Chapter One

Improving Student Writing

Challenges and Expectations

Writing is complex, and so is the instruction that a school must provide if its students are to reach the high standards of learning expected of them. Even the most accomplished writers say that writing is challenging, most notably because there is so much uncertainty embedded in the process of doing it. The writer doesn’t always know beforehand where to begin, much less how to proceed. Writing doesn’t take shape all at once in fluent sentences and organized paragraphs. The more complex the subject or task, the more disorderly and unpredictable the journey can be. Not even experienced writers “get it right” the first time through. Most would agree with New Yorker writer E. B. White when he said that “the best writing is rewriting.” Writing is hard because it is a struggle of thought, feeling, and imagination to find expression clear enough for the task at hand.

Doing it well means being both a writer and a reader. As writer, we look through language and struggle to discover what we mean to say; as reader (of our own work), we look at language with an editor’s eye to be sure we’ve found the right words to say what we mean. “Read and revise, reread and revise,” counsels literary critic Jacques Barzun; “keep reading and revising until your text seems adequate to your thought.” Sometimes, the professionals tell us, this means letting yourself write poorly at the start, with the expectation of improving it further down the line. “You have to get the bulk of it done,” says writer Larry Gelbart, “and then you start to refine it. You have to put down less-than-marvelous material just to keep going, whatever you think the end is going to be—which may be something else altogether by the time you get there.”1

White, Barzun, and Gelbart are variously describing what researchers call the recursive nature of writing. Studies of how writers actually work show them shuffling through phases of planning, reflection, drafting, and revision, though rarely in a linear fashion. Each phase requires problem solving and critical thinking. More than adequacy of expression per se is required. Successful writers grasp the occasion, purpose, and audience for their work. They have learned how to juggle the expectations of diverse readers and the demands of distinct forms. Writing a letter or a persuasive editorial is not the same as fashioning a moving poem or a tightly reasoned legal brief.

Studies of how writers actually work show them shuffling through phases of planning, reflection, drafting, and revision, though rarely in a linear fashion. Each phase requires problem solving and critical thinking.

If writing is challenging, teaching it is all the more so. How do we create a classroom or school where increasingly complex writing tasks can be learned by all students? Teacher and researcher James Moffett described the new consensus about effective composition pedagogy this way: “Writing has to be learned in school very much the same way that it is practiced out of school. This means that the writer has a reason to write, an intended audience, and control of subject and form. It also means that composing is staged across various phases of rumination, investigation, consultation with others, drafting, feedback, revision, and perfecting.”2

This understanding poses new challenges for educators as to how writing is presented and practiced in the classroom. Many of us can recall an English essay returned to us with marginal comments such as “This needs to be clearer” or “Weak opening” or “This paragraph is hard to follow.” Often, no instruction or roadmap accompanied the comment showing how to take the next step. As students, we were just expected to fix these things and get them right the next time, as if writing well required the same kind of knowledge as making a subject and verb agree or spelling a word correctly. But how do we make writing clear? Does everyone agree on what a strong opening looks like? What should we do to make our sentences flow in paragraphs that are easy to follow? If only these results could be drilled into us, then teaching writing would be easy.

Challenging as it is, educators interviewed for this publication argued that all students can learn to write and that writing is the most visible expression not only of what their students know but also of how well they have learned it. Those interviewed were teachers from all grade levels, elementary to postsecondary; language arts coordinators; composition program directors; principals; and superintendents. They underscored the critical role writing can play as a means for learning in most academic subjects. Some characterized writing as the most important academic skill students need to develop in their secondary and postsecondary education. All of them cited the hurdles schools and educators face in meeting students’ writing needs.

Educators interviewed for this publication argued that all students can learn to write and that writing is the most visible expression not only of what their students know but also of how well they have learned it.

This chapter examines why improving writing is sometimes so challenging, for teacher and student alike. It identifies and explores some of the complexity that educators and policymakers should understand if they are to develop and sustain an effective writing program or curriculum. It addresses as well some of the myths and realities surrounding the teaching and learning of writing and suggests how administrators can assess how well writing is being taught in their schools.

HOW EDUCATORS SEE THE CHALLENGES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING WRITING

What does a school need to provide if its students are to master the complex set of skills and knowledge called writing? Educators interviewed for this book described two kinds of challenge for improving the quality of writing in a school. The first addresses what students need in order to develop and improve as writers. The second reflects how teachers and administrators must support and sustain effective writing instruction.

Students Need to Write More in All Subjects

Learning to write requires frequent, supportive practice. Evidence shows that writing performance improves when a student writes often and across content areas. Writing also affects reading comprehension. According to a 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Report Card,3 students in grades 4, 8, and 12 who said they wrote long answers weekly scored higher than those who said they never or hardly ever did so. Again in 2000, when only fourth-grade students were assessed, the NAEP Reading Report Card found a positive correlation between the frequency of writing long answers and higher reading achievement.4 (The NAEP reports are discussed in more detail in Chapter Three.)

Learning to write requires frequent, supportive practice.

Yet many American schools are not giving students much time to write. Sixty-nine percent of fourth-grade teachers report spending ninety minutes or less per week on writing activities, according to data collected for the NAEP 1998 Writing Assessment. Many of these activities require only a brief response rather than the longer ones NAEP assesses. The 2002 NAEP Writing Assessment did not survey classroom writing activities, but other national studies and assessments of writing over the past three decades have repeatedly shown that students spend too little time writing in and out of school. When a school focuses on improving writing, it often starts with a realistic assessment of how much and what kind of writing students are actually asked to do.

Students Have Diverse Abilities and Instructional Needs

Writing can be idiosyncratic, and this is reflected in how a student develops as a writer. At all grade levels, students show varying strengths and favor diverse forms (narrative, persuasive, expository, and so on); their writing often progresses only in fits and starts. As Donald Murray, a Pulitzer Prize winner and professor emeritus of English at the University of New Hampshire, observes: “Most of us as writers have our strengths and our weaknesses. So do students. If you teach writing, you find people who are excellent spellers and understand the mechanics of grammar and don’t say a thing. Others have voices. Some are very organized. Some are totally disorganized. I’ve taught first grade through graduate school. There’s just an enormous range at every level.”5 For the teacher, the challenge is recognizing and then addressing the distinct instructional needs of diverse students.

Schools not only need to have students write more; they must also give students a rich and diverse array of writing experiences.

Students Must Master Diverse Writing Tasks to Develop Competence

A frequently stated goal of English language arts instruction is for the student to communicate competently and have the skills to participate in “varied literacy communities.”6 But what does competence in writing really mean? Across the grades, students write for varied purposes and audiences. Educators may have distinct notions of competence in asking students to perform increasingly complex writing tasks. In early literacy, children’s writing develops from drawing, talking, developmental spelling, and picture stories. In middle and high school,...