In chapters 4 and 5 in Writing Essentials Routman discusses the importance of having high expectations of students. I, for one, was happy that she was addressing expectations of neatness, spelling, grammar etc. as I believe those things are important. At the same time, I wondered how it fit into the celebration of everything from making chicken scratches on paper to writing a novel that she describes as essential in the first few chapters. Wasn't she contradicting herself?
Then I thought about my own beliefs. One, I do think it is important that we celebrate students' attempts and get them excited about writing. On the other hand, I believe that students should be held to a high standard. So, what is the answer?
I think it is a balance. Celebrating is about knowing where a student is at and praising growth. Expecting quality is about knowing what a student has been taught/should know and expecting them to use that in their writing. For example, spelling. At a certain point, students should know how to spell sight words such as "because" or "were". Therefore, it is a teacher's responsibility to expect that student to use the correct spelling of the words in his/her writing. It is possible to both celebrate and, at the same time, expect students to do their best work.
No comments:
Post a Comment