To Involve Students In The Writing And Extend Students' Views Of Language And Literacy

By Author: AMANDA
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In Britton's model, all writing begins as expressive and then, if the writer chooses, develops into "mature" writing in one of the dominant modes— expressive, transactional, or poetic. Self-directed writing utilizes all aspects of the writing process, from idea generation to polishing, editing, proofreading, and publishing. Some of the pieces students write are shared with their peers; some are not. I may ask them to share one piece of their writing for a peer response; I may ask them to read aloud one piece of their writing in a small group for oral feedback. Some Tag Heuer Replica Watches pieces are graded; others are not. They decide the pieces they want to share, and they choose the pieces they want to submit for a grade. But anything they submit for a grade is a finished piece, a piece they have shared with peers and with me for feedback, and a piece they've revised, edited, and carefully proofread.

In other words, much of what they write is unfinished and unpolished but writing nevertheless— writing about this and that. Writing for ...
... themselves. And, some of these pieces they will select to share with others, get feedback, revise, and submit for evaluation.

When students are given opportunities to write about their own topics and to write for different purposes and audiences, they learn that language need not be as rigid as they might have thought. In an environment that allows for difference, students are amazingly inventive, and they are eager to share their knowledge and abilities. All students, regardless of their previous exposure to Standard English, whether mainstream or nonmainstream students should gain an understanding of language differences in their educational experiences, and the writing classroom is the ideal place for such learning to begin. Through their experiences reading other students' work or talking about language choices in class discussions, students learn about language as a dynamic cultural entity, and they are eager to discover its uses in their self-directed writing.

In an eight-week period, students may write as many as 30 pieces, some of which they have shared with their peers for feedback and have revised. When they submit their mid-term portfolio, I ask them to select four or five pieces to feature for evaluation, and I specify that the pieces they select should Tag Heuer Replica show the range of their abilities and the reach of their exploration. I also ask them to submit all their other pieces too as evidence of their work, and the ones they don't want me to read they simply fold. These self-directed pieces are evaluated as part of the entire portfolio, which earns a single grade based on the student's progress toward achieving the course goals.