Personal Narrative

In my opinion, writing is the communication of ideas. In the English classroom, this is a crucial component of learning as English revolves around the ability to find both meaning in texts, and to express this meaning to others. While oral communication is an undoubtedly important discipline and is necessary to students' social development, it is through writing that students are able to refine and focus their ideas. This idea is articulated by Peterson when he states that "students' thoughts have to slow down so their hands can capture them" (p. 2-3). Writing is essential to English as it demands that students sort through their thoughts about a topic and funnel them into a cohesive piece of writing. While it is this focus that causes frustration in the writing process, writing is an essential tool in critical thinking and the development of thoughts and ideas, and thus, is essential to the English classroom. In my practicum experience, I found that the teacher was most essential in the planning portion of writing. While short lessons on form and conventions are important, the teacher must also act as a guide by providing students with the tools for writing and helping them in developing ideas that the student can form a piece of writing around. While leading a unit on short story writing, we spent class time going over genres students could write about and bouncing around ideas about the types of stories told through these genres. By giving students broad boundaries (they had to choose a genre) and guiding them towards a story they could tell within these confines, myself and my AT acted as guides for students in developing ideas. From this point, students can begin to refine their ideas and tell their own stories through writing while the teacher provides guidance and support.