Expressive Writing

"Expecting the Unexpected," according to Murray, "Regular habits is crucial--he viewed writing as work like any other work; however, there was some magic--something unexplainable--about what happened when your butt was in the chair" (Newkirk, 77).  As young writers, the best advice is to just have them write, and to mirror authors they enjoy reading. When students write, they need to understand that  writing is an "evolving text." Murray advocates, "Writing is a form of play and pleasure" (80). Writing opens streams of thoughts that is destined to be revealed and heard. As teachers, our goal is to guide students to read authors that will inspire them to write by expanding on their ideas or style of writing.

Good Reader and Writing

Skilled readers use what they read as a “mentor-text” for writing styles. Students who read naturally mimic their favorite author’s style of writing. They incorporate the author’s word choice, voice, connections as part of their writing.

Keeping a special notebook or even sticky notes handy is an excellent way to record your thoughts especially while reading. Reading opens the door that allows for better writing style, vocabulary development, fluency, and better understanding that writing does provide opportunities of expansion of expressing thoughts and writing.

Popular Culture as a Literacy Tool

Inspires students to draw on characters, infinitely expandable, reenactments, pleasure of play, improvisation, sound effects, joint planning with peers, social, active, and sets no limits to students imagination. "One clear feature of media driven writing is the central importance of giving good names to characters" (99). Using popular culture as a means to have students write is an effective manner to get student actively engaged in their interest. Popular culture could be a simple as using  comic books, movie clips that lead to a relative theme, the Sunday funnies, video games, etc. Motivating students to write what they read through spring-boarding of popular culture is another viable source of getting students to passionately write with expressiveness. Using what students enjoy as entertaining is a key that can be used as a teachable moment. It is part of their social conversation because students converse about what they are watching, listening, or  playing, so why not capitalize on that media. As a teacher, one can easily draw students attention especially when you begin to use characters, lyrics, or strategic levels of their video gaming into the instructional frame of mind. Students become impressed because now you have their interest.

For many years, authors have used Popular Culture to hook their audience into their passion of writing. Stephen King and Deen Koontz are great examples of authors who highly encourage writers to write, write, write, and write what interest you. These two authors share their views and tips on writing on the playlist provided in my blog.

Stephen King's View on Writing & Reading

Deen Koontz's View on Writing & Reading

Playlist of Authors' Views on Writing

"Literacy and Pleasure"

 

"Reading as the Inner Theatre" is what independent, committed readers treasure: the isolation of reading uninterrupted because by doing so readers become deeply involved with the book when given the time to read. Good readers discover that "the book is always better than the movie" (Newkirk, 114). Dependent readers on the other hand, prefer not to be isolated when reading instead they set themselves up with i-pods, ear-buds, or TV. Sadly, young adolescence miss-out on the true process of reading a good book without any multi-task interruptions of background noise. 

 

 

 

Why Children Struggle in Reading:

According to Allington (2012), “There exist potent relationship between volume of reading and reading achievement,” (53) and Guthrie (2004,) “dramatic increases in reading volume are critically important in developing thoughtful literacy” (cited in Allington, 53-54). As a teacher, I inherently believe now more so than ever that students need more time to read. In doing so, they will gradually develop the stamina to read more complex text, longer text, or for that matter text that they consider test boring text. The consistent practice of reading in volume--meaning a set time in the classroom provides for greater exposure to text, vocabulary development, and comprehension of text using various strategies to record thoughts, sharing of thoughts on what was read, and choice in selection if the opportunity arises. “More effective teachers simple had students reading” (55) more in their classroom—giving the time to read. In my classroom, I make it a point to incorporate reading and writing in several ways: Literature Circle through rotations, anchor book reading, excerpts of text, reader’s theater, read alouds, sharing creative stories, journal entry sharing, and independent reading of their own library or choice books.

"Popular Culture as a Literacy Tool" by Thomas Newkirk

Inspires students to draw on characters, infinitely expandable, reenactments, pleasure of play, improvisation, sound effects, joint planning with peers, social, active, and sets no limits to students imagination. "One clear feature of media driven writing is the central importance of giving good names to characters" (99). Motivating students to write what they read through spring-boarding of popular culture is another means of getting students to passionately write with expressiveness.

"Expressive Writing" by Thomas Newkirk

 

"Expecting the Unexpected," according to Murray, "Regular habits is crucial--he viewed writing as work like any other work; however, there was some magic--something unexplainable--about what happened when your butt was in the chair" (Newkirk, 77).  As young writers, the best advice is to just have them write, and to mirror authors they enjoy reading. When students write, they need to understand that  writing is an "evolving text." Murray advocates, "Writing is a form of play and pleasure" (80). Writing opens streams of thoughts that is destined to be revealed and heard. As teachers, our goal is to guide students to read authors that will inspire them to write by expanding on their ideas or style of writing.

"The Curse of Graphite" by Thomas Newkirk

"The Curse of Graphite" demonstrates how educational reforms has taken the forefront on placing tremendous accountability on teachers, the educational system, and students. As an educator, my philosophy has always been that what genuinely matters is the quality of what is being taught, the how, the time spent to really teach students, the absorption of what was learned through thinking, records of thoughts, meaningful connections, and treating students like people without rushing through the content process. Clearly, it is understandable that because we are teaching young minds for the future toward a more productive society, some kind of measurable accountability has to be in place. However, a balance must exist because according to Newkirk, (2009) "Schools are not factories; students are not products" (10).

In my view, caution needs to be exercised especially as an educational system that is focused driven on the "proliferation of objectives" (11) which in turn succmbs to teaching toward the tests. Teaching to the test appears to take precedence over learners who need to know and "feel there is a time to explore, there is tolerance to silences, there is deliberate build up to an activity, and there is the feeling of mental space to work"(11). Based on my years of teaching, students need the quality time to "marinate" on what was taught and learned. In addition, they need that specific volume of time to read, write, and share their ideas in order to strengthen their learning. Yet, because of the push for school accountability through media hype and highlight of student's test result, it will continue to be used as a "measuring stick for which educational effectiveness is determined" (Popham, 2000, 20).  As a teacher, I've accepted that I need to be more cognizant of how I can effectively use an uncontrollable issue of accountability to my advantage as an advocate for my students' learning. Therefore, I know I have control over providing a conducive environment of teaching and learning; to a certain degree, I have control of how I want to effectively implement the content domain standards that must be taught and tested. 

Newkirk. Thomas. Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting for. "The Curse of Graphite". Heinemann, NH. 2009. 10-11.
Popham, James. Modern Educational Measurement Practical Guidelines for Educational Leaders. Allyn and Bacon, Boston. 2000. 3rd Ed, 20.

Thomas New Kirk Views on How He Starts His Process

Holding On To Good Ideas In A Time of Bad Ones by Thomas Newkirk

As part of my professional development in my Master's of Education in Reading, actively reading scholarly text provides the foundations of clarity of my philosophy of education, practices and strategies for students as learners, understanding educational measurements in relation to student's status of their performance, and what teachers can do to help struggling readers better understand text, and more. Since I started my program Fall of 2012, I've read a plethora of articles that validated my understanding of teaching, and many of the articles I've been exposed to influenced my determination to "fine-tune and up-grade" my teaching practices and reflective thought of becoming a better teacher for my students and an instructional leader for my school.