Innovative Writing Instruction and Cultivating Creative Abilities

Author: Ke Kongbiao (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-24
Features: This research primarily addresses the following issues:
1. On the Objectives of Primary School Composition Teaching
Traditional composition teaching treats writing merely as a language skill, which can easily lead to disconnection from children's lives and their developmental needs. In reality, writing is a natural expression for children and a comprehensive reflection of their various competencies. The main purpose of primary school composition teaching is to cultivate students' basic ability to communicate in written language, foster their interest and habit in using standardized written language to express their unique thoughts and emotions, and lay a foundation for their future learning and development.
2. On the Relationship Between Composition and Students' Lives
Life is the source of composition, but not the only source. Life experience provides material for writing, but it does not guarantee that students with rich life experiences will write beautiful essays. Transforming life experience into written expression requires a relatively complex psychological processing and conversion process. Composition and life interact with each other. While encouraging students to incorporate life into their writing, language teachers should also focus on teaching students to use composition to reflect life and enrich it.
3. On the Relationship Between Composition and Students' Personality Development
Composition teaching should respect students' individuality, cherish their unique perceptions and innovative thinking, and encourage them to freely express their true feelings in their writing. However, students of the same age share many psychological similarities, and composition teaching should also have common requirements for corresponding age groups. Language teachers should guide and correct students' emotional confusion and value biases in their writing to promote the development of good personal qualities.
4. On the Relationship Between Composition and the Internet
The Internet is a double-edged sword, and its impact on composition teaching is also two-sided. On one hand, the Internet may diminish the supreme role of language in cultural transmission, affecting students' authentic experience of the real world and their written expression. On the other hand, the Internet provides us with vast amounts of information, convenient communication channels, and a low-stress environment for writing. If used effectively, the Internet can become an important platform for improving students' composition skills.
5. On the Relationship Between Composition and Reading
The integration of reading and writing is a timeless principle in composition teaching. In the modern sense, this integration not only refers to imitation and practice after reading lessons but also emphasizes the accumulation and transfer value of reading (including textbook reading and extracurricular reading) for composition. This includes both borrowing and imitating language forms and styles, as well as the subtle influence on ideological content and moral character.
6. On Descriptive and Imaginative Composition
These are two types of composition with different natures and functions. Given the past neglect of children's imaginative worlds, it is necessary to focus more on teaching imaginative composition. However, both descriptive and imaginative composition are equally important for improving students' language expression skills and fostering their creativity. There is no need to favor one over the other. Both require students to express themselves "authentically" and "freely," but descriptive composition emphasizes "objective description," while imaginative composition focuses more on "emotional sincerity."
7. On Composition Teaching Models
Composition teaching must go beyond the classroom and textbooks, reaching out to students and their lives, and adopting open teaching methods. Open teaching is a concept, but specific teaching models should be diverse. Teachers should choose appropriate teaching methods and strategies based on specific teaching objectives, the actual needs of their students, and local composition teaching resources.
8. On the Initial Stage of Composition Teaching
Theoretically, as long as students recognize Chinese characters, they have the potential to write essays. It is feasible and necessary to integrate composition teaching earlier in the lower grades. During the initial stage of composition teaching, expectations for language should be low, content and themes should be made engaging, and teaching methods should be varied.