The engrossing words from the lecturer as the silence of the class listened to both familiar and unknown facts about descriptive writing, shook the creative juices in our expired brains. The otherwise stagnant "kwas" got activated as the lesson swiftly unfolded that day. Every well-connected detail: sharing prerequisites about descriptive writing, studying kernel sentences, creating five senses clusters, learning the transitional words and phrases, was rather rightly digested.
Opinion
The belief that infants are only able to produce kernel sentences is definitely a myth. Modelling to students how to improve a descriptive piece with the use of several pieces of vague writing will help improve their writing skills. The students are only capable of reproducing what we as their literacy teachers model in class. Since, teachers have adopted more of a drilling technique to teaching the infants, students will grow up with the view of producing work in one set format, which is whatever they learned in their previous grades. The infants are not blank slates- allow them to freely speak about pictures with their outrageous imaginations added to whatever can clearly be seen.
Fact
- The main purpose of descriptive writing is to describe or provide details about a person, place, event or thing, so that a vivid picture can be formed in the readers' minds. The writing of a descriptive piece involves the use of the five senses - hear, sight, smell, touch/ feel and taste. In doing such, it is important to make students see that their story or passage has become more interesting and engaging after including the descriptive words and phrases.
- The teacher of literacy can adopt different classroom strategies and approaches in helping students develop 'healthy' descriptive passages. Some of these strategies include writer's workshop, RAFT, read-write-pair-share and guided writing practice. As mentioned above, it is necessary to model to students the steps in the writing process when teaching writing. (look at video below)
- Engaging students in descriptive writing helps to build their vocabulary and speech deliveries. It can also improve their overall writing skills as they will be exposed to ways of being creative with their words in the use of figurative language. Students will learn to use metaphors, exaggerations, adverbial phrases and adjectival phrases to make their writing more interesting and original.
- It is also important to note that a good descriptive piece of writing is very organized. For example, the use of transitional words and phrases of time, place and order of importance. In the description of a person, one would start with physical appearance and move to personality and then behaviour.
- Descriptive writing can be incorporated across the curriculum in the different content areas. For instance, students in Grade One can orally describe for a Social Studies lesson, the buildings in their community or their experience at the La Marguerite Flower Festival.
Entry by Jina Jonas, Leah Giman-Satoute & Shaquille Aldonza
This is well put together. I particularly loved the preamble to this entry as it was eye-catching and a bit humorous. I want to echo your sentiments that children although young, can produce descriptive pieces if instructed properly. Many times we as teachers underestimate our students' potential and do not give them the extra push that they need to triumph.I like the fact you highlighted that descriptive writing can be integrated across the curriculum and not just restricted to language instruction because sometimes we make poor judgements as teachers which stifles our students' ability to grow. Moreover, the video embedded added value to your post. It helped elucidate certain things. Again, job well done colleagues.
ReplyDeleteyou never cease to amaze me with your blogs. The prelude was hilarious. Admittedly, I thought that infants were only able to produce kernel sentences, however, I now know that they are not blank slates and that the writing skills of them are highly influenced by the strategies we utilize in the classroom. If we do not have high expectations of our student or try to get more out of them, then they will not perform at their best. If we inculcate good writing skills in our students from early or we expose them to multiple writing strategies, then they will grow into proficient writers as they progress through the grades. I will be sure to use some of the strategies mentioned to help develop my pupils' writing skills.
ReplyDeleteI love the approach of this peace. I was able to depict the writing style of at least one person in this piece. You caught me from the start and kept me till the end. That is the art of good writing. The teacher is not the only one capable of teaching. The students have a great deal of knowledge and experience that can help themselves and others in the class add to their quality of writing. I am fond of the five senses clusters the most because not only does it allow one to add flavor to their writing but it also helps one to pay more attention to life on a whole. The culture of descriptive writing enables one to appreciate the things that we may have otherwise bypass. The social learning theory confirms that children learn through observation, modeling and imitation. It is of utmost importance for the Literacy teacher to model the kind of writing he/she wants to see from his/her students. They might have the ideas but it is the teacher's job to show them what to do with those ideas and how to do it. It is also important for the teacher to provide opportunities for practice and no matter how small their pieces may be, they should be given a chance to publish. Whether it may be by reading on the writers chair or sticking it up on the writer's wall. It is also important to publish pieces at every level so that those who struggle with writing don't feel like becoming an excellent writer is unattainable. The teacher should also create an environment where language is fun. Learning new words in exciting ways and finding ways to motivate the students to use them daily is a great accomplishment for a literacy teacher. Students struggle with language because it is used differently in their different environments but teaching them when and how to use the language is a great tool. Not only does it add to their writing abilities but it also adds to their quality for life. Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic and using it right is beyond magical.
ReplyDeleteBrittney Duplessis
DeleteI also believe that students in the early grades are capable of writing sentences,not just simple sentences that are vague but sentences that are of high quality which paint a clearer picture for the reader. Teachers very often underestimate the writing potential of students and as a result student produce "mediocre" sentences. "They are too young to write compound or complex" sentences is the first excuse that teachers refer to. It is the teacher's job to provide the various avenues where students learn to become creative when writing. This can be done through descriptive writing lessons where students are taught the various strategies to improve on their writing skills. As you stated earlier, the teaching of descriptive writing can be integrated across the curriculum. Therefore, writing will not become stagnant in the Language Arts classroom. If teachers of writing take their job more seriously I believe that students will become better authors even in the early grades.
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you presented the information in a "fact and opinion" format. This I found to grasp my attention in reading your post. Descriptive writing is one genre of writing that I have personally enjoyed as a student. Unfortunately, many students do not enjoy this as they lack the ability to create a description that is vivid. You have put together nicely, the different components of descriptive writing that is needed to produce a vivid descriptive piece. You mentioned the RAFT strategy which I prefer out of the many writing strategies because it does a great job in helping students identify their role as a writer. I also like the fact that you mentioned descriptive writing as a tool that can be used across the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteVery good job!
Written by: Ryan Bicar.
whilst reading the introduction all I did was smile my way through it. I am infatuated with the presentation of this blog it was entertaining yet meaningful. I do believe that students at a young can produce a descriptive piece with guidance from the teacher. Teachers need to give students a chance rather than underestimating the level of knowledge students posses in writing. it is important that teachers should use varied strategies to enable students become good writers at an early age.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, modelling to students should be practiced by us teachers, as it can improve students writing as well as writing skills because students tend to duplicate what teachers do.
Great piece !
Nasha John
interesting read! Thanks for the intriguing yet hilarious preamble. I echo your sentiments that our students' efforts is reflective of our expectations of them as their teachers and role models. Therefore, if we set high expectations for them, then they will be more inclined to give their utmost best. With that being said, I believe that using the graphic organizer in the form of the five senses cluster is a really effective mechanism as it will enable the students to generate ideas that to develop an excellent piece which is compact with imagery to help their readers create vivid mental pictures.
ReplyDeleteInteresting read! Thanks for the intriguing yet hilarious preamble. I echo your sentiments that our students' efforts is reflective of our expectations as their teachers and role models. Therefore, if we set high standards for them, then they will be more inclined to give their utmost best. With that being said, I believe that using the graphic organizer in the form of the five senses cluster is a really effective mechanism at it enables the students to generate ideas to develop an excellent piece, compact with imagery to help their readers create vivid mental pictures
ReplyDeleteThe inclusion of a preview, facts and opinion was very creative. The use of the five senses is important for students to create excellent decriptive pieces because it plays on the readers' senses to have a complete experience of what the writer is conveying. Additionally, it allows us go see places which we may not go to, hear sounds, taste various flavors, smell different fragrances and touch various textures. Moreover, the the use of vivid languageto compliment the sensory-based description helps set a mood. For example, the writer can show what a day at church was like, rather than telling us what the day is like. As you mentioned above, the use of similies and metaphors can also be used to set the mood in a descriptive piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteThe introduction of a fact, preview and opinion to begin this entry was very informative. You explained the different components that a descriptive piece should entailed.Another important point which stood out to me is that the teaching of descriptive writing can be integrated across the curriculum. Teachers must take into consider that modelling plays an integral part in developing writing and if taught properly at an early age students will become proficient at writing.
ReplyDelete