Jessica Henry

READ 436
Dr. Sullivan
19 April, 2017
Writing Exit Slip
Compare our writing activities to what you see in your practicum.
In class, I gained a lot of essential knowledge of how writing activities should be
conducted and used in the classroom. To begin, I learned more about the advantages to giving
students some choice in their writing. Unfortunately many teachers dont offer the students any
opportunity for creativity in their writing, which is sometimes due to SOL and time restrictions.
However, I think it is important to give students some choice in writing, just as you would in
reading, because it keeps the students interested and gets them excited about writing, which is
hard to do. Giving choice in writing can be done in many different ways. As the teacher, you
could give them a topic of study such as famous woman in history and allow them to choose
what woman they want to write their research paper on. Another way to give students choice is
to give them a type of paper to write, such as persuasive or descriptive and give them free range
to choose what to write about. Also, another activity that gives them room for creativity and
choice that we discussed in class that I specifically liked, was where the students are given a
picture and they have to write a story based off the picture. In all the examples given in class,
students interests were considered.
In my practicum classroom, writing instruction greatly differs. The students are given
little to no choice in their writing, very rarely are they given room to be creative. Unfortunately, I
have only seen my students completing research papers, which is essential to writing instruction,
but it should not be the only type of writing the students are doing. For one research paper, they
all wrote about the same topic, but for another, she gave them the topic of habitats and allowed
the students to pick which animal they would write about. Although I dont see a lot of variation
or choice in the students writing instruction, there are some things that I see that are good. For
example, my teacher uses technology when she can for writing instruction. So, rather than just
having the students write their paper, she makes them type it as well. Also, when doing research
papers, she makes the students find at least one source online and use it in their paper. Another
thing that I think my teacher does well in teaching writing is she uses it cross curriculum. Not
only do they have a set time in their schedule for writing, but they are writing research papers in
science and social studies as well. Also, the students are constantly taking notes, which gives
them a lot of practice with the physical aspect of their writing.
In conclusion, there are a lot of differences between what I learned in class compared to
what I see in practicum. However, there are some connections between the two in that she uses
writing in all subjects and she integrates technology when possible. Overall, between class and
practicum, I have gained a lot of knowledge in writing instruction.