Writing is my passion. Anything writing. Books. Essays. Words. Teaching it. Helping teachers learn how to teach it. Before I retired, a pleasure of mine was watching students improve their writing skills, seeing their confidence grow as they learned to manipulate the language on the page. I always was bothered by the murmuring of folks about how poor the writing of students was when, frankly, many students were not being taught how to write. Hence, the struggling writers…
I admit teaching students to write is hard work, but it CAN be done. I want to share some quick strategies and thoughts about helping the struggling writer. Try one or try them all. Monitor progress. Build confidence first. No one likes to do what he feels he does poorly. Success will breed success.
Struggling writers don’t see themselves as writers . They generally lack confidence about their writing. As writing ” should be used as a means of thinking, exploring, and increasing academic achievement,” we are failing students, especially struggling ones, if we don’t teach them how to write.
Struggling writers need help with detail, word choice, mechanics, handwriting, finding their own errors, correcting their errors, and fluency. They need explicit instructions and practice. Struggling writers need writing prompts, visual maps , written plans, lists, perhaps dictation devices, and some need word processors.
They need to set goals and to understand the differences among genres of writing. For instance, they should be taught that persuasive writing has a position, reasons, evidence, and a conclusion. Students need to evaluate their own writing in terms of their own goals, and opportunities for them to revise often should be available. Struggling writers need to do more planning.
Stay tuned for strategies to use with struggling writers. Until then, check out my previous posts.
Happy writing.