Conner Miles
(I'm not really a huge fan of hashtag movements, but it would be less interesting to say something like "Teaching Students to Understand the Importance of Writing in their Everyday Lives")
As far as I can remember, the first day of my high school English classes dove straight into the literature in some form or another. Sure, the syllabus might have outlined the importance of whatever class we were taking at the time, but a few lines on a piece of paper that students almost never glance at does not instill importance.
I think it's very important for students in any subject to know why they are taking the class in the first place. It is especially important for ELA teachers to stress the importance of their class, as writing often comes more difficultly to students than math. A student can go on Google, for example, type in a math equation, and get an answer; it is not as easy to have an entire paper written for you, although certainly this is doable too...The point is that students should become self-sufficient in whatever subject they are learning, and the first step in doing that is to have students why is it is so important that they learn.
I think the best way to teach students why it is important that they learn how to write is also the least satisfying way for many teachers, and that would be to give personal examples of how writing was important in their (the teachers') lives. This is part of the weird, out of the standards "artistic" sort of teaching that I think is utterly necessary in order to connect to students, but is also really hard to do effectively. One of my former English teachers taught me the importance of writing when she discussed her long pen-pal friendship with an old professor of hers; in the class, we even took time out of learning the standards to write a letter of our own to someone, and of course my teacher did not check for grammar or spelling mistakes. She only wanted us to understand why it was important that we write.
Of course, there may be less personal but also still effective ways of getting this point across. A teacher could talk about how almost any job or hobby field requires writing; on a more philosophical level, a teacher could talk about how writing can help defend our rights. This would be perfect fodder for the unknown genre project (which seems to be a more amazing project, the more I think about it). What are some other ways we could teach students why it is important to write?
(I'm not really a huge fan of hashtag movements, but it would be less interesting to say something like "Teaching Students to Understand the Importance of Writing in their Everyday Lives")
As far as I can remember, the first day of my high school English classes dove straight into the literature in some form or another. Sure, the syllabus might have outlined the importance of whatever class we were taking at the time, but a few lines on a piece of paper that students almost never glance at does not instill importance.
I think it's very important for students in any subject to know why they are taking the class in the first place. It is especially important for ELA teachers to stress the importance of their class, as writing often comes more difficultly to students than math. A student can go on Google, for example, type in a math equation, and get an answer; it is not as easy to have an entire paper written for you, although certainly this is doable too...The point is that students should become self-sufficient in whatever subject they are learning, and the first step in doing that is to have students why is it is so important that they learn.
I think the best way to teach students why it is important that they learn how to write is also the least satisfying way for many teachers, and that would be to give personal examples of how writing was important in their (the teachers') lives. This is part of the weird, out of the standards "artistic" sort of teaching that I think is utterly necessary in order to connect to students, but is also really hard to do effectively. One of my former English teachers taught me the importance of writing when she discussed her long pen-pal friendship with an old professor of hers; in the class, we even took time out of learning the standards to write a letter of our own to someone, and of course my teacher did not check for grammar or spelling mistakes. She only wanted us to understand why it was important that we write.
Of course, there may be less personal but also still effective ways of getting this point across. A teacher could talk about how almost any job or hobby field requires writing; on a more philosophical level, a teacher could talk about how writing can help defend our rights. This would be perfect fodder for the unknown genre project (which seems to be a more amazing project, the more I think about it). What are some other ways we could teach students why it is important to write?