Writing in Secondary Schools

While reading the article "Writing in Secondary Schools" by George Hillocks in The Handbook of Research in Writing, I came across a quote that captured my attention. "real writers do not write in order to use the devices of effectiveness; they write to express ideas and in the process of expressing these ideas they come upon the need for specific words, all kinds of figures of speech, for sentence patterns that accurately reflect meaning and emphasis, etc." Many teachers considered mastering grammar as an indication of being a good writer. Teachers have this idea that great writing not only starts with grammar it ends with grammar becoming the main focus of the writing piece. Grammar is important, but why not focus on the content as well as the grammar. Writing is more than grammar, it is a mixture of ideas, words, figures of speech, sentence patterns that help to put together stories, poetry, and other writing assignments. Writing is an aphrodisiac for the soul that soothes the mind and heals the heart. Writing represents a person's character and spirit. Each time a person writes, they reveal part of themselves to the public.

In helping students write, I think it is best to teach poetry first. Writing poetry help students to create sentences patterns using figures of speech and other devices that strengthen writing skills. Also, it is a way to introduce writing to students that may not be interested in writing. Once, teachers teach the aspects of poetry then they can give students more challenging writing assignments. Students will be able to meet the challenge because their confidence have been built while they learned and write poetry.

I often visit the NWP website to get ideas to help my students write as well as Kathy Schrocks website (Discovery) I am always looking for a reading or writing website to add spice to my lessons and keep my students wanting to learn more about writing.