The main subject I teach is writing, and I think you identified the issues well. In order to write, most students must be taught how to write. There are a few who just pick it up from reading, but that is not typical. The grammar & spelling rules are sometimes helpful for second language students, but still teaching them doesn't improve the actual writing.
Another issue I have found is that some teachers are poor writers so they don't know how to teach it. The ELA curriculum often does not cover writing. So they just assign things and make comments, which in later years become grades. My younger son started writing volumes in third grade. His teacher asked me to come talk to her. It turned out she was concerned about his writing because it wasn't organized. I nodded and smiled, but didn't worry about it much. Writing six pages of fiction in third grade was something I didn't want to discourage! I have always wished I had asked her what she had taught them about structure. I have a feeling it wasn't much. Worksheets on "main idea and details" are what I see most of the time. And what about going back and helping the child revise their writing so that it IS more organized?
As to that issue of older kids not wanting to write about a given topic - why should they? As you wrote, "The center of every piece of writing should be the what, the idea, the thing that the writer wants to say." If they have nothing to say, why force it? If you want to know what they learned from the latest unit, there are many ways they can communicate that. If you want them to learn to write, let them choose what to research. When they have that buy-in, it produces excellent results.
Damn, this is really good. I’m saving this for future reference.
The main subject I teach is writing, and I think you identified the issues well. In order to write, most students must be taught how to write. There are a few who just pick it up from reading, but that is not typical. The grammar & spelling rules are sometimes helpful for second language students, but still teaching them doesn't improve the actual writing.
Another issue I have found is that some teachers are poor writers so they don't know how to teach it. The ELA curriculum often does not cover writing. So they just assign things and make comments, which in later years become grades. My younger son started writing volumes in third grade. His teacher asked me to come talk to her. It turned out she was concerned about his writing because it wasn't organized. I nodded and smiled, but didn't worry about it much. Writing six pages of fiction in third grade was something I didn't want to discourage! I have always wished I had asked her what she had taught them about structure. I have a feeling it wasn't much. Worksheets on "main idea and details" are what I see most of the time. And what about going back and helping the child revise their writing so that it IS more organized?
As to that issue of older kids not wanting to write about a given topic - why should they? As you wrote, "The center of every piece of writing should be the what, the idea, the thing that the writer wants to say." If they have nothing to say, why force it? If you want to know what they learned from the latest unit, there are many ways they can communicate that. If you want them to learn to write, let them choose what to research. When they have that buy-in, it produces excellent results.