Verrinda's response to: "What is Happening in the Teaching of Writing?"

Appleebee and Langer article looks into the instruction of  writing due to the heavy emphasis that the NCLB placed upon reading and literacy. It appears with the majority of the focus being placed upon reading,  while writing seems to be taking a back seat to things. When NAEP conducted their research they found that a higher percentage of students were basic writers in middle school, but as they progressed to high school, the number of basic writers decreased, and the number of proficient writers decreased drastically. The NAEP also found that African American students became better writers the older they became, while Hispanic students did not. Through my years of teaching experience, I had the opposite occur. The middle school students were better writers than my high school students. In middle school there is a heavy emphasis upon grammar, and essay writing. By the time students reach high school, teachers expect them to have already acquired this knowledge, so they do not continue with grammar and essay lessons. As a matter of fact, the content expectations does not focus largely upon grammar and the process of essay writing. It is expected that the student is to write research papers and essays without the teacher taking the time to instruct students on grammar and essay writing.

The article also discussed the trend of writing across the curriculum, writing with standardized tests, and applying technology to writing. The theory is that by doubling the time that a student writes and having a student write in every subject enables them to become a better writer. A better or proficient writer is described as a student that by their 12th grade year is able to: "produce an effectively organized and fully developed response within the time allowed (the specific amount of allotted time has varied in recent years from 15 to 50 minutes) that uses analytical, evaluative, or creative thinking. Their writing should include details that support and develop the main idea of the piece, and it should show that these students are able to use precise language and variety in sentence structure to engage the audience they are expected to address." (pg 19, Applebee and Langer) I agree and disagree with the belief that doubling the time that a student writes and having them write across the curriculum helps them to become better writers. If there is not a rubric set in place for writing across the curriculum and proper instruction in each subject concerning this, I do not believe students will become better writers. If students are not receiving immediate feedback on their writing and provided with proper assessments their writing skills will not increase. A student can continuously use the same grammar errors, incorrect sentence, paragraph, and essay structure if it is not caught in enough time before they start their next writing piece. Another conflict that surfaces here is appointing a teacher to be responsible for correcting the writing pieces. If the responsibility is placed upon the student's English teacher, that English teacher has his or her workload tripled.