BPR CH 12

I think we teach students to write how we were taught to write. Writing
is not so straight forward. There may be rules to structure and
grammar, but there are no rules to ideas! It seems that many teachers,
including myself, teach writing in a formal, boring manner. Writing
shouldn't be boring, it should be a useful tool in expressing oneself.

After
reading Donald Murphy's chapter, I started thinking about how I have my
students write. I keep reverting back to their portfolio pieces. It is
my job to teach them the structure of a feature article, but it is up
to them how to write it. Which before I would have thought it's the
same thing, now I realize the are different. I have thought of ideas to
use, for example, using the index card idea that he explains in his
chapter. Now, I can start by having them write about whatever they
want, to get used to the idea, then I can give them another card and
tell them to write about anything that involves thehispanic or latino
culture. Then they can pick their topic for their feature article and
write everything they know about that topic. Honestly, I am just
brainstorming, but I have to start somewhere! I am just thinking about
"my writing" and how I write.