Writing-A problemWriting is a representation of language through textual medium. It is considered as one of the most powerful form of expression made by man. But writing is a skill that is not easy to acquire or master.
Writing skills needs practice and practice to be an efficient writer. That is why many people especially the children are afraid in writing poem, essays, short stories, headlines and many other forms of writing. They find writing as their waterloo just like numbers or mathematics. Only few are gifted on the said talent.
This paper will try to examine and analyze the secret on how to motivate a person to write. Also, the participants that are involved in the study will be determined. And most importantly, the procedure that was utilized from literature will be reviewed in terms of its effectiveness as well the limitation.The CharactersThe main characters for the motivation of the student to go in writing skills are the, of course the main subject who is the student and the parents and teacher who will play the role of a mentor.
These three characters in this paper will be analyzed and the analysis of the procedure will be divided in to two: parents to child and teacher to student. The parent to child relationship was included in this paper because parent has a big role in preparing their child in inculcating the power of writing skill.Instruments-Parents to childThe materials that are needed by a parent to motivate its child to go in to writing skills are pencil, paper, inspiring books or other piece of work like essays, toys, a chair and table. The paper and pencil will be used as the medium of the textual expression.
Toys maybe used so that the child would not think that he was deprived from playing its toys. The toys will also be used to stimulate the imagination of the child when writing on the paper. The chair and the table must be comfortable enough for the child so that the mind of the child, who is the writer, will have a comfortable condition when making its piece. And lastly, which is considered the most vital instrument are the inspiring books or other piece of work like essays.
Reliability and validiyAccording to Marjorie Frank, who conducted the study, any material that will motivate a child to write is important, a material that will inspire them to write. The hypothesis of Frank was supported by the findings of many psychologists regarding on the behavior of a child when it comes to inculcating or learning (Frank). They said that inspiring material will motivate them to learn more. Roz Levine stated in his book that inspiring materials will strengthen the self esteem of a child and thus strengthening also the writing skill (Levine).
Procedure-Parents to childAccording to literature, the most important way to inculcate writing in a parent to child relationship, the parent must encourage their child to write in a good way, meaning with positive attitude. But how will the parents to this? First, the parent must show to his or her child the excitement it brings when their child learn the basic of writing. The parent must inculcate to their child the power of writing. The way of teaching must neither be too brutal nor too easy.
According to Sonlight Curriculum, there are ways on how to inspire parents their children effectively. They methods that were stated were classified depending on the type of paper that will be written (Ltd).When a descriptive writing is the one that wants to be taught to their child, the most efficient way is to use the five senses to describe an object that will depict the characteristics of the object or item. Take for example a paper about animals; the child may be toured to a zoo so that the child would have a direct contact to a specific animal.
Another way to motivate a child is to use inspirational paper works that will aid in the enhancement and gives meaning on the writing skills (Davis).Data collectionThe data that will be used to assess the performance of a child in terms of its motivation in writing are the paper which the child had done. The papers that were done must be assessed depending on the content and development of the child in writing. Below will be the steps when assessing a child in his or her writing skills.
Encourage the child to go in writing. Use literature to inspire writing.Try to listen them in wordless music as they write.Collect the write ups of the child.
Display the works of your child in your home.Create an audience that will assess the level of performance of the child.And lastly, make a progress report on the writing skills of the child.Instruments -Teacher to studentThe instrument that must be utilized in a teacher-to-student relationship will vary depending on the stage or approach that was used.
SCORE approach was used in this paper which means, Success, Curiosity, Originality and Relationship. The following materials were used for the SCORE approach, books about success story of famous writers, writing and curiosity workshop, and famous paper work.Reliability and validityThe reliability and validity of the materials used in this research was based on many findings. Brown in 1993 jigsaw” strategy to inner-city students using in-classroom computer networks for the fostering of peer relationship and she found out that the said strategy was efficient in fostering peer relationship.
The study also made findings in the writing skills of the students in the school and was successful when SCORE was implemented (Brown et al.).Procedure and data collection- Teacher to studentTeachers have different way to motivate their students to write when compared to parents. Though their purpose is the same, there are some differences on how they inculcate writing skills.
A teacher uses the approach of success, curiosity, originality, and relationship (Strong, Silver and Robinson). Below will be the discussion on the four basic approaches that are utilized by a teacher.Success means success in writing. A teacher inculcate to their students that there is a success behind writing efficiently (Contest).
The students must realize the value of writing as well the value of success on their personality. But how can these approaches is done? One way is to cite examples of successful writers. In this way, students will have an idea that there is a success in writing and by improving their writing skills, they will also experience success. Such achievements will motivate and inspire students to do well in writing a paper (Association).
The next approach is by developing their curiosity about their surroundings. When a person is curious to something, that person will find a way to know it and others wants to express their findings thru writing. Galileo Galilee, who was fascinated and curious about heavenly bodies, made many writings to express it findings to other people. The curiosity and sharing of knowledge will motivate students to write.
The curiosity may be developed by the teacher thru a workshop. In this workshop is also included the writing workshop. In the said workshop, the teacher will ask each student about an object that fascinates them most and the object that was specified by each student will be given descriptive characteristics by the student. Each student will find a way to research the object.
In this way, they will have an idea on what and how to write the paper regarding on the object.Encouraging originality is another way to motivate students to write. The basic principle in this approach is almost the same with curiosity. Students are motivated to write because they want to express their feelings or knowledge thru writing which are different to others.
This approach can be done by providing the students are famous paper work and then produce another work that is originally made by the student. This method will help the student examine how was the famous paper became popular and the sets of standards and produce an original paper that will meet the high standards of the famous paper (Cueba).And lastly is the relationship approach. This method can be also considered as the data gathering or assessment method.
A student will have a chance to interview other students about their writing style. In this method, the students are given the chance to show and express their filings to others by letting others read their works. Just like in the parent-to-child relationship where there is a creation of audience that will read the works of the writer (Jehlen). The data collection will be based on the output of each student every time the teacher asked them to write or every time SCORE implemented by the teacher.
Sample and siteThe Michigan Department of Career Development focused their attention on the schools located in Michigan regarding on the writing skills of the students. They implement the SCORE approach of the students in the said state. One of the schools that were part of the program was Williamston Community Schools and the high school department of the school was the participants. This is to prepare these students in their upcoming college life (Development).
LimitationsSome of the drawbacks of the methods on how to motivate students to write are that, every student are different. They have different attitudes towards writing. And lastly, not all students will have the chance to experience the motivation on writing because teachers may not implement the methods that were stated above. References:Association, International Reading.
“How-to Writing: Motivating Students to Write for a Real Purpose.” (2007). November 4, 2007 <http://www.readwritethink.
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Frank, Marjorie. If You’re Trying to Teach Kids How to Write You’ve Gotta Have This Book. Nashville: Incentive, 1995.Jehlen, Alain.
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” (1998). November 6, 2007 <http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/child_behavior/chgoal.
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