Travis Dalsis—Response to “What’s Happening in the Teaching of Writing?”

This article provides an assortment of quantitative data that is helpful for grasping a picture of how writing in the U.S. has developed over the past thirty years.  The big questions this article seeks to answer are: 1) Where is the emphasis on writing and how does our emphasis within the framework of our curriculum affect standardized test results?  2) Since 1971, what has happened in terms of proficiency in writing?  3) Has there been an increase in frequency, length, and types of writing students are asked to do since NAEP’s initial study?

This article read like a statistical report card emphasizing that writing has been curtailed by reading and high stakes tests.  An interesting point made is that there is a disparity between high stakes on-demand writing forms of assessment and the process oriented take your time to construction meaning model of teaching of writing.  How can we expect students to create a meaningful piece of work that can be scored at a high level when the focus in our classroom instruction is NOT on demand writing?  Classes are geared towards collaboration and process that takes time, thought, and revisiting which leads to revising of a piece of writing.  I am frustrated with the obvious (I think it’s obvious) dichotomy here!

One more interesting argument made is also what students say they do and what they actually do on standardized writing assessments.  It’s not an excuse for NOT teaching writing, but how can teachers be held accountable for student laziness on assessments?  I’ve noticed this with my students as seventh graders last school year when they were taking the MEAP test.  Many of them wanted to just write instead of using a strategy to plan ideas and use the blank space in the test booklet to plan and draft.  Unfortunately, I cannot go into my students’ body and MAKE them do what they are supposed to do.  The only plausible answer in my mind is to look at the assumptions I make about teaching not only strategies but the importance of them in writing.  Students need to develop a value for planning and drafting.  They need to know that these are integral steps to creating an acceptable piece of writing.  Perhaps more professional conversations need to be geared towards the overarching theme of autonomy and ownership in education.