How to Work Effectively with Teenage Writers

Many teachers when correcting a paper will write all over it correcting grammar and spelling mistakes and many times this will upset a student and make them not want to write ever again. I know that in my English classes I didn't enjoy writing because I was afraid of all the marks the teachers would make on my paper. The day that the teacher was returning the papers was the most nerve racking day because you weren't sure what to expect. Tom Romano writes in his book Clearing the Way, his experience on how to work with teens so that you don't discourage them from writing but the opposite, you get them to continue to write.
 
In his book, he gives many real life examples of how to work with students and give them feedback but in a way that doesn't involve a red pen and lots of writing. There is a certain way to respond to writing or help improve a students writing without fixing grammar and worrying about that. Of course as a teacher that is important but it is also important that students improve other aspects of writing. The University of Carnegie Mellon gives a great website about how to respond to student work and what teachers should really look for. I also think that it is important to make sure that teachers are reading the papers for content not just for grammar. Honestly when I was in school, I worried more about grammar and mechanics than I did about the actual content. The content was important but I knew that the teachers I had would worry more about the grammar. It is sad to think that many students out there struggle with the same idea. I think they should be more worried about content but also just improving from one draft to another. Writing is something creative and each student needs to create their own voice and make their own decision about their writing.

Writing Standards and How to Connect to Real World With Writing

I never thought so in depth about writing in schools and how to get students to get the most out of it until I read this article by Grant Wiggins. He discusses that writing is more important and makes more of an impact on students if the subject that they writing about is something that is relevant to their lives. I think that as a teacher it is important to make sure that students can pick topics that are relevant to them and something that they would enjoy talking about. Audience is something else in writing that is important and something students should think about when writing. Writing Commons has a lot of great ways to analyze if you are addressing and writing appropriately to the audience that you are trying to reach. Wiggins also demonstrates the idea that writing for a real audience is important for students to think about when writing anything. Students should have an audience other than the teacher, someone outside the classroom to make the assignment meaningful. I remember having a teacher in high school that had us write a research essay, because it was something that the school required, but this teacher let us write a letter to an organization to show them our research and ask us questions for our paper. It was very memorable to me because I got to pick something that I was passionate about and send it to someone else besides the teacher so I made sure to work hard to make an impact on that person. I think implementing something like this in a writing class would help students improve their skills and get them to put in their best effort. Writing to different audiences will help students see that writing to different audiences means pitching the same information in a different way as Wiggins describes.

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Marissa Chiodo and I am a senior at Western Michigan University. I am a Spanish Secondary Education major with a minor in English. I am super excited to be graduating in a year and get out into the teaching world where I hope to make an impact. Currently I work at Kohl's on West Main Street where I work at the customer service desk as well as jewelry. In my free time I like to watch T.V. and movies, read, and hang out with my friends. Hoping to learn a lot from my classes this semester that will prepare me for the teaching world.