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What is your emerging 

theory about writing 

instruction that will guide 

the ways in which you 

engage your students with 

writing?

The most basic fundamental reason for 

writing is to COMMUNICATE!!  

The further you get from a person the 

more conventional your writing must 

become.   In other words, writing for 

yourself can be informal and you will still 

understand it because it is for you.  

However, when writing for a larger 

audience that you do not know, your 

writing must follow certain conventions 

that the unknown audience can 

understand collectively.

It is important to work from the 

inside - out!   James Moffett's 

diagram gives us a chart for 

following this idea of working from 

informal, personal writing to more 

focused essay writing.

Thinking Up            Thinking over/through

(Imagination)           (Cogitation)

Fiction                    Column, Editorial,              

Plays                      Review, Personal essay,

Poetry                    Thesis Essay

Looking Back          Looking Into

(Recollection)         (Investigation)

Autobiography        Biography, Chronicle,

Memoir                 Case, Profile, Factual              

                         article, Feature article

Noting Down

(Notation)

Journal, Diary, Logs         (James Moffett)

Once students learn to love 

writing, which is easier to 

do when it is personal, then 

they will learn how to craft 

different types of writing.  

Maybe they will even find 

that they enjoy certain 

structures such as poetry, 

or journalism.  

Through one on one revisions, 

peer collaboration and individual 

writing time,   students will be 

able to master the art of writing 

in many forms. 

The best way to help them figure 

out what type of writing they 

enjoy is by exposing them to many 

different types.  

"Clarity of thought in 

such a world will be 

crucial as we continue 

to communicate across 

cultures" (Burke 60).

Step 2

Creating Classroom 

Ecology's That Supports 

Critical Thinking and 

Creativity

Write, Write, Write, Write, Write, Write, 

Write

Read, Read, Read, Read, Read, Read, Read

Listen, Listen, Listen, Listen, Listen, Listen

Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate

The only way to win a basketball game is 

by practicing hard and pushing yourself to 

do better.   That is how I view my 

classroom.   My students will write, read, 

listen and collaborate all of the time to 

help them grow as individuals.   Once they 

learn the basics, their creativity will 

shine!!

"We have to assure students 

that it's not what the teacher 

wants, but what the children 

want to learn or have a need 

to know more about" (Brown 

1).

"The national focus on high stakes tests has 

turned teachers' attention to students' 

retention of specific content rather than to 

ways students think with and write about 

that content, despite the fact that studies 

have shown that certain types of writing can 

aid students' understanding and retention of 

content" (Applebee & Langer 15).

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