Sunday, October 12, 2014

Self Encouragement in Writing


Are you interested in the Japanese writing curriculum?

There is not much to talk about for the Japanese writing curriculum.  The writing techniques, such as organization and descriptive writing, surely appear in their language arts textbooks, however, they are not systematic.

How do Japanese students improve their writing with such limited resources? 

Although specific writing lessons seem limited, there are students' samples within them.  These examples have writers who are the same age as students and inspire young Japanese writers.  As an American teacher, I rely heavily on the mentor texts that professional writers crafted.  Just recently, I noticed the power of peer writer's writing pieces.  Back in Japan many years ago, I remember myself dreaming that one day my writing piece was going to be in the text book....

Another writing tools can be seen in the science, social studies, and math text books. 

There are always some sections where the student's reports.  For instance, social studies text books share the voices of student's interview report, the science introduce student's science inquiry, experiments, and results in every chapter, and in math, there are two students' voices that compare different solutions.  The Japanese text books wisely use student's work/writing samples throughout all content areas.  Students are encouraged to perform their writing responses based on the students' sample.

It sounds like the Common Core State Standards-ELA.  That is what I noticed. 

Our students need a lot of writing opportunities.  One way we can motivate students to write for different purposes, audiences, and topics is to show them other student's writing as  mentor text.  "If that 8 year-old can write this, I should be able to do this," someone like me mumbles. 

Young writers can encourage themselves with proper guidance.