Responding through writing

“To find meaning and purpose in learning, students must be encouraged to think about what they are learning- and therein lies the power of writing.” (Vacca & Linek,1992)

Initially students can begin by writing informally, for example jot down their first impressions and expectations before they started reading the selection. It also can be writing brief notes of things they want to explore and remember while they are reading or write about their reflections after reading. This informal writing will be as their preparation before they started to discuss it in the classroom. During the discussion the students can takes notes and write a longer reflection to extend their feelings and ideas. They may extend this discussion with their Learning Partner or the member of the S3Group through the dialogue journals. This is very helpful because the journal functioned as a vehicle for students to interact with their reading.

What are the teacher roles in order to encourage students to write in the journal? First, teacher needs to identify that there are some students who are really good and do not need any assistance from teacher because they can respond freely in their journal. But there are also some students who really need assistance and guidance from teacher in order to help them writing their journal. Teacher response is very importance to these students, especially in the beginning of their journal writing. A teacher should not only provide affective responses but also an in depth responses to these students. Teacher may use some prompts such as “This story makes me feel………”This prompt, even though it is short, but will be a powerful motivation to the student because they feel happy to have someone to read and response to his journal.

On the other hand, formal writing also may help in responding to literature where it focused on analytical papers that are designed to demonstrate students understanding and interpretation toward the theory they had been taught. This will also helps students to explore their responses toward the literature.