Reflection on Unit 3- ( Teaching Writing and the Reading- Writing Connection) & Unit 4 ( Developing a Philosophy of Writing for Teaching) By Matrisha Williams

For unit 3 we focused on the connection of how reading and writing are linked.


There are several purposes for writing such as to inform, entertain, report, advertise, promote, persuade and educate. However, we have different audiences that we cater to because some pieces of writing may not be suitable for certain age level, the purpose for the writings may not be appropriate to the audience to understand, etc. We write to target the general audience, adults, parents, teachers, teens, pre teens, children and infants.

The purpose and audience determines the complexity of content, language, format or type of writing.



In the classroom several different activities can be done to determine what pieces of writing can be done and which type of audience to target. I as the teacher can persuasive writing for the day and the students can choose their own topic and write a persuasive piece to target different audiences. However everyone topic will not be the same because of the target audience. Some topics will be simple for the lower grades and a bit complex for the higher grades. The target audience should however understand the written piece.



Reading and writing are linked to each other. An activity can be where students read several pieces of writing and then determine what style of writing it is, the purpose and which audience is it target to. This activity will help the students to have knowledge of the different styles of writing and what elements should be included.



Writing Philosophy 

As a teacher I believe learning occurs everyday. It occurs by experience, everyday we wake up we experience something new, everything is not the same it is different. Teachers transmit knowledge to students and that is called learning. Students learn by watching the television, listening to audios, reading books, surfing on the internet, through experiments etc. Intervention can take place by the teacher to help the students through several processes. As a teacher I must create a classroom environment that is conducive to writing and supports effective writing instruction for all learners, including struggling writers. I must provide fun and engaging not forgetting learning activities for the students to gain knowledge. I must also encourage my students to keep working, this will motivate them to always do their best. The chief goals I have for my students are for them to be able to edit their own writing, develop a love and an appreciation for writing and being exposed to different genres of writing.

The action that I would take to accomplish the first goal is to expose the students to different editing strategies such as ARMS and CUPS, use conventional songs, etc. Once students understand how to edit their own they will produce interesting and grammatical free error of writing. In order for the students to develop a love and appreciation for writing, I as the teacher have to expose them to a lot of practices in writing. Let them use technology such as digital story telling to present their writing, allow them to choose their own topics to write about. I will expose the students to genres of writing by letting them read different stories and they choose which genre of writing is produced. I will let them choose creative ways to present their genres of writing.




I patiently await to see what the other units entails.