Secret to teaching writing
Ancient formula newly discovered

When I began teaching writing, I wasn't a certified English teacher. Thirty+ years later, I'm still not a certified English teacher, but a long line of students learned to write in my classes.

You don't need credentials from a government agency to to help students learn to write. Whether you teach in a public school, a private school, or home school, you can teach writing.

The secret to teaching writing is printed in thousands of research articles and books.

So how come it’s still a secret?

Because many teachers are still looking for a way of teaching writing that’s easy, fast, and fun. (They also want thin thighs in 30 days without diet or exercise.)

Do one thing well.

There is no easy, fast, fun way to turn out high school graduates with the writing skills required by colleges and employers. But there is a simple way to assure writing skills:

In theory, it wouldn't matter if you taught students to write advertising copy or science fiction. In practical terms, however, one writing genre is far superior to all others as a teaching medium. That expository writing genre, known by the misleading name of the persuasive essay, is

• Repetitive

• Formulaic

• Dull

• Uncreative

Those qualities, which horrify English teachers, make perusasive writing work beautifully for kids who have

• No talent for writing

• No interest in writing

• No motivation for writing

That's a description of 80% of the students who passed through my classes.

Make all students competent writers

Don't get me wrong. I've had some really talented writers. But none of them wanted to be writers. The folks in my classes wanted to be elementary teachers, accountants, nurses, or forest rangers.

Yet all of my students, regardless of intelligence, talent, or motivation had to learn to write competently. Writing competence is a requirement for college and the workplace.

So I taught them.

In teaching them, I learned that everybody who can get into school can learn to write competently. Some may take much longer than others. Some take more work than others. But every student can become a competent writer.

Competent doesn't mean dumb

Teaching for competence is not a dumbing down of curriculum. Competence is a far higher standard than merely passing.

And aiming for competence doesn't hold back students with aptitude or motivation. Students have to know enough to earn a C before they can earn an A; teaching for competence actually lets the "good students" accelerate.

Sound too good to be true? It might be, except for one thing: students.

You may want to help students learn to write and they may not want to be helped. It happens.

Individualize instruction

At some point, your most carefully prepared curriculum will come up against some student who just doesn't get it.

That means you can't just present instructional materials. You have to teach.

Stick around. I’ll give you some tips to make teaching writing a little easier for you and your students.

Speaking of making things easier....

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