Writing Strategies

This blog is dedicated to writing. I know writing is another one of those subjects that are hard to children to enjoy. Especially children who are deaf or hard of hearing because English can be a struggle for them anyway. Here are some strategies to help children enjoy the act of writing a little bit more.

Language Experiences: I got this strategies from the Kenya Deaf Resource Center. http://kenyadeafnet.org/content/view/159/348#2/ I think this is a great strategy to get children interested in what they are writing. It says go on a field trip with your classroom and then they next day have the children write about. Any teacher will know that students always have stories of what they did and what they saw when they come back from a field trip! Why not use that enthusiasm and make it a writing lesson. You can have the children draw a photo first to help them get what they are thinking down on paper if they have a harder time writing exactly whats in their head. I think this strategy doesn't need to be altered for children who are deaf or hard of hearing because it is what they saw and experienced. You can go back over the spelling, and the grammar the next day.

Dialogue Journals: I also got this strategy from the Kenya Deaf Resource Center. I thought it was a great way to model English to our student who are deaf. This journal is a written conversation between the teacher and the student. Every day the student writes a letter to the teacher about anything he or she wants. The teacher can have it be prompted by asking a question or it can be free write then at the end of the teacher the teacher collects the journal and responds to the entry by modeling correct language. Then the teacher can talk about a different writing topic a week and the student can try to model that topic in their journals. It might be hard for a student to come up with a topic by themselves, depending on the ability of the student. The teacher might have to model it a lot before the students get a good understanding of what is expected of them. I think that most of our student are capable of doing something like this. The writing level might vary for each student but I still think it is a great idea. It would really help the student in that mode of writing everyday.

Writer's Workshop: This too I got from the Kenya Deaf Resource Center but it sounds like the same idea the Dr. Wang showed us in her class, with the writing folder. The student keeps a folder that is separated into sections: write, revise, edit and publish. The students write about any topic and the work at the own pace. Each day you can have the students pull out their own writing folder and have them work on it for 10-15 mins a day. This way they can see the process of writing from beginning to end and at the end they can be proud of their work!

Writing for a purpose: I got this strategy from the Louisville Writing project. http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/922#Twelve. I think this is another great strategy because it gives the students a great opportunity a reason for writing. I know there are so many times where we have writing assignments but have no idea why we are writing them. I think this gives the students a reason to write. They can write a letter to anyone: an actor/actress that they like, their mom, another teacher, a scientist if you are learning about someone really special. Anyone really this way they can practice their best writing and hopefully can actually give it to someone. Hopefully this way the students will be eager to write their best and to be proud in what they wrote!

Shared Writing: This strategy I got from the teacher vision website: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/reading-and-language-arts/skill-builder/48883.html. I think most of us are familiar with shared writing. I think it is a great idea because it is still the child's idea but it is guided with the teacher. Both the teacher and the child sits next to each other and they both think up things that will go in the story or the piece of writing. However, the teacher acts as the scribe. This way the teacher knows what the child is saying and work with the child on their grammar. I think this is a great strategy for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. I think it gives them that one-on-one attention while working on something as important as writing.