Even though the writing was never my forte, I am trying to put continuous efforts in order to get accustomed to the world of writing and eventually produce something which I am proud of. Since writing classes are labeled as some of the most difficult lower-divisions by college students, this idea has already induced a lot of fear in my mind towards this particular subject. This is to an extent that it affects my reading ability towards articles assigned in the writing class compared to the text I read for my entertainment. For instance, for the assignments where we are expected to critically analyze the text and provide responses, I tend to overthink a lot and eventually I fail to pick up the overall message from the article because I was too busy searching for details I am neither expected to know nor expected to use in my assignments. To elaborate on this, when I am reading the text, my brain is comprehending the meaning of each word in the sentence, however, it fails to establish a connection with the sentence prior and subsequent to the sentence because it is too busy trying to decode the details of that particular statement. Since I took writing 39A. I worked on my active reading skills and developed them to a great extent which helped me understand the overall message of the text my instructor provided us. Also, this helped me to establish logical connections between the evidence I provided and to organize them in a manner which would help a reader understand them
On Monday, we did the Writing 10 diagnostic test where we wrote a response to an article that talked about how students don’t summarize, but rather copy and paste quotes which shows students aren’t fully engaging with the text. On Wednesday, we began class by getting our diagnostic writing back and Ms. Maharaj began going over general things she saw happen in our writing from the diagnostic test. After going over the diagnostic test we played two truths and a lie to get to know everyone in the class a little better. Through this game everyone was able to meet everyone and learn something interesting about them. Lastly, we ended Wednesday by talking about the steps to take to think critically when reading articles. These steps included analyzing the argument the author(s) make, what evidence does the author give and do they consider opposing arguments, what is the authors stance and if they are objective in their response, and does the sources support/ challenge your
When people read they often just skim through, “Although there are virtues to skimming, the vast majority of writing tasks you will encounter in college and in the workplace require your conversancy with material you have read.” (David Rosenwasser, of Home from Nowhere:Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-first Century, as Rosenwasser defines, become conversant 107).
In chapter 9, Writing Across the Curriculum, the process of reading and writing was investigated and explained in comparison to one another. The reading-writing connection focuses on drawing from students’ prior knowledge and cognitive processes in order to build learning. The authors mentioned that the writing process is a strong tool for exploring and clarifying meaning and the two major instructional components used are writing to learn (WTL) and writing in disciplines (WID). The chapter also focused on the subareas of academic journals and writing disciplines.
In the article by Downs and Wardle “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions”, the author’s state a common misconception of writing for first year composition is that academic writing is somehow universal. This idea can be misleading since teachers have always taught that there is a basic set of rules for writing. However, I agree with the idea that writing is not universal because college students write for a various number of discourse communities and do not have one general audience. Content, context, and genre are bound to change while attending a university.
I came to realize that all writing consists of a series of choices” (Bunn 72). From the works, “The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer,” “What Is “Academic” Writing?”, and “How to Read Like a Writer”; Bunn, Allen, and Lennie are well versed in formulating information and tools that can be very beneficial for the student writer, works that complement each other. For example, Mike Bunn explains about the analytical process of reading like a writer, to consider the choices the author made and decide whether to apply them, Lennie Irvin gives a very detailed method on how to tackle academic writing tasks, and Sarah Allen tackles the issues and myths that plague the writer. They understand that writing and reading is a simple task with complex implications and put conscious effort to show that.
Writing can be a daunting task for students in any grade. Teachers have to implement new basic components for those struggling to write. Finding new methods and being able to execute them requires teachers to design lesson plans that help
Michael’s understanding of this genre is very clear. He wires his statements in complete sentences and with a variety of words. He uses evidence from the text to support his claims.
My observation took place the week of October 5th through October 9th at Frazier Prep Academy. I observed a writing class in ESL Services. The instructor granted me permission to observe her Writing Class which meets M/W/F from 10:15am-11:45am. I do not have any teaching experience in the classroom with ESL students yet, therefore, this was quite a learning experience.
The ability to produce a good paper is one that comes with time. It is a meticulous process involving many elements, each requiring a great amount of attention. Although good writing takes a lot of effort, completing a great piece can be very satisfactory. The skill of good writing can be carried over throughout your entire life, making it a very valuable ability to acquire.
Coming into class this year I felt that my writing abilities were adequate but needed improvement. The feedback I got from my previous teachers was generally that I should add more details so that my writing pieces are longer. Therefore, my grades ended up being B’s and C’s with the occasional A. My writing goals for when I graduate are that my essays, narratives, etc. will be longer and more detailed. I hope to write at least a high school level.
When I first started elementary school I was a normal kid that loved recess just like every other kid my age. As I began to get older I started to noticed that I struggled with my reading skills, which started to affect my writing skills also. One day in third grade, my teacher Ms. Martin took me outside the classroom and told me that everyday starting tomorrow I would be going to a reading class for an hour each day where all I had to do was read to a mentor. At first I was really embarrassed that I needed the extra help with my reading and no one else in my class did. When I got back into the classroom I told my friends why she wanted to talk to me out in the hall and I began to tell them that I got to leave the classroom for an hour each
When thinking about effective reading and writing, a lot of terms come to mind. Terms such as comprehension, writing fluency, etc. Yet one thing I noticed is that these terms can be addressed by one simple idea. The most important aspect of reading and writing has to do with being “critically engaged”. What this means is that you are able to maximize your effectiveness in terms of pacing, time management, and analyzation.
What I meant was that she should just grade the composition portion of it and not the capitalization, spelling, punctuation, and any other grammatical errors.
However, my progress as a reader has significantly improved and changed during this semester. First, I learned to improve my critical reading skills through the in-class reading assignments. My professor provided very useful help in assigning us the first reading response question: “Summarize the main ideas of the reading assignment. What questions do you have?” I think that a combination of being able to understand, summarize what the text says as well as interpret its meanings is a helpful approach one can apply to better his or her critical reading skills. Therefore, I have applied this approach to any reading I had for this class and I am still using it for other classes as well. Secondly, I changed my reading habit after the third essay in which I chose a research topic in my discipline to write about. While doing the research, I noticed that I was also encouraged to become familiar with many different subjects in my discipline. The essay assignment was to pick a topic that I am personally interested in writing about. Coincidently, this was also one of the goals that I listed on the first class writing “read articles and
In teaching and learning English, there are two aspects that should be concerned. The first one is the language skills such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The second one is the language components such as vocabulary, and grammar. These two aspects are taught in order to make the students achieve the ability in communicating both in spoken and written forms.