Writing instruction may have fallen by the wayside during the No Child Left Behind Act era, as teachers zeroed in on teaching math and reading.
But now, with most states using the Common Core State Standards, students are expected to write a lot more鈥攁nd to write better.
The standards include detailed writing expectations that go well beyond previous state requirements. Specifically, they call for proficiency in argumentative, explanatory, and narrative writing that draw connections from and between texts.
A noticeable uptick of writing in schools has taken place as most states have implemented the standards, said Tanya Baker, the director of national programs at the National Writing Project, citing anecdotal evidence since there isn鈥檛 a way to track the exact amount of writing occurring in classrooms.
Still, for the most part, educators say students aren鈥檛 writing as much as the standards require.
鈥淜ids are writing single paragraphs. It鈥檚 so far from where we want for young people to be college- or career-ready,鈥� Baker said. 鈥淭he baseline has moved, but it鈥檚 still pretty far from what we want to see.鈥�
An Education Trust study published last fall analyzed 1,500 student assignments from a two-week period at six urban middle schools and found that fewer than 1 in 10 assignments required multiple paragraphs of writing. Just 4 in 10 assignments were aligned with the grade-appropriate standard, and 16 percent required students to cite evidence from the text, which is a key component of the common core.
Joan Dabrowski, an education consultant who was the lead literacy adviser for the organization鈥檚 literacy-assignment analysis, said students across the country still aren鈥檛 doing enough writing, and what they are doing is rarely the kind of multiparagraph, evidence-based writing that is promoted in college- and career-ready standards.
Despite that discrepancy, the new common-core-aligned assessments place a greater weight on student writing. The new English assessments are more sensitive to instructional differences among teachers, especially in the middle grades, than the old tests were, found a study by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University that was released earlier this year.
Since the past assessments focused more on reading comprehension, the new assessments should encourage teachers to emphasize writing in their classrooms, the study concluded. There needs to be more research done to identify effective interventions to help teachers with writing instruction, the researchers added.
鈥淚f students are writing often and understanding where they are as a writer, ... the test will take care of itself,鈥� said Carol Jago, the associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a past president of the National Council of Teachers of English.
鈥淔luency does matter,鈥� Dabrowski echoed. 鈥淚t matters tremendously.鈥�
So why aren鈥檛 students writing? Experts cite several reasons.
鈥楬ungry for Guidance鈥�
鈥淭eachers want to teach more writing,鈥� Jago said. 鈥淭hey know it鈥檚 important. They believe in it.鈥�
But they don鈥檛 always have the support or direction available to properly teach the sort of in-depth writing now expected of students.
At the beginning of the common-core implementation, the National Writing Project鈥檚 Baker said, it became clear that there were veteran teachers who had no practice in teaching the kind of writing, particularly argumentative writing, that the standards call for.
The project has tried to respond to that need with online professional-development courses, resources for teachers, and an online community of practice where teachers can connect and discuss the new expectations of writing instruction.
鈥淭eachers are hungry for guidance,鈥� said Dabrowski, who talked to teachers about writing instruction during the Education Trust鈥檚 literary-assignment analysis. They want examples of lessons that meet the standards, she said.
In common-core states, several recent surveys have found nearly all language arts teachers are at least somewhat reliant on materials they鈥檝e developed or selected themselves.
But as high school teacher and common-core consultant Sargy Letuchy said, it is relatively easy to find examples of assignments, but it鈥檚 harder, especially in the upper grades, to find materials that show how to teach the English/language arts standards, particularly the sub standards for each writing style.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like being asked to run a marathon without proper equipment and training,鈥� he said.
Letuchy, who is an English as a Second Language teacher at Bolingbrook High School in Illinois, has developed a workshop for teachers about writing instruction with the common core. Teachers have told him they feel unequipped to meet the level of rigor now expected in the common core, he said, compelling him to write a book, 鈥淭he Visual Edge,鈥� with visual instructional tools for teaching the grades 6-12 standards.
Never Enough Time
鈥淭he real challenge is teaching writing with more quantity and rigor in the same amount of school days,鈥� Letuchy said.
With all the competing demands on teachers鈥� time, Dabrowski said there is a limited amount of writing time afforded to students, particularly blocks of uninterrupted time, which can be the most effective for practice.
Dabrowski said she鈥檚 heard from many teachers that they want guidance on how to best use their time, which is often highly structured.
District-encouraged curricular scripts often include warm-up and wrap-up activities that 鈥渃hisel away 10 to 12 minutes at each end鈥� of class, she said.
鈥淲hen are kids actually being allowed to practice [writing]? Writers need a solid block of time to get into their writing,鈥� Dabrowski said. 鈥淚 think the work of writing ... it ebbs and flows. If [students are] only given short little snippets of time, we have some structures in place that are misaligned with the common core.鈥�
Letuchy said it goes back to the need for more guidance: Many teachers need instructional and curriculum coaching on a consistent basis to teach writing in a way that is aligned with the standards.
And teachers need support: 鈥淢any of the best practices [in writing instruction] come crashing down around what鈥檚 possible,鈥� UCLA鈥檚 Jago said.
Large class sizes are perhaps the biggest obstacle, she said, noting that teachers who have 40 students in each of their five classes can鈥檛 grade 200 papers every day.
鈥淪tudents need to write much more than any teacher could possibly read,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here are some responsible ways of dealing with that鈥攖he irresponsible way is not assigning writing.鈥�
Instead, Jago said, students could assess their own writing and give the teacher their best work to read, along with a written explanation of why they thought that piece of writing was worthy. Or students could share their work in small groups and have the group select the best piece of writing and explain why.
鈥淭eachers need to figure out how to multiply themselves,鈥� Jago said. 鈥淭he only audience for a piece of writing shouldn鈥檛 be the teacher.鈥�
