Alice R. Smee
If teachers find the current persuasive writing boring and uninspiring, think of how the students must feel writing it. Students have no ownership of their writing; they are only writing to pass; they are only writing for other people, and not for themselves. How can we get students to change their feelings on writing? How can we get students to write for themselves and actually enjoy writing? Imagine if the student who loved to doodle and draw could turn in a persuasive "essay" that is all images and tells a story. The goal of this unit is to have the students still enjoy writing their images as much as they would enjoy drawing them. The goal is to get them to write what they draw.
One of the ways that the goal of getting students to write what they see is going to be accomplished is by incorporating what students do daily, see, with visualization and elaboration techniques. Elaboration or descriptive writing is needed to help show the students how to take what they have visualized and write it down on paper. Some of the tools used to get the students to work on visualizing and elaborating and enjoying are what the students do every day when they are not in school, watch TV and play on the computer. Movies are often used in the classroom to assist teachers and students, since watching movies asks students to use the same strategies that they use when reading
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. By reversing visualization to go from using it to visualize what you just read to what you are about to write, we can ask students to use movies and apply some of the same reading and watching strategies to writing. They will be asked to write down what they are seeing, to describe the scenes, to explain why they liked them or did not like them, using details from what they have viewed.
Visualization and Elaboration
Visualization is a strategy that we teach students to use to help decode and comprehend what they are reading. We ask our students to create images or see in their heads what they are reading. Visualization is "the ability to create mental images and associations using background knowledge.
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" But why should it only be used as a reading strategy when it could work as a writing strategy as well? Visualization as a writing tool has made writing come to life for students who struggle with writing
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. We want students to show us, so if we can get them to visualize and then write they will be doing what we requested.
In this unit I will ask the students to use visualization in the reverse: I would like them to write what they are seeing. Students should be taught that the mental images they create should be done before, during and after writing, not just for reading
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. The students will be asked to write what they see from things they view every day or images that I provide for them. The students will conclude the unit with a persuasive piece that shows their ability to write visually. Using visualization as a tool for writing can be just as effective a tool as using it for reading comprehension. Seeing what they want to write first can help students to formulate and organize their ideas. On a daily basis students see first, then organize their thoughts. If this is what they already do, it would only benefit them if it was integrated with their writing.
One way for students to make their writing more creative and turn their visions into words is by using elaboration, or descriptive or detailed writing. There is a big difference between the sentence, "teaching is great," and the sentence "teaching is an experience that makes you want to shout from the mountain tops!" Although the second sentence is a bit extreme, it gives a clear picture of someone who is excited about teaching. The second sentence helps a reader visualize, and makes the point the writer is trying to prove stronger. You have a stronger chance of believing that someone loves teaching if he or she wants to "shout from the mountain tops" versus "it's great." If students can see the difference between these two sentences and learn how to write with elaboration, they can make their own writing more convincing and creative.
Modern Visual Stimuli as Tool for Writing
As a teacher I find it difficult to not check my email or go online all day long. When I get home, I like to watch television as I grade papers or play computer games when I have some free time. Do I love to read, yes, but a majority of time I would rather be watching TV. If I would rather do this as an adult, then I am sure my students would rather do it as well. How can I expect them to want to come home and write, when that is not something that even I want to do? If my desire to chat on Facebook and watch television comes from my "increased appetite for visual stimuli,
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" how can I expect that my students do not have an even bigger appetite for it? How can I as a teacher compete against the visual stimuli that the students have access to everyday? I should not compete with the stimuli; I should use them, allow them into the classroom and in at-home activities. I have some students who get home by 4 p.m., drop their bags, grab a snack, and are playing video games and watching TV by 4:15 pm. They possibly stop for dinner, and then are back on the video games and/or TV until 11 p.m., and that is being generous. If these students took five minutes to write down why a certain move in a game worked and described it play by play, they would be showing me and at the same time trying to persuade me why this move is the best. Doing those kind of activities would be a great way for students to incorporate what they do with visualization and writing. Having students watch television and write down the different persuasive words that they hear or describe persuasive scenes that they see in commercials is another way to get them visually thinking about persuasive writing while using visual stimuli.