Reviewing the NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing

The NCTE Beliefs about the teaching aof writing should be introduced to all language teachers, in order to teach writing effectively and to change the attitudes of the masses towards writing. The NCTE's belief that "people learn to write by writing" - cements my belief that for students to write effectively they need to be provided with opportunities to write. Similarly, to developing good readers or habitual readers, students need to be provided with opportunities to read text which interest them. Students need to be provided with chances to write about topics that appeal to them. It has been a widely held belief  that our students dislike to write- they grumble when they are asked to write, they are so quick to frown and to express their disapproval. But do we blame our students for their negative attitudes  towards writing or do the topics we select evoke such distaste within our students?

Therefore, we need to allow our students to write about what  interests them and not what we believe will come up on the examination. Writing should not be confined to preparing for an examination but as a medium for communicating and developing one's ideas.After reading the outlined principles by the NCTE, I have learned that not only should we provide students with the opportunity to write on subjects that interest them but also, in our classes teach that "writing grows out of many different purposes". Thus, students need to be provided with different writing situations where the relationships and reasons vary. Students need to be provided with opportunities for writing which can be used in their daily lives.

Furthermore, the NCTE believes that "writing is a tool for thinking". When we teach writing, we should teach students that this an opportunity for them to:

• reflect on their own ideas
• generate and organise these ideas while questioning the ontology of these ideas and in directing their thought process.

Additionally, in teaching writing,as teachers, we need to teach students strategies for planning their writing which allows for the better expression of thoughts. Consequently, as teachers we develop independent, strategic learners (Mac Millan, 1997). Equally important, the NCTE posits that "writing and reading are related". This principle struck me because as a child, my mother  always told us that "if you can read, then you can write". As teachers, we we need to ensure that we create a literacy rich environment for our students. We need to expose them to texts so that their ability to write a text of a similar nature increases. Not only is a literacy rich classroom fundamental to the development of reading and writing skills of our students , we need to develop habitual writers in and out of the classroom. George (2001) posit that students need to be exposed to different genres. Along with exposing students to texts that interest them, we need to allow for discussions so that students can make connections to what they have read. The texts also need to be easy for the students to read and be able to make connections to their backgrounds.

After reading these principles, as teachers we need to cater to these fundamental needs of our students. Additionally, I believe that these guidelines willl be instrumental in improving the nature of our writing classes. Teachers therefore, need to be taught how to write so we can effectively teach our students how to write. Writing workshops will be crucial in changing the attitudes of our traditional teachers. As teachers we need to learn that writing is not tedious but fun. We need to re-teach  writing to our teachers, so that we can teach our students.