The American Indian Education KnowledgeBase : Element 4 : Activity 2 : Task 5: Instill Through Writing
Guideline: To do well in school, a student needs to write well. To become a good writer, it is important to practice writing. Students can develop their skills by writing about something they know, about themselves, and about their communities. An effective way to promote student writing that has been used with American Indian students is process writing. Process writing involves students working in groups to brainstorm writing ideas (prewriting), writing a rough draft, reviewing their and other students' drafts and doing revisions, editing their drafts for grammar and spelling, preparing a final draft for review by their teacher, and publishing their final work in some form. Educators working with native students need to be aware of engaging techniques to support their teaching methods.
As noted at its website, "The National Writing Project is a professional development network that serves teachers of writing at all grade levels, primary through university, and in all subjects."
Authored by Dr. Jon Reyhner, Northern Arizona University, this article describes how American Indian students can be encouraged to practice and improve their writing skills.
From the United Kingdom, this resource explains the process writing approach. "The process approach treats all writing as a creative act which requires time and positive feedback to be done well. In process writing, the teacher moves away from being someone who sets students a writing topic and receives the finished product for correction without any intervention in the writing process itself."
This website contains resources on writing instruction from the National Council of Teachers of English. "The research, policy statements, and information collected here reflect the National Council of Teachers of English's commitment to improving writing instruction for all students."




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