Keywords
writing practice, classroom writing, writing objectives, English classroom, authentic writing
Submission Type
Research
Preview
In the fall of 2018, I established the writing objectives in my eighth grade classroom with student and teacher sanity in mind. Heading into my twelfth year of teaching, I was tired of reading predictable, formulaic paragraphs that all but screamed, "This is my topic sentence. Here are my ideas and supporting evidence. And now, let me conclude by restating my topic sentence." Sure, this type of writing is easy to assess; even a computer can grade this structure with moderate accuracy, but there are so many problems with it-problems that generate impersonal pieces lacking in passion, creativity, and risk-taking. Until last year, three of my students' greatest assets as writers-and humans, really-were being ignored. The results? We were all bored. And I don't mean your typical teenage, this-isn't- as-fun-as-a-video-game boredom. This was more like torturous hair-pulling, brain-bending boredom that followed us throughout the writing process and, in turn, led me to the same agony when grading the outcome.
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Christine C.
(2019)
"Writing Beyond the Walls: Five Questions to Promote Authentic Writing Experience in the Classroom,"
The Utah English Journal: Vol. 47, Article 2.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/uej/vol47/iss1/2