The National Writing Project’s 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing offers successful strategies contributed by experienced writing project teachers. Since NWP does not promote a single approach to teaching writing, readers will benefit from a variety of eclectic, classroom-tested technique

Table of Contents: 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing

1. Use the shared events of students’ lives to inspire writing.
2. Establish an email dialogue between students from different schools who are reading the same book.
3. Use writing to improve relations among students.
4. Help student writers draw rich chunks of writing from endless sprawl.
5. Work with words relevant to students’ lives to help them build vocabulary.
6. Help students analyze text by asking them to imagine dialogue between authors.
7. Spotlight language and use group brainstorming to help students create poetry.
8. Ask students to reflect on and write about their writing.
9. Ease into writing workshops by presenting yourself as a model.
10. Get students to focus on their writing by holding off on grading.
11. Use casual talk about students’ lives to generate writing.
12. Give students a chance to write to an audience for real purpose.
13. Practice and play with revision techniques.
14. Pair students with adult reading/writing buddies.
15. Teach “tension” to move students beyond fluency.
16. Encourage descriptive writing by focusing on the sounds of words.
17. Require written response to peers’ writing.
18. Make writing reflection tangible.
19. Make grammar instruction dynamic.
20. Ask students to experiment with sentence length.
21. Help students ask questions about their writing.
22. Challenge students to find active verbs.
23. Require students to make a persuasive written argument in support of a final grade.
24. Ground writing in social issues important to students.
25. Encourage the “framing device” as an aid to cohesion in writing.
26. Use real world examples to reinforce writing conventions.
27. Think like a football coach.
28. Allow classroom writing to take a page from yearbook writing.
29. Use home language on the road to Standard English.
30. Introduce multi-genre writing in the context of community service.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkY8pnzFX_M

here are many teaching methods that can help increase communication effectiveness. Clearly organizing ideas and writing an outline on the chalkboard that lists the main points to be covered during the class helps students follow along with the organization of ideas. It is also very helpful for students when TAs write technical terms or theoretical concepts on the board as they are mentioned. Students need and appreciate this effort. A sophomore student majoring in the biological sciences makes this point clear.

“This year I have an Asian TA and he’s very good but sometimes you can’t understand some of his words–but he’s good, you know. He writes everything on the board. One of my TAs last year was very hard to understand but she wrote everything on the board so it was all right.”

When a TA is unsure about the pronunciation of certain words, those words should also be written on the board. The importance of writing words on the board is illustrated in the following experience of an undergraduate student.

“I had a biology professor from Latin America. He gave a lecture on hung trees. I had never heard about that kind of tree before… After class a bunch of us students were talking about the hung trees. The American TA heard us and asked us what we were talking about. It was really funny. He said the lecture was about young trees, not hung trees!”

This example of miscommunication points out the necessity for student participation in the international TA’s classroom. By setting aside class time for students to explain and discuss their understanding of the course material and the TA’s lecture or explanations, many communication errors can be corrected before they interfere with student learning.

Of course, some difficulties may be assumed to result from language problems when in fact the problem lies elsewhere.

“For the foreign TA, we have a problem with the language. When students don’t understand, it could be a language problem, but it also could be that the TA doesn’t have good teaching skills. It also could be a personality problem. So it’s important to communicate with students to find out what the problem is.” (TA, China)

Using effective teaching methods does facilitate classroom communication. As TAs with teaching experience in their native countries already know, when lecturing, it is important to clearly state each point before speaking about it, make the point and then summarize what has been said. Before beginning another idea or point, it’s necessary to inform students of this change or transition. (See “Useful Phrases for Classroom Communication” at the end of this section.)

Students are reluctant to continually ask TAs to repeat what they’ve said, even when they haven’t completely understood the TA. Thus, it is important for TAs to frequently stop to ask if students have any questions. An even better method is to ask questions of the students in order to check their understanding before going on to another topic. Another method often used by both international and American TAs is presenting the same idea in more than one way.

“As a foreigner and since I don’t speak the language as well as an American, I repeat very often the same thing in different ways. So they may pick it up the way they want during the many times I say it in different ways. It’s a technique I am spontaneously using. I guess it helps them to understand me as a foreigner speaking. And certainly it’s useful for understanding certain things that are very hard to understand…if you say it one time, it’s not enough, so repeating it several ways from different aspects – even making some language mistakes – will help them to pick up the idea.” (TA, France)

When giving multiple explanations or examples of the same idea, the TA should preface each explanation to indicate that the same idea is being explained, only in a different way. Common phrases used to indicate that a different explanation of the same idea is about to be given are:

* “Stated another way…”
* “A simpler explanation of the same idea is…”
* “Said another way…”
* “Let me present another way of understanding this…”
* “The same idea can be explained in this way…”
* “Another example of this is…”
* “I’ll repeat that in a different way…”

Although TAs who have had extensive lecture experience in their home countries may already use the lecture techniques described here, it may be necessary to exaggerate these methods to ensure adequate communication.

Many effective TAs learn to elicit the help of their students. If the TA and students have a friendly relationship, students usually are more willing to help facilitate communication in the classroom. In the following statement a TA from Iran described how he uses certain teaching methods to be sure his students understand him.

“I’ve been trying hard to be clear, to say the words separate so that students can understand. Once in a while I stop and ask, ‘Do you follow?’, or ‘Am I clear?’, and pretty much make them feel that any time they can stop me. Anytime they want they can stop me and say, ‘I didn’t get that point’. Then I explain. You have to encourage their questions… say, ‘Good question’, ‘Interesting’, or ‘Who else has a question?’. You have to make them feel comfortable in the class…”

International TAs often find out that seemingly innocuous critical comments they make in class have a devastating effect on their students’ morale. In many countries, negative criticism is viewed as a tool helping the student to reach perfection. On the contrary, American students expect praise when they do well, and encouragement when they do not.

Getting students to participate in the class by being friendly and supportive of their comments, ideas, and questions can help both the TA and the students feel more comfortable in the classroom. When students feel comfortable enough to participate in class, they may be more tolerant of the TA’s language difficulties and be willing to cooperate with the TA in solving communication problems. For instance, students can often be helpful in restating another student’s poorly formed question that the TA is having difficulty understanding.

Each TA will discover ways to enhance communication in the classroom that fit the particular TA, students and situation. The suggestions in this booklet are offered as a starting point. By endeavoring to understand communication problems that can occur in the international TA’s classroom, the TA can take action to minimize these problems.

http://newteachersupport.suite101.com/article.cfm/effective_communication_methods

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/22670.aspx#ixzz0b5Br7eQE

he Didactic Method
If you have heard the word “didactic,” it was probably used for lectures or some other form of instruction in which the active teacher presented information to the passive student. That is not how the word was used in the classical tradition. In fact, didactic instruction engages the student’s mind and makes him an active learner.

Let me suggest a more accurate way to think about didactic instruction.

When a teacher engages in didactic instruction, she presents models to the students for mutual contemplation. For example, if I want my students to understand Renaissance art, then I place some Renaissance works of art in front of them and we contemplate them together. If I want my students to learn a proof in geometry, I place some examples of that proof before them and we contemplate them together. If I want my students to understand a poetic device, a noble soul, or a musical idea, I place before them examples of the poetic device, the noble soul, or the musical idea.

Note that in this approach to didactic instruction the teacher and the student are engaged in a mutual contemplation. Both are actively thinking about the models placed before them. As a result, both move toward a more accurate understanding of the ideas contained in the object.

To make didactic instruction effective, begin with an idea you want your student to understand. Find models of the idea and, together, analyze each model individually for its properties and qualities. Next, compare the models with each other to find common properties. Finally, compare the models with other models of different types. This enables you to establish what is unique to the idea you are contemplating.

This method is very effective when you want the student to understand an idea or interpret an artifact (e.g. a painting, musical composition, text, etc.). You can use it effectively in science, art, music, math, and languages. It is also a wonderful way to approach children’s reading, which should be dominated by Bible stories, myths, fables, folk tales, and fairytales–the staples of a young student’s mental diet. Because we are inspired when we contemplate great things, this method is inherently inspiring.

The Dialectic Method
The second method you will want to use as a classical educator is the dialectic method, more often called Socratic Method. In a way, this is a very easy method to use, but in another way, it is extraordinarily difficult.

Perhaps the easiest way to think of the Dialectic or Socratic Method is to think of it as the relentless pursuit of truth through unceasing questions. To engage in dialectic method, establish your goal to clearly understand truth and get on with it.

Once you’ve grown comfortable with questioning your students, you will want to refine your understanding of dialectic instruction. Socrates’ questioning usually fell into two stages, the ironic and the maieutic.

In the ironic stage, you use questions to probe your student’s understanding–to find the inadequacies in his thoughts. These inadequacies might include contradictions, insufficient definitions of terms, faulty logic (especially things like hasty generalizations and reversal of cause and effect), and other common mistakes that we make all too frequently. The purpose of the ironic stage is to weaken the individual’s confidence in an inadequate understanding of reality.

After the student recognizes the inadequacy of his original idea and wants a clearer apprehension of the truth, he is ready for the maieutic stage. In this second stage, you will make more suggestions than you did in the ironic stage, but questions still drive your student. In the end, the student and the teacher both better understand an idea. The purpose of the maieutic stage is to give birth (“maieutic” is Greek for “having to do with a midwife”) to this more accurate understanding of reality.

It is important to notice that both the didactic and dialectic methods of teaching are engaged in thinking about ideas by asking questions. There is no more effective method for training the mind.

http://www.jefflindsay.com/EducData.shtml

1. Step 1

   Expose your students to the proper use of English grammar. Children will internally develop many grammar rules on their own through exposure to the language. It’s your responsibility as the teacher to provide this exposure. First and foremost, this means always modeling proper grammar in your speech and writing. If you don’t want your students to make errors in subject-verb agreement, don’t make these errors yourself. Also, get your students reading as much as possible. Good writers do a lot of reading.

2. Step 2

   Exposure alone won’t teach all the grammar lessons children need to know. Perhaps you’ve heard of the whole language versus phonics debate. Most professionals agree that exemplary reading and writing instruction requires a balance of these two technique. Therefore, you’ll need to systematically teach grammar rules. However, don’t try to dole too much information at one time. Instead, focus on one particular skill that you want your students to learn, and provide a mini-lesson teaching this skill. Your mini-lesson should introduce the grammar rule in question and give examples of its use. Once your students master the selected skill, you can move on to other topics.

3. Step 3

   Most children will need hands-on experience to master grammar rules. You must provide your students with ample opportunities to write. Then, provide grammar-based feedback. Take your students’ writing level into account when providing feedback. For example, in a second grade classroom, you will see many grammar and usage errors. Don’t mark up every mistake in red pen; it’s too discouraging for students. Instead, focus on the grammar rules you have specifically taught.

4. Step 4

   Give students opportunities to edit others’ work. Often, when students look at their own writing, they miss grammatical errors because as the writer, they know what they intended to say. However, those same children can identify similar mistakes in others’ writing. To this end, have students peer review each others’ work. Also, editing worksheets provide opportunities for students to apply the grammar rules they have learned.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5437033_teach-english-grammar-games.html

Some people, from the time they are in first grade, know they want to be teachers. For others, the idea can be a sudden insight, or a feeling that ferments for years in some remote corner of their consciousness. Regardless of where the idea comes from, for many, the images associated with becoming a teacher are compelling. However, as is often the case in life, the differences between images and reality can be stark, unsettling, and disappointing. Uncertainties in American, as well as world economies only serve to exacerbate the differences. This reality is the reason for this page.

We all know that as the “Baby Boomers” retire and leave teaching in large numbers over the next ten years, probably more than a million new teachers will be needed to replace them, let alone hundreds of thousands needed to keep pace with the anticipated growth of student populations, the current world-wide recession notwithstanding. Perhaps you will be one of these new teachers Perhaps not.

The current world-wide recession as of September 2009 has had some impact on public school systems hiring new teachers. In some areas there are hiring freezes, increased class sizes and cuts in courses offered, all of which affect hiring. It likely won’t last more than a few years, and teachers will be hired, but probably at a much slower pace, affected possibly by the decisions of older teachers to stay longer in teaching than they originally planned. My advice is to hang in there, and be patient.

Please read on.

For lack of a better way to say it, this page is about some basic teacher-things. For sure, not every person who wants to be a teacher should be a teacher. There is a vast gulf between the ideal of teaching and the reality of the classroom. Teaching probably won’t make you rich, and, to be sure, no one should make any career decision without gathering as much information as possible. Tips on becoming a teacher is a start.

Teaching is like no other profession. As a teacher, you will wear many hats. You will, to name but of a few of the roles teachers assume in carrying out their duties, be a communicator, a disciplinarian, a conveyor of information, an evaluator, a classroom manager, a counselor, a member of many teams and groups, a decision-maker, a role-model, and a surrogate parent. Each of these roles requires practice and skills that are often not taught in teacher preparation programs. Not all who want to be teachers should invest the time and resources in teacher training or teacher preparation programs if they do not have the appropriate temperament, skills, and personality. Teaching has a very high attrition rate. Depending on whose statistics you trust, around forty percent of new teachers leave teaching within the first five years. It is obviously not what they thought it would be. One thing for sure, it’s about more than loving kids.

Make no mistake; as a teacher, your day doesn’t necessarily end when the school bell rings. If you’re conscientious, you will be involved in after school meetings, committees, assisting students, grading homework, assignments, projects, and calling parents. All these demand some sacrifice of your personal time. If you’re committed to excellence as a teacher, it’s a sacrifice you can live with. If not, you will be uncomfortable at best.

Teacher training and teacher preparation programs exist in every state, as well as in various forms of on-line courses and degree programs, and the requirements vary. You will have many options from which to choose. Choose wisely. My own advice is to select a program that offers a rich and solid foundation of courses, regardless of whether you intend to teach at the elementary, middle school, or high school level. I believe that no teacher education program, including the one in which I teach, can actually teach you how to teach. Rather, what we do is get you ready to learn how to teach, and that takes place on the job. My advice is to choose a program that offers a rich balance of subject matter content courses and pedagogy, including clinical experience in all its forms. You are learning both skills and understandings in any teacher education program. Practice those skills as perfectly as possible, and strive each day to deepen your understandings of the concepts, theories and generalizations that you encounter. By doing so, you will build a solid foundation for learning how to teach once you become employed, and, you will be a better teacher.

Critics have voiced the following arguments against constructivist based teaching instruction:

• A group of cognitive scientists has also questioned the central claims of constructivism, saying that they are either misleading or contradict known findings.^[5]

• One possible deterrent for this teaching method is that, due to the emphasis on group work, the ideas of the more active students may dominate the group’s conclusions.^[1]

While proponents of constructivism argue that constructivist students perform better than their peers when tested on higher-order reasoning, the critics of constructivism argue that this teaching technique forces students to “reinvent the wheel.” Supporters counter that “Students do not reinvent the wheel but, rather, attempt to understand how it turns, how it functions.”^[1] Proponents argue that students — especially elementary school-aged children — are naturally curious about the world, and giving them the tools to explore it in a guided manner will serve to give them a stronger understanding of it^[1].

Mayer (2004)^[6] developed a literature review spanning fifty years and concluded “The research in this brief review shows that the formula constructivism = hands-on activity is a formula for educational disaster.” His argument is that active learning is often suggested by those subscribing to this philosophy. In developing this instruction these educators produce materials that require learning to be behaviorally active and not be “cognitively active.”^[6] That is, although they are engaged in activity, they may not be learning (Sweller, 1988). Mayer recommends using guided discovery, a mix of direct instruction and hands-on activity, rather than pure discovery: “In many ways, guided discovery appears to offer the best method for promoting constructivist learning.”^[6]

Kirchner et al. (2006) agree with the basic premise of constructivism, that learners construct knowledge, but are concerned with the instructional design recommendations of this theoretical framework. “The constructivist description of learning is accurate, but the instructional consequences suggested by constructivists do not necessarily follow.” (Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark, 2006, p. 78). Specifically, they say instructors often design unguided instruction that relies on the learner to “discover or construct essential information for themselves” (Kirchner et al., 2006, p75).

For this reason they state that it “is easy to agree with Mayer’s (2004)^[6] recommendation that we “move educational reform efforts from the fuzzy and nonproductive world of ideology—which sometimes hides under the various banners of constructivism—to the sharp and productive world of theory- based research on how people learn” (p. 18). Finally Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006) cite Mayer^[6] to conclude fifty years of empirical results do not support unguided instruction.

Another important consideration in evaluating the potential benefits/limitations of constructivist teaching approach is to consider the large number of varied personal characteristics as well as prevalence of learning problems in children today. For example, in a solely constructivist approach was employed in a classroom of you children then a significant number of children, for example say with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, might not be able to focus on their perceptions of learning experiences long enough to build a knowledge base from the event. In other words, constructivist theory is biased to students who desire to learn more and are capable of focusing attention to the learning process independently. A mixed approach that incorporates components of constructivist learning along with other approaches, including more guided teaching strategies, would better meet the learning needs of the majority of students in a classroom by accounting for differences between learning styles and capacities.^{[citation needed]}

Current Confusion is an Accidental Paradox: The Literature Supports Guided Constructivism & its Reciprocal, Constructivist Direct Teaching

The idea that new learning is based on active engagement with prior knowledge is a philosophical position derived largely from Epistemology – or the philosophy and study of how we tend to learn more or less on our own. The question of how best to teach is not precisely the same as the question of how we learn. Therefore, rational people can support each of these two seemingly paradoxical positions. It simply requires incorporating the one in the other; as in adding reasonable pre-planning and guidance into Constructivism, call it, Guided Constructivism, and acknowledging that the closer we can reasonably come to the way we most often and naturally learn as reflected (in part) in Constructivism needs to be accommodated in Direct Instruction, or what might be called Constructivist Direct Teaching. In point of fact if an accounting were to be made of the most robust teaching methods it would soon be evident that the Direct Teaching methods that are best are those that involve a good deal of active learning. Similarly, the Constructivist methods that are best very likely would be the ones that provide the greatest degree of structure and guidance.

The task of parsing and characterizing defined teaching methods would in itself probably make this point, and others that we have not yet learned to ask. This, however, would further, or first require that the field of Education to became seriously committed to identifying Best Practices, an objective given great lip service but little rational-scientific examination. The reader may wish to look in on one such effort at:

http://bestmethodsofinstruction.com/

n the constructivist classroom, the teacher’s role is to prompt and facilitate discussion. Thus, the teacher’s main focus should be on guiding students by asking questions that will lead them to develop their own conclusions on the subject.

David Jonassen identified three major roles for facilitators to support students in constructivist learning environments:

• Modeling
• Coaching
• Scaffolding^[3]

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (March 2009)

This article contains weasel words, vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (March 2009)

Teaching methods are best articulated by answering the questions, “What is the purpose of education?” and “What are the best ways of achieving these purposes?”. For much of prehistory, educational methods were largely informal, and consisted of children imitating or modelling their behaviour on that of their elders, learning through observation and play. In this sense, the children are the students, and the elder is the teacher; a teacher creates the course materials to be taught and then enforces it. Pedagogy is a different way by which a teacher can teach. It is the art or science of being a teacher, generally referring to strategies of instruction or style of instruction. Resources that help teachers teach better are typically a lesson plan, or practical skill involving learning and thinking skills. A curriculum is often set by the Government with precise standards. These standards can change frequently, depending on what the Government states.