We water the garden of writing with big buckets of listening. We plant the garden of writing in soil that has been richly composted with plenty of reading. The writing plants grow slowly at first, but if they are left alone (i.e. little to no error correction, focus on concepts of errors, not specific errors), they emerge to be strong and robust by their third year in the ground, just as real plants in real gardens require about three years to firmly establish themselves in the ground.
Writing can’t be a purely left brain analytical process. It is so connected to sound, and sound is so connected to reading. It just proves that what we are doing in TPRS, with input early and the output that is writing being focused on only later, is a great way to teach writing – we start with the reading and listening, and then gradually, everything falls into place and becomes correct by itself. This is exactly what happens when kids learn to write in their first language, of course, and so is a natural process.
Some of my most auditory eighth grade students from last year are being made to do analytical writing in level 2. Most of them dislike it intensely and don’t do well at it, because it is forced output too early and is not a whole brain, naturally unfolding, activity that builds on prior input. Those are the same kids, so fired up about French last year, who will quit after two years at the high school.
I hope those links from Terry on the listserve on this topic come through soon (they were broken links earlier today). I will send them over to their teachers at the high school (it is a grammar based department). Of course, they most likely won’t even read them. They aren’t interested in this discussion, because they think they have writing all figured out.
They don’t have it figured out. Krashen and Susie Gross do. Those teachers are losing tons of students from advanced study, and this writing piece is a big reason for it. They strangle the plants. Can’t they just wait on the output skills, instead of shaming kids for not being able to grasp concepts that are too early for them to grasp?
The water of listening and the soil of reading grow the plants of writing, but only in that order. I will keep my eye out for Terry’s posting of those links, and thank you, Terry, for tracking down that research.