She had to stay in and write "I will not talk in class," 25 times. This did not deter her from the enjoyment of writing once she applied creative skills to the writing process. What happened to her that she started to enjoy writing? Did a teacher, uncle, mom, dad show her that writing is enjoyable? .
Teachers using writing as punishment defeats the purpose of trying to show children that writing is fun. A teacher once gave our whole class the usual writing punishment "I will not talk in class when the teacher is talking" 100 times. I brought the assignment home and my parents were so upset and said that this should have been handled a different way than making the children write. We all sat down with a sheet of paper and started writing. That was the coolest thing my parents could have done to help me. .
Teachers also play a positive role in learning how to write. In school lessons are continued and students respond differently to the same writing experience. First grade you learn to write the letters correctly and either enjoy the experience, (because you are good at it) or hate it (because you struggle with it). .
LB's experience was a positive one in first grade. Letters were practiced over and over with great results for her. The work was neat and the positive reinforcement from the teacher led to this positive experience for her. .
MG remembers a similar experience in first grade. The teacher had a designated spot in the classroom with a catchy name called the "Pencil Place." MG would share a story with a volunteer while the volunteer wrote it down. She would rewrite the story and have a book to show for her work. She would also enjoy reading the collection of other books created by her classmates.
BB, like many others used learning to write as a personal way to show the ones that taught her how to write how much she really cared for them. In second grade she used to write her aunt letters telling her how excited she was about school.
