Using Differentiated Instruction to Teach Writing:
Providing visual, auditory, and kinesthetic aids within a classroom is one of the best ways to adapt to student needs. In order for students to feel successful during the writing process and engage in the flow, the students must have the necessary means to achieve that. This means, providing visual, auditory, and kinesthetic aids to help the students better understand the writing process and be engaged with the text. Similarly, utilizing sociocultural connection to bridge the gap between curriculum and student home life, personal experiences, their own culture.
Below are some examples of instruction provided by Gina Briefs-Elgin, an English professor at New Mexico Highlands University. She used these assignments to get her students to challenge their beliefs and values surrounding happiness in order to open their minds to Csikszentmihalyi's definition of happiness. The goal of this project was to challenge the students view on happiness and open up their perspectives to realizing that happiness comes after we successfully navigate through challenging tasks. Hopefully, this would get students more excited about difficult school work.
"The first [project] has students examining media definitions of happiness, thinking about their elders ' definitions and articulating their own. Later projects introduce students to Csikszentmihalyi's findings on happiness and ask them to examine their own lives in light of flow psychology." (Briefs-Elgin, 1997, pg. 75).
"Another definition exercise provided a sharp contrast. One day I put two columns on the board: "happiness for our elders" and "happiness for us." Then I asked students to compare the way they and their grandparents find happiness. After my students had examined their definitions of happiness and those of their elders, they write their own." (Briefs-Elgin, 1997, pg. 76).
Sociocultural connections, allowing the students to figure out how Csikszentmihalyi's findings relates to their own lives can relate and consciously creates a better understanding of authors content to help them write better. As an educator, providing the students with the opportunity to engage in the writing topics by connecting to their own life experiences will encourage new thoughts, ideas, or questions that could produce greater interest and motivation. With this being said, it allows the students to create a deeper, more intimate connection to the content.
Using Classroom Discussion to Teach Writing:
"Writing is a full act of the mind, drawing on the full resources of our nervous system, formulating communicative impulses into thoughts and words, and transcribing through the work of the fingers." (Adler-Kassner and Wardle 2016, pg. 74)
Incorporating classroom discussion within instructional practice of writing is absolutely vital. Being able to have those conversations about the writing process such as the specific formulation, presentation, expectations, and examples of different types of writing allows the students to better understand the types of writing and engage with the processes of writing. If an educator can provide that knowledge to the students, the students will be able to not only create writing in a less confusing or unclear manner, but they will also have a greater ability to produce flow when writing. When directions are unclear or if there is a misunderstanding about how to write, the students will be not be able to have any sort of flow when writing about the topic or content.
Allowing for classroom discussion enables the students to be more engaged in the assignment. Discussion also invites the students to be co-researchers and gain autonomy in their projects. As Shosh and Zales (2005) said when they discussed their classroom practices for writing, “Empowering students as co-researchers created a forum for the sharing of ideas to make learning “more fun,” in kid terms, in the classroom" (79). Ultimately, when students are in environments where their knowledge and opinions can be voiced, they will learn that their voice matters. This will hopefully get them connected to their assignments in meaningful ways so later they can reach flow.
Using Exploratory Writing: Bridging the gap between curriculum and their lives using process journals
"As students began their work, they kept process journals, recording not only their discoveries and library strategies, but also their emotional states as they worked their way through their laborious project." (Briefs-Elgin, 1997, pg. 77).
"Process journals are useful for drawing students ' conscious attention to their emotional states during writing; surveys are useful for drawing attention to their emotional states after writing is over." (Briefs-Elgin, 1997, pg. 77).
Very similar to creating sociocultural connections and differentiated instruction, the students are able to make emotional connections to the content as they do more research when utilizing process journals. During a laborious project or writing assignment, it can be challenging and overwhelming for many of the students. A process journal is a wonderful way for students to engage in the writing process while also acknowledging their emotional state through each stage. This instructional approach allows the student to self-evaluate during the process. This can help students showcase both positive and negative emotions that could acknowledge confusion, frustration, happiness, relief, or much more. Once these feelings are acknowledge, it gives the students and the educator an opportunity to find solutions to those emotions if needed. This process journaling also encourages exploratory writing, which is very informal and low-stakes. The students have the opportunity to dabble in both informal and formal types of writing. As a result, the students are able to continuously reflect upon their emotional state, connect with the topic, and learn how to produce flow as they write. Incorporating process journals in writing assignments will help train students to be meta-cognitively aware of their choices and emotions.
Creating a foundation for literacy skills:
"To support this notion that writing critically impacts comprehension, Herbert et al. (2013) conducted a meta-analysis to compare the effects of several types of writing tasks upon reading comprehension. Herbert and colleagues maintain that writing activities can both assess and extend students’ knowledge of content material. Similarly, writing activities can both assess and extend students’ knowledge of content material." (Miller, 2016, pg. 86).
When it comes to integrating critical literacy skills such as reading and writing in a students skill set, it is vital to create instruction that showcases how reading and writing coincide with one another. That being said, Miller talks about a meta-analysis that shows how critical writing tasks are to a student literacy knowledge. If students can engage in various types of writing, whether it is a form of assessment or just exploratory writing, the students will have the opportunity to experience writing in a way that will help them better understand and evaluate their own understanding of the content. Without understanding of content, students lose interest and motivation alongside flow within their writing. Students will then struggle to even produce writing if they lack proper comprehension skills. Therefore, integrating literacy skills within instruction can promote not only comprehension, but it will ultimately elevate the students ability to find flow within various types of writing processes.
Using Homogenous Groups for Flow Theory:
Jessica Sullivan-Wilson, teacher and lawyer, explained her approach to helping students reach flow in writing. In a class exercise, she grouped students in a very specific way while they were working on their assignment. During the drafting stage of writing, Sullivan-Wilson had asked the students to come to class with whatever the had completed. Meaning, each student could be at vastly different stages within their drafting. Some may have an introduction and 3 body paragraphs, some may only have an introduction, and some may have more or less than both of those options. With that being said, she found the students benefiting from being in groups where they were all at the same stage. Allowing the students to collaboratively work together, to guide one another through the drafting stage to help produce flow and to engage in the writing process helps the students become better writers. The students have the opportunity to work with one another in student-led instructional strategy to guide them to learning about not only the writing process, but how to produce their individual flow when they continue to write after peer editing. (J. Sullivan-Wilson, Director, Communication Affairs, November 30, 2021).