Welcome to Language Arts! Please take a moment to read some important information about the importance of writing.
If your brain isn’t growing, it’s dying. The brain continually re-calibrates itself based on your inputs. No matter what age you are, your brain loses or grows neurons in proportion to your activities. It’s use it or lose it.
Unlike any other organ in your body, your brain is wired to do one thing: think. Your brain is a thinking organ. In order to grow your brain, you must interact with the world through perception, contemplation and action. Mental stimulation drives brain functionality, and prevents cognitive decay. Writing is one of the most important aspects of your child's day. Good writing allows self expression, clarity, focus, and easy visualization. Writing that is lacking can inhibit meaning, not only taking away from what a student may be learning, but even their ability to express what they're learning.
Dr. Krashen found that through writing, the brain becomes stimulated. And Ph.D.’s from UC Berkely, Robert Yerkes and John Dodson, have found that through stimulation, the mind is pruned to become more focused and attentive. The more your mind is stimulated, your mind grows and increases its ability to focus.
Through writing, thoughts disentangle themselves. When speaking, thoughts are poured out in real-time. The communication is raw. With writing, however, one has the ability to redraft and refocus their thoughts. This results in a more clear and concise form of communication. This act of organizing thoughts, is a powerful way to enhance the mind. It allows you to slow down and ask yourself critical questions. After making writing a routine, the way you think will change, the way you speak will change and others will sense this change.Your ability to formulate thoughts and present them in a concise manner will set you apart. If you make this a habit, you will go further in business, in life and with people.
Just as important, writing out your thoughts and your objectives on a consistent basis will allow you to better grasp concepts–no matter how vague or abstract. For instance, a study was conducted by Arngala Ganguli in the field of mathematics. After each class, the professor asked one group of students to write a paragraph on what main ideas they’ve learned. When compared to the normal group, they significantly outperformed them in test scores. The act of writing down and summarizing what they learned significantly helped them learn.
The lesson is: If you want to really grasp something, don’t read about it. That’s passive; instead, write about it. One of the requirements of my class is for your child to keep a writer's notebook, and write daily. This writer's notebook is not a journal or diary. It serves as a domain for your child's thoughts, ideas, and wonderings. Writing is generative. Once the writer has built their stamina, they are able to generate and organize a steady flow of ideas. When your child has captured an array of ideas and entries in their writer's notebook, they will seamlessly go through a rigorous writing process which involves collecting around their chosen topic, revising, and finally editing their grammar for publication. For this reason, it is important your child writes everyday in order to have an abundance of topics to choose when it is time to take a piece though the writing process. Enthusiastically, Mrs. Jalil Canyon Vista Language Arts Department
TIPS FOR BUILDING WRITING STAMINA AT HOME
1. READ A LOT- Research shows reading makes you a better writer. 2. USE WRITING STRATEGIES TO MAKE WRITING EASIER- Your child will be taught strategies writers use in order to get the page started. 3. CREATE A WRITING ENVIRONMENT- Have your child create a space free of distractions where they are able to freely write down their thoughts and ideas. 4. MAKE A WRITING APPOINTMENT- Setting aside time to write in advance on a consistent basis will foster the habit of writing everyday. It takes 50-66 times of doing something before it becomes a habit- it may take some time, so start with day 1. 5. ENJOY THE PROCESS- Writing does wonders for the brain, but it also gets in you in a good mood.
Resource: Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms by Randy Bomer, Ph.D. from Columbia University
Source: What Reading Does for the Mind by Scott Scheper