My Experiences with 'Writing'

How was I taught writing?

Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind when I ask myself this question is that even now as a young woman, I cannot hold a pen or pencil properly or the right way ( so I am always told). I don’t know why this is the first thing I think of and I know maybe it has nothing to do with the question at hand. I remember tracing a lot; even now I still find joy in tracing and encourage my younger cousins to trace. So from the onset, I think that my experience with writing has not been the usual or normal one. Another truth is that I cannot really remember how I was taught writing, at least not as vividly as how I was taught reading or my experiences with learning to read. However, there are a few things that (I think) I can remember.

I will jump a few years and will start with my experiences at infant and primary school. I remember having a composition book. It was during this time that I realized something about myself. I realize that when I am given the task to write an essay (or composition at the time), I am usually (always) very reluctant. However, when I begin writing, I don’t stop. I was usually one of the students who were asked to cut down on their writing and obey the world limit. In primary school, I was taught the usual ‘introduction, body and conclusion’. One thing that I am now aware of is that I was given a ‘formula’ for writing. We were given certain words to use for certain subjects or certain parts of our compositions. That’s all I can really remember about my primary school writing years and about how I was taught writing on the whole. Because upon entering secondary school, I was no longer taught writing, but just developed my ‘skills’ as a writer.

How I taught Writing

I was never taught writing at the secondary level, however, when it came to teaching writing with my Grade one students, the focus was primarily on penmanship and writing short paragraphs. I usually taught them writing paragraphs by looking at a picture and writing what they think is going on it the picture. I now realize that I was actually encouraging them to use their imagination and not giving them any particular formula to write.

Different mindset

The most important lesson that I have learnt from my exposure to this Eng 204 course is that we must learn to just let our students………WRITE!! It is important that we try not to set any formulas for writing….just let them WRITE!! Encourage them to write about things that interests them and also to use writing as an avenue to express their feelings. We must also encourage them to think like writers. Engage in the processes of writing. We must also learn not to be ‘teachers’ of writing but be ‘facilitators’.