Writing Instruction

One of the posters hanging up in my second grade classroom explained the writing process. I was one of those students who noticed everything, so I remember this poster; however, I don't think my teacher ever pointed it out to the rest of the students. Most of my classrooms throughout public school followed no specific approach to writing instruction. In fact, I don't remember being taught any writing.  We were expected to produce good writing without being taught specific skills. This means there wasn't direct instruction of varying sentences, adding verb or noun modifiers, planning, or incorporating similes. We wrote a draft, edited the piece, revised (without instruction on how to do this), and published. Although this is not the ideal approach to writing, this is what I remember. I remember no formal writing instruction, just assignments that were due. I remember worksheets that focused on a certain language skill, which lends itself to the traditional learning view according to Freeman (2004). I remember the red ink smeared across my supposed final copies that was meant to "help" me, which is also the traditional teacher's attitude toward errors (Freeman, 2004). We studied rules and grammar, and the most dreaded practice of all: diagramming sentences. The traditional learning method overall says that students are aware of what they are learning (Freeman, 2004); however, I was not aware what I was learning nor the rationale behind it, which is more like the acquisition view. From what I remember, I had teachers that followed neither the traditional learning view nor the acquisition learning view. Maybe it was a mix of both, or maybe it was a lack of proper instruction.