I did not receive any formal writing instruction during my school years. In elementary school, we received instruction in spelling and penmanship. Instruction in high school was non-existent as far as creative writing is concerned. The only writing instruction I have received has been during grad school and that was not so much specific writing instruction as feedback and guidelines for writing. My writing has been honed through trial and error with feedback from instructors and teammates.
Freeman (2004) suggests two views of writing, the learning view and the acquisition view. I believe I am now a mix of both views but until recently have been more of the learning view in my classroom and an acquisition view in my own writing. My view is swinging to more of an acquisition view in my classroom because of all I have been learning recently about writing and young children.
Writing instruction is a hit an miss proposition in our schools. Until recently educators concentrated more on input (learning reading) than the output (writing). Trial and error seems to be the norm for most of us in our acquisition of writing. Using your experiences to help those you teach is a wonderful self-reflection, but also a great way to change how we teach writing.
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