher, these are important years to engage students in the writing process.

When I think back to ELA classes from my own middle school experience, all the writing I can remember relates to book reports, and maybe the odd poem.  From my personal experience, I find that I can relate to Penny Kittle in her article “The Importance of Choice.”  Kittle believes that having students respond to literature through writing creates deep readers, and makes sense most of the time.  However, she also believes these are merely writing exercises, and that they hold little importance to the students.  Students complete the exercise without much revision, to get a decent grade, and learn very little in the process (Kittle, 209-210).  This is exactly the approach I took on writing to get myself through high school, and most of university.  Kittle’s main suggestion in getting student’s to enjoy writing it to connect them to their passions, and have them write about subjects that are meaningful to them (210). 

As a future ELA teacher, I think there are several approaches that could be taken to teach students about writing and representing, and help them to enjoy it in the process.  Nancie Atwell, author of “In the Middle,” uses writing workshops in her ELA classroom, in which she allows her students to write about subjects of their choice, and in whatever format they wish.  Like Kittle, Atwell encourages her students to write about subject material they are passionate about or personal experiences they have undergone (Atwell, 71).

While I agree that writing about your passions could be beneficial to engage younger students in writing, I have mixed feelings about this teaching technique because I think it is somewhat unrealistic in the real world.  Students do not always get to choose what they write about.  To get through high school and university, students have to take a variety of subjects, and pretty much all of these subjects include some form of writing which students have to complete to pass the course.  It might be writing a lab report for Science, an essay for History, or a book report for English.  Surely the student is not passionate about all this subject material, but they will write the paper, put in a haphazard effort, and pass the course.  I suppose that by learning to write about subjects that are important to them, students will acquire the tools they need to succeed in forced writing. 

I think my teaching technique would be a fine balance between Atwell’s writing workshop style, and the old-school style of writing book reports that I grew up with.  That said, from a teacher’s point of view, I certainly agree with Kittle in that choice feeds the teacher (211).  It would be much more interesting as a teacher to mark 28 papers on various topics, rather than 28 papers on the same novel! 

I think the most important thing in teaching writing to middle school students is just to encourage them.  Encourage them by sharing ideas, suggesting topics, or having them orally tell you what they are trying to communicate in their story.  As Atwell says, “they need teachers who will guide them to the meanings they don’t know yet by showing them how to build on what they do know and can do (218).

Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle:  New Understandings about Writing, Reading, and Learning. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1998.  Print.

Kittle, Penny. “The Importance of Choice.” Adolescent Literacy (2007): 209-212.  Print.

English Language Arts K to 7: Integrated Resource Package.  British Columbia, Canada: Ministry of Education, 2006.  Web.