- Students learn to write well by writing often. The writing classroom offers students numerous opportunities to write, to reflect on their writing, and to share their writing with others.
- Writing is an important tool for learning. The writing classroom offers students opportunities to experience the generative and connective powers of their written language.
- A finished piece of writing is the result of a series of complex, often recursive processes which typically vary from writer to writer and even from composing event to composing event for the same writer. The writing classroom offers students numerous approaches to different processes such as invention (generating topics and content), organization (shaping and ordering content), drafting (getting words on paper or disk), revision (rethinking and reworking a piece based on demands of purpose and audience), and editing (attending to stylistic concerns and usage conventions).
- Student writers have different experiential and cultural backgrounds. The writing classroom makes room for all writers, and celebrates their differences.
- Purpose and audience are two central concerns of all writers. The writing classroom gives students experience writing for many different purposes and numerous authentic audiences.
- Form follows function. The writing classroom introduces students to multiple genres (fiction and nonfiction, poetry, prose, and drama) and organizational modes (e.g. description, narration, analysis, argument) and helps them choose appropriate forms for different purposes and audiences.
In addition, all materials developed for this workshop reflect the Standards for the English Language Arts developed by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the International Reading Association (IRA).
Other important explorations of objectives and standards of teaching writing:
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