WRITING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT

Can writing be taught?

Absolutely! Writing is a skill that can be taught to anyone, not just woeful poets or sports columnists. All of our students come to us with a truckload of experiences, thoughts, and feelings from which they can draw as writers. Furthermore, we, as teachers, employ a plethora of techniques, activities, experiences, and ideas that can inspire and guide students to use words to move the world.

What the Research Says about Teaching Writing

Writing requires time

We learn to write by writing. It may seem painfully obvious that we learn to write better by writing more. Research shows that regularly scheduled time for explicit instruction and practice is necessary at all levels and content areas.

Assessment is critical.

Assessment of writing provides students with valuable feedback and enables teachers to design their instruction. When assessing writing, it is important that students are aware of the criteria -- which are dependent on the form, purpose, and audience -- prior to turning in a final draft.

Fortunately, more writing doesn’t necessarily equal more assessment. Because the act of writing can be more important than teacher assessment, teachers can feel justified in providing a great quantity of writing opportunities without grading or even reading them all. The experience of writing is sometimes enough.

Writing is a process.

Professional writers scribble notes on napkins, pick up manuscripts years after having set them down, and generally zip back and forth from brainstorming new ideas to conducting spell check. Writing is a recursive process that comprises prewriting, drafting, conferencing, revising, editing, and publishing. These stages must be explicitly taught and reinforced often, recognizing that not all writing must be taken to publication. If we are to help our students become effective, life-long writers, we must encourage them to revisit any stage as they work on a composition -- even occasionally abandoning a piece in favor of a new idea.

Writing is risky.

Outside of public speaking and crab soccer, writing can be the most terrifying ordeal that students face during the course of their school day. While some students joyfully jump into their writing, anyone who has ever stared at a blank page or empty screen in frustration can attest to the feeling of standing atop a high dive while your friends stare in anticipation below.

In order to help more of our students enjoy the thrill of the plunge, we need to create a classroom community which supports students, rewards progress, provides experiences, and models success. Teachers can do this by using examples of good writing and modeling what he/she wants good student writing to look like. Seeing a teacher taking risks, editing work, and exploring new ideas, students will have more incentive to do likewise.

Teachers who write are better teachers of writing.

Teachers develop as writers through ongoing professional development and reflection. Professional development should provide time for teachers to write in their content areas. For example, science teachers might traipse off into the woods to record their observations, say; of how much weight a slug can pull as a way to experience first-hand what they expect their students to do. As a result of teachers’ own triumphs and struggles as writers they will be better equipped to shepherd their students through the writing process.

Teachers need help.

Effective writing instruction requires sophisticated management structures for student conferencing, peer editing, feedback, portfolio construction, and reflection. Teachers need ongoing professional development and time to make this possible, creating the lessons and mechanisms for focusing on words and ideas within an atmosphere of confidence and creativity. In addition, teachers can use other adult resources within the school (librarians, paraprofessionals, volunteers, etc.) to help support these structures.

Writing has purpose.

To coax our students to take the plunge as writers, teachers need to give them compelling reasons to do so. Students will write if there is an authentic purpose and audience. We write to engage in self-discovery, make social connections, contribute to civil discourse, communicate professionally and academically, and contemplate the beauty of life.

The more varied and personally significant the purposes and audiences, the better and more profound our students’ writing and thinking will become. As a result, students must become fluent in many forms of writing. Writing a poem, a tall tale, or a myth requires different forms, structures, and skills than writing a research paper, e-mail, or a letter to the editor.

Teaching the traits of writing is essential.

Since our students develop as writers throughout their time in school, it is important that we use a common language when discussing writing. The traits of writing (voice, ideas, organization, conventions, sentence fluency, word choice and presentation) provide us with this common language and should be taught explicitly and applied across content areas with plenty of time for students to use these terms as they talk about their own and others’ writing.

Ideas should precede word choice, organization and sentence fluency. It is imperative that we first focus on supporting our students in developing their ideas and then later go back and help them organize and refine their writing. Certainly, conventions (grammar/usage, mechanics, spelling) of writing are important to readers and must therefore be a focus for writers; however, to develop fluency, instruction in conventions should take place in the context of authentic writing rather than in isolated grammar drills.

As a part of presentation, handwriting (print and cursive) plays an important role. Instruction should be explicit with time given for students to develop. Writers who achieve handwriting competency become more confident as writers, able to give cognitive focus to content and ideas. Students should develop proficient word processing skills and fluency in using a variety of computer applications to publish their writing.

Writing, reading, speaking and listening are related.

Writing, reading, speaking and listening are interdependent. It is difficult to write a science fiction story if the writer has never read or heard authors such as Bradbury or Asimov. Conversely, if students only read or hear tall tales they’ll lack models for other forms of writing. Students need a balance of broad and deep exposure to various forms of text. Making connections between what we read, hear, say and write allows students to communicate in many forms.

Conclusion

A committee of P-12 educators has created this research-based document. Its intent is to guide decision-making about writing curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development at the classroom, building and district levels.