Why is it important that teachers and students are familiar with writing process?

When students understand process, they are likely to produce a better product. Besides, there are many opportunities to learning along the journey. We do not delay learning until we arrive at our final destination! Writing process is recursive in nature, not linear. We may revise as early as the planning stage and even begin to edit as we compose our first drafts.  Knowledge of writing process affects teacher expectations and your teaching in five important ways:

There will be a great deal of variability in students’ confidence, abilities, styles, and approaches.

Process-oriented teachers know students need regular and frequent practice in a variety of writing types (modes).

These teachers emphasize the writing process – especially prewriting and revising, in their assignments and instruction – providing time for conferences along the way.

The more teachers know about process, the more they understand that writing is hard work!

These teachers will emphasize content over the form. They respond primarily to the meaning in students’ writing and view the mechanics as secondary but an important consideration. It is important to understand that writing across content areas may mean the writing is often informal and unfinished. The teacher is not expected to grade everything! You may ask, “Its value?”  My response would be to give the writer the opportunity to look back and trace changes and development in learning and thinking (Learning logs, admit and exit slips, double-entry journals and more).

There are five elements to an assignment that educators should consider when designing one:

1. Choosing a Topic – Teachers can select a general topic but still allow for choice.

2. Specifying an audience and purpose for writing – helps writers to determine the content, the stance or voice to take, and what will best meet the needs of their readers.

3. Writing in a variety of modes, voices, perspectives – to gain confidence and avoid boredom.

4. Accommodating the writing process – supporting pre-writing decisions & data collection, allowing sufficient time for drafting & revising, & time for peer/teacher conferences.

5. Introduce a writing project in increments while offering guidance at each stage (See recommendations by Graham & Perin, 2007)

I am participating in #SOL2020. Thanks to twowritingteachers team for creating this space for us to write, share, and grow1