logo for you-can-teach-writing.com
sp
Home : Best practices : Make all competent

All students learn writing skills
When best teaching practices are used

All students must learn writing skills. The true measure of a writing teacher's work is how well the entire class writes. Achievements of few writing stars can conceal a teacher's incompetence.

That, however, is not the popular view.

Student bored with homeworkIf you are teaching public school, unless three-quarters of your English language arts students take AP English, participate in poetry jams, or publish their first novels before their junior prom, you're made to feel you are just another cog in the educational machine.

Homeschooling parents aren't entirely immune from the writing stars syndrome, either. If her kids struggle with writing, people subtly let the homeschooling mom know there must be something wrong with her.

Let's be realistic here.

Those bright, motivated kids can (and do) learn writing skills all by themselves regardless of how far short you may fall in the best teaching practices department.

Few students have star quality.

The real challenge is teaching the typical talentless kids without any interest in writing.

Remember the old story about the bank robber who, when asked why he robbed banks, said, "Because that's where the money is"?

Well, the reason writing teachers need to focus their attention on average kids who couldn't care less about writing is that they are the majority of students, vastly outnumbering the learning disabled.

There are other reasons to focus on average kids.

Competence is a requirement

For one thing, colleges expect the same basic writing skills of all students, whether those students are going into forensic science or accounting or planning to be the next poet laureate of the United States.

Similarly, employers expect all students to learn writing skills before they start work — whether they are coming into the management training program or working on the factory floor.

Neither colleges nor employers will be impressed by a high school graduates' accomplishments in poetry or fiction if they can't write a paragraph in which sentences start with capital letters and words of five or fewer letters are correctly spelled.

Basics are the starting point

-------- ADVERTISE HERE-------

Sell goods or services to You-Can-Teach-Writing visitors here in the space of a Tweet. OnlineAdvertisingInfo

Good English teachers insist that equipping students with just the basics isn't enough.

I agree.

You ought to teach students more than just basic literacy skills. Go as far beyond the basics as your students' abilities and interests (and your endurance) will allow.

Every student must learn writing skills and achieve writing competence.

Linda Aragoni

Your real job

Don't confuse teaching curriculum with your real job: helping students learn the ideas, processes, and skills of your content area.

Linda

Linda Aragoni

 

Photo Credit:
Bored with Homework
by Melodi2

 

Published 13-Mar-2008; updated: 15-Jun-2010
Ever wish you were twins?

Talk It Out is the next best thing. Hand students the Talk It Out questions and let them help each other plan well-supported essays. Details.

Retire To Something
Visitors to You-Can-Teach-Writing make comments

Teaching may
not be so hard

I just spent the past two hours pouring over the information on your website. Although I'll need more time to mentally digest everything, I'm starting to look at teaching writing differently. I'm beginning to feel as though teaching the writing process might be ... easier than I had originally thought.

Thank you for taking the time to create such an informative website.

~ Tonya