So far, I have only had the chance to conduct 5 interviews
from my list of 13(+). I decided to work
on the lower grades. My interviewees
range in ages from 6 years old to 12 years old.
(However, I have a meeting with a former teacher tomorrow to understand
a teacher’s perspective on how students feel about writing.) One of the participants, female-6 years old,
loves to write and create stories. In
fact, there have been numerous occasions when she has chosen to write stories
after school instead of going outside to play.
Another participant, female-age 7, has let me know that she hates
everything about writing. She does not
even like to do her “sentence worksheet” which her teacher assigns in order for
the students to practice using their spelling words. Once the sentences are written, the teacher
gives her students the option to create a story with the spelling words for
extra credit. This particular student
would rather not receive the extra credit.
The third participant, female-9 years old, does not dislike writing, but
she prefers math and science classes.
She says that she enjoys creating stories at home but not at school
because her teacher gives “boring work.”
She means that the prompts which the teacher gives do not hold her
interest. My forth interviewee, male-age
11, is an ESL student. He has a very
difficult time with writing in English.
However, he has taken to writing his feelings down in a journal to keep
himself from physical outburst. This
seems to be very effective for him. The
final participant in this round of interviews, male-age 12, has told me that he
has no strong feelings for writing. He
understands that it is necessary in gauging a student’s understanding, but he
feels no enjoyment while preforming the tasks which his teachers assign.
Since I have not collected all of my information yet, it
would be difficult for me to make any concrete assessments on the content I do
have. However, if these 5 students were
the only points of reference I was able to encounter, I would say that there
seems to be a fundamental flaw in writing classrooms. When asked about fun writing activities they
were able to participate in, only one student was able to give me an
example. Could this lack of practice and
cultivation of writing in young students lead to detrimental repercussions in
higher education? How can this be
avoided? There will always be students
who hate writing for multitudes of reasons.
(This does not mean that they should not write). However, what about the students who like or
love writing? If they are not given the
opportunity to exercise their skills, their desire to write could atrophy.
My next step in this project will be to conduct the
remainder of my interviews. Afterword,
depending upon the data, I will be able to begin to form an outline with my
findings. As far as I can tell, there
will be three sections/ headings which the students will fall under: those who
love writing, those who hate writing, and those who tolerate it. I will continue to post my updates. Stay tuned…
Denise,
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to hear that so many of the young students you interviewed stated that they did not enjoy writing. This surprises me because I remember enjoying writing when I was younger; I only remember starting to dislike it once I reached middle school. I'm curious to learn what the other students you interview say about writing. Your results thus far lead me to think that assigned writing may cause students to develop I disconnect towards writing, even at a young age.
Denise, I think you're on the right track and have a good variety of sources. I was interested in when one of the students you asked responded with she "enjoys creating stories at home but not at school because her teacher gives “boring work.” This resonated with me because when I first started writing when I was a lot younger, I felt like this but quickly grew out of that stage. I can't wait to see what the teachers have to say.
ReplyDeleteDenise, this is such a cool topic! How unfortunate it is that we are such a text-based society but school has made many students dislike writing.
ReplyDeleteI especially was interested to hear about the ESL student who writes in a journal to control his feelings. I think lots of times this sort of journal writing is seen as childish or unimportant but the mere fact that he is writing to "get the feelings out" shows how powerful writing is! I also read your update and that is so exciting that your former teacher offered to distribute your survey to her students.
By the way, the lined paper background of your blog is super cool. Makes me want to grab up a notebook and start scribbling away :)
Cultivating a love for writing in the lower grades can be difficult - at least this is what I have found. At this point, students need to develop an understanding of the basics - something the “sentence worksheets” are designed for. But if a student already lacks interest in the art of writing, how will something as structured as “sentence worksheets” change that. I think we need to remove the perception of structure and allow students more freedom. Easier said than done. But if students walk away from the early grades with a lack of interest in writing, it will be harder, but not impossible, to change that as time goes on.
ReplyDelete