Reversing the Roles:
Writing BEFORE Reading
This is what I am perhaps most passionate about and really hits the core of my philosophy in teaching English. I believe we have had writing and reading roles reversed for some time. With the impact of NCLB our schools focused primarily on reading and it left writing as a back-burner item.
Then, as testing included writing with higher stakes, we saw the influx of formula writing. Formula writing does not reflect real writing--it was simply a quick fix. These two elements combined have, in my opinion, done detrimental damage to our education system and our students who are rarely asked to be creative, to think on their own, to find their own topics.
The act of reading does not include writing but the act of writing (real writing--through the process) involves careful reading. Too often when we teach reading we ask for answers to questions. Students are most often searching for a right answer. When writing, they have to generate their own questions and answers. They are expressing instead of interpreting and this improves engagement.
I suggest A LOT more focus on writing. The problem--grading. Who wants to score that many more papers. That doesn't have to happen. In fact, in many ways the method I propose will require LESS scoring or writing on papers. This method has the students finding their own errors. It does work.
Writing Across Curriculum
Click here to download a collection of lessons and ideas for writing across the curriculum.
