Amanda Bonora
October 24, 2011
Eng 333
Step Up to Writing
After much controversy about lessons being taught for test scores rather than for child needs, “Step Up to Writing” offers a [1]good solution. Not only does it guarantee a[2] 46% increase in the “exceeding proficiency” level on State Test Scores but it also instills creativity throughout the students writing while learning the basic and standard rules of good writing.
In Katie Woodray’s wondrous words she highlights the importance of reading in the classroom and using books as examples of writing to really learn the craft. “Step up to Writing” uses this same idea, one of the objectives of the program being to learn “Good examples of clearly written sentences in others’ writing.” Another objective of the program is to learn the types of sentence structures, this is also a key point in Woodray’s book. She expresses the importance of knowing all the many different types of structures and techniques so students will be able to express their thoughts to the best o their ability. Another one of Woodray’s big ideas is the importance of reading aloud. She compares reading aloud to a vegetable, being extremely helpful and beneficial to the class. Step up to writing incorporates reading aloud in many of the lessons and holds it as one of the main objectives of the program.
….. describes texting as being helpful in today’s society because it teaches kids how to communicate with different audiences. “Step up to Writing” believes this to be an important part of todays society as well , making a point to incorporate this aspect into their lessons, an objective being “Writing for different audiences and purposes and the influence these have on the content, structure, and length of a sentence”
[3]Though “Step Up to Writing’s” main focus is on raising test scores, it does so in a way that “gives students visual and hands-on strategies to ensure success” and is extremely teacher friendly, supplying them with everything they need to make the lessons significant and beneficial.
Though “Step Up to Writing” supplies teachers with easy to use and effective lesson plans, some people choose not to use it. For though it does give children room to be creative it is still giving them a set of rules and regulations to follow not giving them complete freedom of their writing. James Gee believes it children to be more engaged in their learning when they are allowed to “co-design” and “customize” their learning. When children have some control over their learning they are less intimidated and are able to learn in a way more suitable to their individual needs.
“Step up to Writing” though it has some flaws, is an extremely useful and beneficial program and should be incorporated into writing classes, if only used to accentuate already good lesson plans.[4]“Step Up to Writing strategies increase students’ listening and reading comprehension by teaching them to ask questions, make comments, and discover connections. …Active reading and listening build students’ thinking skills and empower them to read and write in content-area classes with confidence.”
You have a lot of facts. What do you think though? We already know what the program says it does.
- Kelly
[1]kmatheson:
for some reason this word bothers me
[2]kmatheson:
where did you find this out?
[3]kmatheson:
had some examples here to strengthen your point, I feel like it is a good thing to elaborate on
[4]kmatheson:
where do you plan on inserting this?