Why Should Students Write?

First off, I would like to say that I walked into a 7th grade classroom yesterday. As I looked around the room, my eyes lit up! There was a Brushstrokes Bulletin board with examples of different ways to mix up student writing! I was so pleased to see this and after reading over student's creative pieces, I could see many of the brushstroke techniques mingled into their work. It's great to see some teacher's taking advantage of great instruction.
As I have been in and out of different classroom for the past few months, it has come to my knowledge more than ever now the issue with student writing. As I read over the eighth grade and ninth grade student essays, it saddens me to realize how inconsistent and redundant writing is for essays and creative pieces. From their introduction to their transitions between paragraphs, it is pretty awful. I understand while reading the papers that they are 13-15 years old, however, they are learning to write like robots because of standardized testing. "I think football is the best sport because of this, this, and this...." By only learning how to write one way, it is lowering their creativity. When asked to write a creative piece, they have no idea how to even begin. They want to know what the requirements are and how they should write. "What should my graphic organizer look like, Miss Miller?" That's the question I received by most of the students. It honestly made me want to contact the Education Department in PA and tell them what they are doing to our students. It is awful.
Introducing creative writing and journaling is one of the first things that I will do at the beginning of my student teaching next semester. Journaling is a safe place for each student to go and create a little piece of themselves on paper. While there will be times where prompts will be necessary and used, I want to allow the students to use their notebook as a place where writing it okay if there are grammar mistakes, misspellings, redundancy at times. As the months progress forward, their writing will automatically improve on its own.
As well as journaling, bringing in the brushstroke method as well as promoting writing contests, creating a wall for student work, creating writing bulletin boards, teaching how to write smaller, writing about what they are smart at or interested in...etc, will be included during my teaching (hopefully (: ) It is very important to make good writers and not strictly for standardized testing. It is necessary for the real world, because no matter what job market a person is in, writing will be included. It is important to get students to realize this too. I hear a lot of talk about, "Writing and reading is stupid. When am I ever going to have to use reading and writing?" I am half tempted to make a wall dedicated to this question and list a bunch of answers so I can direct my students over to this wall when that question appears before me.
Students should write for themselves and hopefully when I am a professional, I will have an impact on students and will teach them that writing is fun and with writing comes great power.

Teaching Reading

Reading Gallagher's Readicide as well as Smagorinsky's texts has really opened my eyes to establishing reading in the classroom. There is a right way to introduce reading and it shows in their research as well as their own experience in their classrooms. Being out in the field has also really opened my eyes to recognize that Readicide is happening everyday. While Readicide is mostly apparent in my 9th grade classroom, I can see it happening with the 8th grade students as well. Everything that Gallagher has stated NOT to do, I am seeing it in my 9th grade placement. It is so hard not to hand over the novel to my Co-Op too! (I am not sure if that would be insulting or a nice gesture?!) Stopping after every page and summarizes the text as well as stopping after every chapter for a few days to complete an activity about that chapter is literally killing me (and the kids)! I can see it in their faces...and the schools wonder why kids hate reading now. THIS IS WHY. I also see that it is not only teachers killing reading. A lot of it is parents. In the Carlisle School District, all English teachers are being asked to remove their classroom libraries. A student brought home a novel from a teacher's shelf with a few pieces of language that were not appropriate. The parent is now threatening a lawsuit against the school district if this type of material is in classrooms.The administration is now forcing teachers to get rid of their "free-read, SSR" books. First off, are you serious? I am so upset about this issue! I went to a meeting the other day with the English teachers and discussed this and many said they are going to refuse to remove their books. "I am an English teacher. This is an English classroom. I will teach and allow students to read books. I would never put a book that was inappropriate on my shelf." I just cannot believe what education is coming to. It is really upsetting. I cannot imagine what it would be like if I was in that school district as a permanent teacher and I was asked to remove all novels from my classroom. Anyway....back to teaching reading! I am hoping that when I am a teacher, I am not sucked into doing mundane worksheets and activities after every chapter or lesson in the novel I am reading. I would hope my fellow English teachers would be open to new ideas of teaching and not focus solely on worksheets and multiple-choice tests. It sort of scares me though, because I am sure that these teachers had this type of education in college...learning how to teach reading effectively and include writing in the classroom. Why aren't they using it? Is it because they don't have time or it doesn't fit into their curriculum? Are they just taking an easy road? I'm not sure, but I hope that I do not fall into this path. I hope that I can take the ideas introduced to me in the texts that we have been reading and through our class discussions and create a new love for reading and instill it in my students.