Increasing Achievement Through Writing, Part 1

A Brave Young Teacher

Several years ago I shared writing strategies with a large group of middle school teachers and administrators – well over a hundred educators from all grades and subject areas. Everyone participated enthusiastically all morning as I demonstrated note taking, summarizing, responding to text, breaking down definitions, and asking or answering questions.

By noon I had introduced strategies for informative/explanatory paragraph writing. This included informal outlines, thesis statements, topic sentences, transitions, elaboration, and conclusions. I’d even found time to have the group stretch paragraphs into reports and essays.

At 12:15, when we broke for lunch, the room emptied quickly except for one young man. He’d stayed to tell me that as an undergraduate student he had not written any of his own papers – for any of his classes. Instead, he had exchanged his talent with technology for help with writing. While others wrote his papers, he designed computer projects for them.

Now in his second year as a teacher, he managed technology for the school, taught computer classes, and directed the writing lab. Yes, it was his job to help sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students complete writing assignments from language arts, science, social studies, and a variety of elective classes.

“If I had known all of the strategies you taught this morning, I would not have needed writing help from anyone in college. I could have done the work myself. I knew the content, I wanted to get it done, but I didn’t know how to start or where to go once I started,” he told me.

He called the strategies amazing.

But I thought he was amazing.

He said what so many of us know: some students (even high school graduates who go on to college) are not learning to write.

Writing every day in all subjects would prevent this. Learning and applying specific strategies for a variety of writing tasks would prepare all students for careers and college courses.

We Are Using Your Stuff

On another occasion, as I was walking to the school parking lot that our middle school shared with the high school, a former student called out to get my attention. I remembered this student from seventh and eighth grade. Now he was just about ready to graduate.

With some enthusiasm, he told me that he and four of his friends had stayed late to work on a senior project. His friends were also former students of mine. “I just wanted to tell you that we are all still using the stuff you taught us in middle school. It’s making everything easy. We were all just talking about this.”

The “stuff” my former student remembered was the collection of strategies I list in the story above.

It, of course, made my day – hearing his message and enjoying his enthusiasm.

I don’t get all the credit for the success these students experienced. They remembered my classes, but they probably also know that their science, social studies, health and wellness, math, and electives teachers taught and reinforced these skills in their classes.

When students learn skills for reading and writing and then apply them in all subject areas, the skills become automatic—like being able to ride a bike or dive off the diving board.

Many of my middle school colleagues joined me and other language arts teachers as we promoted writing across content areas. Practice makes perfect. A little bit of writing in every class makes all the difference. In fact, for some middle school students, writing in science or social studies, history or health, is a lot more interesting than writing about literature.

The technology teacher in the story above left my workshop with a handful of practical strategies. It was obvious that he had the will and the talent to begin using them. But the challenge he left for me – and for all of us – was to look for ways to promote direct, explicit instruction for the academic skills students need. No one should have to repeat the college experience this man had with writing.

In Step Up to Writing I list these skills and share strategies, lessons, and examples hoping that more teachers from all disciplines will join me.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this EdView360 blog series to hear more about identifying important writing skills and using strategies to ensure that these skills are mastered. In the meantime, check out some tips and tools for transitioning students from opinion to argument writing from the Grades 6-8 band of the new edition of Step Up to Writing, a systematic K-12 program that breaks the entire writing process into smaller steps for all types of compositions.

Do you have questions about teaching writing or want to share your own tips with your colleagues? Please share your thoughts in the Comment field below.