Rhea's Blog

LIT Reflection #3

10th October, 2017

“If you want to be a good writer, you must do two thing above all others: read alot and write alot.”- Stephen King

This week of LIT 102 was enjoyable and enlightening. To begin with, we made our presentations. This little activity was geared towards assessing our understanding on the Six Traits of writing and the writing process. We had to place the appropriate stage in the writing process to that of the Six traits of writing. We all thought that this activity was a success, as each group was able to effectively meet the objective using a chart. However, the two groups that stood out the most for us was the third and fifth group (see pictures below).

We liked the third group because it illustrated ideas and voice which leads the way in writing. This shows that without ideas there would not be a purpose for writing since one would not have anything to write about. Likewise, without voice, the ideas presented will not be effective: there would not be any flavor to the writing. In addition, we liked the fifth group’s chart because they also illustrated how important voice is and that it is used throughout all the stages of the writing process. Voice is what allows an individual to personalize a piece of writing by giving it a person style, tone and flavor. One's writing is make unique through their voice.

Furthermore, we were reinforced on the topic of expository writing. The lecture was clear and unambiguous, so we were able to understand the information presented. We were reminded that expository writing is used to provide information and explain a concept. Additionally, we learnt that expository writing is objective. It should not be personalize meaning there should not be any personal pronouns,such as; I, we, us, me, you, our. This is something we often forget when writing expository pieces. As prospective teachers we may tend to allow our students to use these due to ignorance. Therefore, we all hope from this lesson this piece of information sticks with us.

We also learnt that expository writing can be done in a variety of forms or structures such as; compare and contrast, sequence and process,cause and effects, and classifications, all these aim at providing information. As prospective teachers we are now aware that when we enter our classrooms, we are not suppose to write a topic on the board and tell our students to write on it. Rather, we are required to introduce our students to the elements by showing them models. As we ponder, how would they know how to do something, if they do not know what it looks like and what it consist of? Additionally, we learnt that we have to teach our students how to use charts and graphic organizers to help organize their ideas before writing. We also learnt that when ideas are not organized before writing, the writing has no sequence and it is hard to understand. Therefore, in order for our students to organize their thoughts and present them effectively for their audience we should definitely introduce them to graphic organizers.

We also learnt about writing strategies such as: POW, TREE and TAP although these are not new to us. The repetition of these strategies in the last class was significant as it highlighted ways that we can use to help our students develop in their writing. For example TREE would allow our students to pick a topic sentence stating what they believe. Next they would provide three or more reasons explaining why they have that believe. Then they wrap up their work and finally examine it to see if they have all the parts. This is an effective strategy to introduce to our students so that they would be able to monitor their writing in order to produce a well written piece.

Lastly, we appreciated the fact that the lecturer went over the literacy block lesson plan. Prior to this session, we did not quite understand how to plan a literacy block, however we now have a better understand of how it is done. To reinforce that, we were given additional practice where we have to create a block lesson plan for the lecturer. We can now better plan the literacy block lessons because it allows concepts to be taught based on how they are used. For example if we are teaching adjectives, students would read a passage that consists of adjectives. They will then be able to see how they are used while writing, rather than teaching adjectives in isolation and not having a piece of writing to relate it to.

However, for further sessions I would like to see the lecturer construct a literacy block lesson and teach it. Also, I would like her to teach it in a way that it would have to be continued in a next lesson. By doing this, she would model to us how it will be done when we go into the classroom and how we are to continue the lesson in the next session.