Writing Instruction

Working in special education I have taken many classes on teaching writing; however, I still feel that there is so much curriculum available and that I am still learning how to differentiate for each of my student’s needs, one program does not fit all.  However, I have also learned that writing and reading go hand in hand and must reinforce each other. 

In Freeman and Freeman (2004), there are two views of writing that are discussed first, Learning View and second, Acquisition View. 

1^st- Learning View is considered traditional and the students goal should be able to produce a good piece of writing by being taught each piece of the writing and finally working up to teaching how to bring it all together.    For instance, first students learn how to sound out and form the letters, next combining sounds to produce words, next how to combine words into sentences, and finally putting sentences together to form paragraphs.   Many of the curriculum's I use are modeled after the Learning View Model. 

 2^nd- The Acquisition View model’s goal is to produce a quality piece of writing by knowing the writing process.   I think of this method similar to backward planning, you start with the message and develop the skills needed to produce the writing.

When looking at both methods I feel that I have been exposed and exposed my students to both.  However, I know that I really need to look at which method works best for each of my students but teach them both.

Sources

Freeman, D.E., and Freeman, Y.S. (2004) Essential Linguistics: What you need to know to teach reading, spelling, phonics, and grammar. Heinemann.