Sample Article Review On Brief Summary

Innovating Approaches to Teaching Writing

Innovating Approaches to Teaching Writing

Anna Hall in her journal article entitled “Beyond the Author’s Chair: Expanding Sharing Opportunities in Writing” explained that the culture of sharing has numerous good impacts to students’ writing and confidence. Sharing a story in the author’s chair however Hall stated can be modified to serve its learning purpose rather than just jolting the students who on queue of sitting in the author’s chair. The article mentioned that sharing should have rules which are primarily guided by the aim to listen and learn. Hall added that sharing should not strictly ensue after writing. Before the students write their stories, prewriting sharing among peers can be conducted in order to widen the options of students of what to write. Moreover, before the students take the author’s chair, the teacher together with the students create a respectful classroom. The teacher should instil first the basic principle of respect which is listening when somebody is talking. Hall further mentioned that once the students take the author’s chair and started speaking, teachers should take the backseat in order to give the freedom and ease to the students who are sharing. Hall also pointed out that sharing should not always be a plenary type. The students should be the ones to determine if they are ready to share their stories to everybody in the classroom or only among three or four of their friends.

On teaching adolescents

As a teacher among adolescents, the material for me is important as children are not always comfortable of sharing stories especially is they are personal stories. It is understood that stories involving themselves can be quite difficult to disclose but students should also learn to share and listen. In this situation, it is important to plan wisely on how to teach writing and sharing among the students without them feeling uncomfortable. After reading the article, I decided to outline my activities for the writing and reading. The activities I set take one week to accomplish. The first activity will be setting-up guidelines and prewriting sharing. I will explain the writing activity and together with the students, we will formulate guidelines for the writing activities. In setting up the guidelines, I will only facilitate towards them realizing what it takes to be a good listener and story teller. After the guidelines, they will split into several groups of three to four members. Once they are settled, they can start sharing among their peers on the topics interest them the most. This will give the students more ideas until they will decide on the best topic. Another meeting will be allotted to writing. Two to three meetings will be allocated for sharing stories. In sharing their stories, I will ask them whether they are ready for plenary sharing or a group sharing. It is true that erasing the fear of sharing among the students will result to better writing and reading capacities of adolescents.

Reference

Hall, A. (2014). “Beyond the Author’s Chair: Expanding Sharing Opportunities in Writing.” The Reading Teacher, Vol. 68 (1) pp. 27-31.