What's Right With Writing

Rief’s article, “What’s Right with Writing,” brought up many of the same points we’ve been reading about in other articles. The Writing Project is a club, it turns out, with ring leaders , named Elbow, Atwell, Romano, Sommers, Caulkins, and Graves.

What have I learned about writing my teaching of writing?

I’ve learned that what I’m doing really isn’t teaching writing. It is expecting students to be able to write and organize and draft and revise just because they’ve heard those words before. They’re in high school now; I think I’ve been assuming that makes them capable of producing good, or just decent, writing without much guidance. I believe every teacher in my school is working under basically that same principle. I don’t think much writing or teaching of writing is happening at the high school level in my area.

I have learned that I want to break this trend and get to the bones of it this year. I understand that is going to be a huge process complete with road blocks, missteps, and blunders, but I also understand it will be worth it.

Why does writing matter?

Writing matters because it helps people think. Because expressing ideas and thoughts is important. Because communication and communicating through writing, in particular, sets us apart from so many other forms of life. Because what we have to say and how we say it gets us places in life.

What do our students need to help them write well?

Yes, they need time. I need time! Students need a little freedom of choice. I’ve assigned very few writing assignments where choice factored in. I pretend that they have a choice in who they select to do their research paper on—but they must choose from a list because the librarian only has so many sources and topics, and they have to choose someone whose contribution has been “positive.” The narrowing of choice goes on and on from there.

Students need explicit instruction and many opportunities to practice writing about things that interest them (read choice). They need to be exposed to good writing, different genres, and they need to have an in depth understanding of audience. I thought these things just sort of sunk in over time or something. I thought audience was easy to address—I’ve never spent time teaching it.
Finally, for this blog at least, I believe students need feedback al throughout the writing process. I’m guilty of rough draft/final draft comments. I want to conference and peer conference much more in my classroom. Kids need input and feedback before they consider it a done deal.

What stands in the way of powerful writing instruction?

I think ignorant teachers are partly to blame. I grew up thinking of writing as one thing during school and another thing when I wrote for pleasure. I accepted that school writing was hoop jumping and that personal writing was where I got to explore, take risks, and find pleasure. I think I’ve been teaching under that same assumption. The article mentions “lack of tools” and I guess that goes along with my thoughts. That and the fact that there is such a lack of professional development dedicated to writing instruction. The article blames testing a lot—I guess so. I’m not sure why teaching good writing wouldn’t translate into decent test scores though. Maybe it’s the pressure to do well on tests that makes us feel like we need more direct instruction that deals with grammar, syntax, and the “process” of writing—without actually writing?

A lot needs to change within my own classroom. I wasn’t raised using writer’s workshop. I learned to write, somehow, in college (Due to pressure? Opportunity? Professors? Maybe it was just “my time?”). This year is going to be hectic and transformational. It’s intimidating, but like we’ve been learning, I have to understand that I won’t be able to change a million things that first day of class. I need to find a few ways to implement more of NWP’s philosophies and see where that takes me and my students.