Reading for Writing: Modeling the Modern Essay

Introduction

The subject English Language Arts, pertaining to “Writing,” is one the weakest subjects at Tsaile Public School. Students who are classified as English Language Learners (ELL) are the main students who have the most difficulty expressing themselves on paper. Most Tsaile Public School students dread the thought of writing because there is so much more to consider than to simply pick up a pencil and write out their ideas and thoughts. What prevents them to feel comfortable with writing is using the format with writing. One must keep in mind, convention, word choice, voice, grammar and organization as one writes.  At the same time, other general points that one has to take into consideration when writing are the style, the purpose, the audience, and the flow of writing. But at third grade level, do we have to worry about all those elements when writing?  William Zinsser states about writing, “there are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.” He adds, “There isn’t any “right” way to do such personal work”.¹ Furthermore, he states that writers should be driven by the compulsion to write, especially to put themselves in the writing through who they truly are. This is perfect for our third grade students at Tsaile Public School!

I have been teaching third grade for three years now and going into my fourth year. The students’ attitude towards writing has been the same for the last three years. Some students would cringe or grunt and a few would lash out, “UGH...I HATE WRITING!”  This attitude is encouraged as our school focuses on other subjects: reading and math. I can understand why our focus is there due to the outcome of data or reports from the school’s state assessment out of Arizona Department of Education.  Importantly, I do believe that our school district needs to look at ELA Writing subject from a different or new approach. Especially now I have learned these new approaches after participating in Jessica Brantley’s seminar Reading for Writing: Modeling the Modern Essay where we intertwine reading and writing together. I learned a lot of techniques and methods through the seminar as well through research that will be applied in the curriculum Unit. Unfortunately, I have students that are promoted every year from second grade who are writing like Kindergarteners who simply can’t spell words or let alone, write a sentence or phrase. “Why?” I questioned myself as we get to activities involving writing. What’s with the attitude towards writing? What is it with writing that students seem to dislike? Writing should be fun and an exciting moment when one gets to tell a story, to share thoughts or emotions! Therefore, I agree with Zinsser as he states that as a teacher, there is more value in the production of writing, which is clarity but also being able to produce good writing through enjoyment, confidence, intention, and integrity.² Writing as I once understood it is generally another way to convey a story as you would in telling a story orally, only it is written on paper. However, most young kids don’t believe that writing is fun or have no enjoyment in writing. They find it challenging and a form of a task rather than for pleasure.

To get a deeper understanding of why students are finding writing difficult, I have asked several students why writing is just not a motivation for them.  I got answers such as, “I can’t think, I can’t write, I can’t spell words that I want to use” or “I don’t know what to say, I didn’t do anything for the weekend so therefore I got nothing to tell.”³ As a result, their writing shows their attitude and the struggle they have with writing. Some writings do not come out to a paragraph, or lack details, expression. A lot of students tend to repeat words such as “went” or “and then” in their sentences. One of the common reasons I found why a student would avoid writing is because he or she is not solid creating a sentence structure, or basically follow grammar rules. As a result, students do not see themselves as potential writers when they probably possess abundance of ideas or stories to share.  Having to be diagnosed and wear the label as an ELL (English Language Learner) student also does not make it any easier on them too. I, myself am an English language learner. English is my second language. I recall how it was to try to make that writing piece to perfection. My product was completed without understanding what writing truly was. My writing was simple, basically done to avoid an “F” as a grade. Red ink comments written out as “Sentence fragments” was meaningless to me. I could not understand what writing itself really was. There was no motivation for me.  Surely, writing should not be used to judge someone’s thoughts or idea. Writing should be open, free, without feeling inferior. It should be taught as a form of an expression and should be enjoyed and be engaged as much as talking and communicating to someone, right? Therefore, in making writing come to life with excitement, this unit is intended to understand writing and to bring out the joy of one’s writing as it did while participating in the Yale National Initiative Intensive Session under our seminar leader, Jessica Brantley. This unit is intended to go in-depth to explain what writing is from a teacher perspective and to increase students’ motivation if not, the love for writing no matter whether if it is fiction or non-fiction. The seminar made the connections between reading and writing to develop creative writers through analyzing craft, and creating personal experience writing through several model essays.