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Originally Posted by duck  Quote:
Originally Posted by debdodd Good idea .... I think it should be mandatory for high school kids to take creative writing courses! I've recently read some of the essays kids do for their college applications they are* p-i-t-i-f-u-l! .... they sound like "see spot run, spot runs fast" As you know the SAT's have a section for essay writing and I hear that they are horrible ... especially the boys .... girls are a little better but barely ..... With all of Alex's great grades he still has trouble putting thought to paper ... he can do an improvised, on the spot topic of conversation but ask him to sit and write one out and he's chewing the eraser off the pencil trying to think of something ....Why is that? I'm asking seriously .... why is it that if you ask a teenager a question or state something that they disagree with, they can go on for ever about how you are wrong and how they are right on almost any subject but trying to get them to write spontaneously freestyle and they fold or write like 6 year olds?I am glad the colleges are requesting that kids write more. I don't think it's a matter of punctuation, etc as it is just getting them to write actual complex, meaningful sentences. | That is because we are not teaching and reinforcing the importance of the structure and importance of organizational strategies for the different modes of writing: Expository, Persuasive, Descriptive, Narrative, and Reflective. Too many schools are using a curriculum that tells a kid to "write an essay" without teaching them what type of essay is needed for the question or how to organize it.
Creative writing? I hate to say this, but that is a total waste of my time with the students I'm getting in the twelfth grade that can't even write a proper introductory paragraph because they don't carry proper knowledge of this basic skill through the grades!! Case in point: We were having a meeting with our local middle school language arts teachers, and we from the high school were bemoaning the horrible paragraph structure and organizational skills our students were bringing with them. One of the worst teachers in our district jumped up and cried, "I don't know what you people think you want! We have our eighth graders writing 10 page research papers, and you don't think they can write!!! What is it you want us to teach?" I sat there, looked over at a colleague who I greatly respect. He looked at me, I looked at him and we both said in unison: "Teach sentences, paragraphs, and modes of writing!"
She stormed out of the meeting in tears. My colleague and I were called on the carpet by the middle school principal, who just happened to be facilitating the meeting. Thankfully, our principal backed us up.
Everybody wants to teach the home run paper any more and not teach fundamental basics! Guess what I have to teach the seniors I get? :P Then, don't even get me started on the dang No Child Left Behind tests (one of the idiot in chief's stupider laws) and what that does to middle and high school instruction!
Ok, end of rant.
Night, all! |
Ok I am still incredibly off topic(I'm becoming a thread terrorist) but I have to agree. Writing is something that has interested me since my senior year in highschool when I found out that I not only had a small aptitude for it, but actually enjoyed it.
As with many things if you don't have the basics firmly understood you won't go too far. That is where I fear I lack the most, even if it was good enough to get me honors for graduation.
I've tried many different types of writing and oddly enough while creative writing is the most appealing to me, I find it is what I am the worst at and even find it a bit tedious. A close second would be editorials(I'm opinionated, and actually enjoy these).
I'm even in the process of
trying to write a novel(who isn't?). This is what has taught me that I lack(at least in my own assessment) all of the proper skills to write a cohesive and clear story. Nine chapters in I still find myself constantly scrapping entire chapters because they suck.
Hey Mr. Duck, grade my book!
