Why Writing Lessons Aren’t Working
No doubt, you’re one of the millions of teachers navigating a scripted program. For many, myself included, this is a very big shift. It comes with pros and cons, for sure. Sure, they come with done-for-you writing lessons, charts, and slides to reduce teacher prep. Some, if you’re lucky, also include some sort of exemplar that is meant to be used as the guide for your writing instruction.
All of these things can be very helpful. Some of these resources will need modification, certainly. But they still give us a starting point. It’s a little less we have to come up with from scratch, which is always a win.
And yet, teachers can feel like they’re floundering. How do we get kids from where they are now to a point where their written work is closer to the exemplar? How, when students may still struggle to plan their writing or write a complete, coherent sentence or even include periods, can our students possibly get to the sort of perfectly structured, grammatically correct, well-crafted writing the program writers tell us is the goal?
Here’s how.
You use the provided exemplar in the writing lesson differently.
The biggest problem with the way many programs use exemplars is that they treat them like nothing more than a magic trick. The teacher is to display the example and essentially say, “Ta-da! This is the goal. Your turn–produce this!”
But writing doesn’t work that way. That’s not teaching.
Teaching involves so much more.
Strong writing isn’t something students can reverse-engineer just by looking at a finished piece. They need to see how to actually get there.
When it comes to writing instruction and what that “more” is, there are several gurus we can always count on. Steve Graham is one. Since at least the early 1980s, Graham has studied what makes effective writing instruction, and is one of the biggest names in that field of study. He gives several recommendations that are all very important for teaching writing, which you can check out here.
Let’s just focus on two of the recommendations:
- Increase students’ knowledge about writing
- Help students become strategic writers
Both of these elements of strong writing instruction are what’s usually missing in programs. Slides that show already-finished examples in which the teacher explains some of it are only a part of the picture. An important one, to be sure, but only part.
As well, lessons that only tell what to write (Write an introduction! Use descriptive words! Revise your work!) but don’t get into what these moves actually entail to make writing stronger are only a start.
If we’re to do what Graham asks us to do: increase students’ knowledge about writing and help them become strategic, then we are wise to heed the advice of another writing guru, Ralph Fletcher. In his Guidelines for Nurturing Strong Writers, Fletcher reminds us that it’s important to “walk the walk: let students see you write.”
This is the missing piece.
Walking the walk is exactly how we get kids from where they are to where we want them to be.
The way most programs approach it, writing is nothing more than an optical illusion for our students. Kids can’t just look at an example and magically make their work as strong as the model. We must show them how.
Just as with almost every reading program, we have to add our own knowledge of students and pedagogy to the mix–rarely will the lessons land as is, straight out of the box.
For writing lessons, instead of just showing kids the model, we show them how to get to the model.
We do this by first examining it to ask ourselves what elements in it our kids are ready (or need) to learn to do. This means really knowing where they are, so we don’t terribly overshoot and cause complete frustration. Too many programs out there today assume that kids are already writing at very high levels, but this is often not the reality.
Sometimes (well, lots of times), this also means we need to modify the model. Or better yet, create our own, using the given model as a guide. There are simple ways to create your own model if it’s new to you, which I talk about in this post.
It also means knowing what your state standards are really asking, and breaking those standards up into manageable, bite-sized chunks across the course of a year. This might well also mean that some of the provided lessons aren’t needed at all and should be swapped for something that is. And it means being ok with kids getting closer to the model, not necessarily exactly like it. Aiming for kids’ writing to be exactly like the model will often lead to overscaffolding.
From there, you’ll know where the program’s lessons are lacking, and can better fill in writing lessons that your students truly need to support their growth as writers.
What most programs leave out isn’t another slide or another worksheet. There’s plenty of that.
What they leave out is the thinking of the writer.
That’s where you come in. That’s the “abracadabra.”
When you think aloud, draft in front of students, revise your own sentences, and consider word choice, you pull back the curtain on the writing process. You show students that writing isn’t magic. It’s a series of decisions and trial and error. It’s kinda messy. But so, so rewarding.
The good news is, as Graham advises us to do, those decisions can be taught. This is how we increase students’ knowledge about writing and help them become strategic.
The program might give you the model. But it takes a knowledgeable teacher to show students how a writer actually gets there.
Examples show students what writing looks like. Teachers show them how writing happens.
That’s the difference between writing lessons that simply tell and writing lessons that actually teach students how.
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Who is Coach from the Couch?? I’m Michelle, a 25+ year veteran educator, currently a K-5 literacy coach. I continue to learn alongside teachers in classrooms each and every day, and it’s my mission to support as many teachers as I can, because no one can do this work alone. Through virtual coaching calls, I’m available to you, too. I absolutely love working with teachers around the country to solve their literacy puzzles! Simply email me at michelle@coachfromthecouch.com or reach out for a coaching call!
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