What does it take to make a student into a skilled writer?

Through a discussion with a colleague, I began to wonder what it takes to take a high school student who is not a skilled writer and turn them into one.  My colleague (who is not a writing teacher) was going from the assumption that a student could be made into a "good" writer in the matter of one school year.

I really disagree.  It takes years for teenagers who are not skilled writers to be turned into them.  Many people - especially those who are not English teachers (and many English teachers) - assume that students should already be able to be "good" writers at this age and that they just aren't doing it.  In reality, writing is a set of skills that many students just don't have - either because they didn't have literate childhoods at home or they haven't been taught properly.  Either way, they are at a deficit by the time they reach us in high school.

After 8 or more years of inadequate writing instruction, it takes more than 10 months to fix it.  It takes years and, sadly, many students who come to high school with a large deficit will be leaving with a deficit simply because they started the race 10 miles behind the starting line.  That's not to say that the deficit can't be lessened, but you cannot completely undo 8 years of bad writing instruction and a lifetime of inadequate literacy experiences  in 4 years.  It simply isn't possible.

This isn't even taking into consideration that much of the writing instruction that our students are exposed to is actually preventing them from becoming good writers. This is writing instruction that demands what students should put in each paragraph or (even worse) what goes in each sentence.  This doesn't teach students how to make choices as a writer, but rather to fill in the blanks.  Then, when those students are confronted with a task which is not fill-in-the-blanks - which they inevitably will on standardized tests, in college, and in the workplace - they don't know what to do.  Yes, they filled in the blanks with utter perfection, but they did not learn how to be writers.

We should, of course, aim to help all of our students make steps forward in their writing as much as possible.  Just because the task is difficult, doesn't mean we shouldn't set out to accomplish it.  The goal is to have students leave high school better writers than when they came in, even if they still don't fit our ideal.

What is needed to do that and correct the situation to begin with is a strong writing program from early childhood to late adolescence.  Every year, most students have to "re-learn" how to write because they have a different teacher who has different methods and different expectations of what good writing is.  This adjustment period means that students are not moving forward and it is often the case that they are moving back. 

Having consistent instruction from K-12 is ideal, but even having it in the steps in between - on the school level - would help.  Schools need to think about having writing programs - assessing what their students can do when they enroll and deciding what they want them to be able to do by the time they leave.  Plans and strategies need to be developed so that the transition from one teacher to another is seamless.  From year to year, the teachers must build upon skills worked on in the previous years. 

If we want students to become better writers, we need to understand what it takes to become a better writer - it takes sustained practice over a long period of time.

Comments

[Dana Huff]

Are you familiar with the Collins Writing Program? I wrote about that approach today, and I'd be interested in your take.

[Charles Kim]

Hi Tim. This is Charles Kim, your former student from last fall's method's seminar at NYU. This blog is really amazing and insightful. I look forward to reading it as you post more entries.

BTW, Jen Dryer, is my literacy coach at M.S. 167, where I am teaching 6th graders.

Take care.

Sincerely,
Charles

[mrsizer]

the assumption that a student could be made into a "good" writer in the matter of one school year.

Eeek! That's certainly not possible.

There are many definitions of "good" writing but I think it has to start with grammar. I was woefully shortchanged in English grammar. Thankfully, three years of Latin fixed that.

Grammar is not easy, though. It's, like, totally boring, and, like, difficult when, ya' know, you can't speak properly.

My, totally impractical, suggestion: Give oral exams and fail everyone who can't speak. Once speech patterns and writing patterns become synchronized, writing becomes much easier.

[Waterfall]

So true. I teach a composition class to high-school juniors and seniors who have never received any official writing instruction and, worse, did not have good, sound instruction in basic grammar in their elementary years. It is a challenge because these kids are otherwise good students; they are (some of them) very discouraged that they aren't good writers, and that a few hours of work here and there won't necessarily make them good writers.

I use the "sports" illustration a lot, telling them that no one is "good" at a sport the first time they set foot on the field or court, and that it may take years of dedicated practice before they truly become "good" at it. That's not what they want to hear, but it's the way it is.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get them to realize the value of revising--and not to see "revision" as "punish work." That's a whole new challenge in itself!

[Mr. McNamar]

I teach 9th grade English and 12th grade English. I am amazed at how little the 9th graders understand about basic grammar and how to construct a sentence. I am also amazed that after three years of high school, far too many of my 12th graders still lack that skill.
You are right, it is a system wide problem. Somewhere we got away from teaching the boring stuff that matters most.

[Tim Fredrick]

Please don't get me wrong.

I don't think the answer to our students' writing problems is more grammar instruction. Our students could have perfect grammar but still be horrible writers. You can have a paper that is grammatically perfect but that lacks any kind of organization, development, and voice.

A "return to grammar" is NOT the key to making our students better writers - it is the key to further disenfranchising them from the writing classroom.

I'm not saying that grammar doesn't have its place, but it is not what is going to make our students better writers.

What will? Teaching them that they have something important to say and giving them the opportunities and tools to say it in the way that makes sense to them. Students need to learn how to develop their ideas during brainstorming and go back and improve their writing through revision. They need to learn that just because you've written something once, does not mean that it is set in stone. So many students have anxiety about writing because they think it has to be perfect right off the bat and they've learned this through too much back-to-basics grammar instruction.