Student Writer Observation Report

Observation of a Student Writer This observation of a student writer takes place in a ninth grade general English classroom that is composed of tenth graders. These students are required to pass this class in order to move on to the tenth grade general English class next semester. The pseudonym that I am using to refer to the student that I observed for this assignment is Amanda. She is a student who is quiet during class discussions, but demonstrates her understanding of the classroom dialogue interactions and reading assignments through her written text. Initially, Amanda’s response to my inquiry about how she feels about writing conveys the typical adolescent attitude when she says “writing is boring because of the actual tedious aspect of it.” I asked her why she thought it was tedious and she explained that it takes longer to write things out and it hurts her hand. She said she would much rather type on the computer because she can get her thoughts out quicker and it does not require her to focus on her handwriting. I attempted to elaborate on …show more content…
She said that she really enjoyed looking at images of art and listening to how everyone in the class interpreted what each painting meant to them or what they thought the artist was trying to convey to his or her audience. She said that she felt connected to the images and could freely express her thoughts and feelings about them because she knew there was not one right or correct answer. Writing about art made me think about the chapter about engaging students with nontraditional texts and how teachers should use other resources besides using novels from the canon or other texts to teach writing. Amanda demonstrates the fact that students crave a variety of tools they can use to practice their writing skills and boost their fluency and creativity at the same