Writing Instruction: How does it work?

Looking back I never realized their was many ways to teach the writing process. In my experience of schooling, I never remember being given options on how to write a paper… there was one way and it was repeated indefinitely. As a teacher, I have found that to be the absolute opposite. There are so many theories on how writing should be taught; based on the learner, based on the content area and purpose that I have often felt overwhelmed. Preparing to be a social studies teacher, I never felt as a teacher or professor said these are the strategies you should use in your classroom, so entering into a classroom full of diverse learners I often felt helpless on how to help them be successful. What was most often presented to me as a way to teach kids to write was the formulaic answer of plugging information into this generic structure. While I was relieved, to have found some strategy to scaffold my students' writing needs, I never felt like that was the answer I was looking for. I often felt that being teaching them such a formulaic structure might even be hurting their writing more. 

After much trial and error and research, I found that the simplest answer was right in front of me. I had to take literacy into my own hands and teach in my social studies classroom. This is still such a revolutionary idea to teachers when it is brought up to them! They claim they are not reading and writing teachers, it is not our job as content area teachers to be in charge of this work. I have found very different results. By picking a narrow topic in content and explicitly teaching each step of the writing process my students' growth has significantly improved, and my practice as a teacher has improved. By slowing down myself, and thinking how I achieve every step of the writing process and then modeling and teaching my students how to complete this, it has changed the way I see writing instruction.  I have had to create a significant amount of my own materials but I see the reward in the product of my students. They have exceeded my expectations time and time again with the products each of my students are able to create through this in- depth process. I have even had my ELL students tell me afterwards that they never thought they would be able to read and analyze the documents that they did before this unit.

The type of writing instruction I would say I use is a collaborative form but also teaching the skills directly through content. Direct instruction of writing skills is going to be the surest way to move students' in writing achievement. This thought is reinforced by the text, "From a learning point of view, writing, like reading, must be taught directly. From an acquisition perspective, writing, like speaking, is a form of output that reflects the language competence an individual has acquired. Teachers from both points of view include writing in their language arts curriculum, but several aspects of their instruction are different," (Freeman & Freeman, 29.)  The aspects of instruction that I incorporate differently is what is unique to my content and the project that they are completing. 

Source: Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2004). Written and Second Language Acquisition. In Essential linguistics: What you need to know to teach reading, ESL, spelling, phonics, and grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.