A Guide to Written Expression

My name is Kristen Turner and I have been an educator in Newark, New Jersey at the middle level for fourteen years. I pride myself on continued growth and learning in my field. I am a National Writing Fellow and stumbled upon this certificate program at Kean University, over ten years ago, when I began my educational journey with my students. I felt that I had to relearn my expressive voice, study the art of writing, master it truly, in order to effectively teach writing at the middle level. 

Reluctance can be born out of the fear of the unknown.

It only makes sense right!?! My first teaching opportunity was in a 6th grade ELA class. I was fresh out of college and had preconceived notions about what my teaching experience would be like; however, what I envisioned, and what was presented before me, were polar opposites.

I was frustrated and baffled beyond words. I would go home dejected, feeling ineffective as a teacher; questioning the teaching prior. One day it  dawned on me; my students “disliked” writing because they did not know where to begin. That epiphany led me to commiting to explicitly teach my students writing.

It was not easy, I had to engage them with creative lessons that provided students with clear specific guidelines and formulas,  literal addition problems, for my students to follow and ultimately memorize.

The strategies, aprpoaches, and formulas have guided my students to perform above state and nation expectations and  excel in an area that seems to be a struggle all over, writing.

My Purpose

I am here to showcase what I have written, created, and developed over the years as a sure fire way to not only develop writers, but make reluctant writers feel like authors, and teach academic writing explicitly in ways teachers and students will enjoy and appreciate. Additonally, I will pair student testimonials, otherwise known as writing samples.

I have created teacher and student friendly writing guides that first build the the foundation for essay writing, then build on that foundation for more expressive writing that allows for students to take compositional risks using tricks and strategies explicitly mentioned in the guides.