Welcome to…

What’s Next in the Teaching of Writing?

August 8, 2006

Presentation by Judy Buchanan and Elyse Eidman-AadahlNational Writing Project

Let’s see who is in the room…

Goals of the session

To look at the call for ‘intensive writing’ as part of a comprehensive literacy program for adolescents

To speculate about three emerging directions for secondary writing programs

To give you a chance to reflect on what this might mean for your teaching and curriculum

To connect you with colleagues through the Oregon writing project sites who can think with you and your staff about what’s next in the teaching of writing

But first, a word about the National Writing Project

…and the Oregon writing project sites in particular

National Writing Project Sites

Oregon Sites

Oregon WP at Eastern Oregon UniversityEastern Oregon University, La Grande

http://www.eou.edu/owp

Oregon WP at Lewis and Clark CollegeLewis and Clark College, Portland

http://www.lclark.edu/dept/nwi/owp.html

Oregon WP at Southern Oregon UniversitySouthern Oregon University, Ashland

http://www.souwritingproject.org

Oregon WP at the University of OregonUniversity of Oregon, Eugene

http://owp.uoregon.edu

Oregon WP at Willamette UniversityWillamette University, Salemhttp://www.willamette.org/owp

Site List

What goes on at a writing project site?

Invitational Summer Institute

Special topics institutes, conferences, continuity meetings, teacher-research groups, etc.

Professional development offerings for schools and districts

We’ll come back to the NWP and the Oregon writing project sites at the end

Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and

High School Literacy

Key Elements in Programs Designed to Improve Adolescent Literacy

Achievement in Middle and High Schools

http://www.all4ed.org/publications/ReadingNext/

The 15 Key Elements

Infrastructure Improvements Extended time for literacy Professional development Ongoing summative assessment of

students and programs Teacher teams Leadership A comprehensive and coordinated

literacy program

Instructional Improvements Direct, explicit comprehension

instruction Effective instructional principles

embedded in content Motivation and self-directed learning Text-based collaborative learning Strategic tutoring Diverse texts A technology component Ongoing formative assessment of

students

Intensive writing

That’s because literacy is about…

doing things with written language:reading, and writing.

It rests on the foundation of how we do things with language itself:

speaking and listening,image and sound.

As Donald Graves used to say:

Writers write

reading…

Readers read

writing…

What’s next? #1

Greater emphasis and attention to writing overall

Recent examples…

Commission on Writing http://www.writingcommission.org

National Panel on Second Language Learners http://www.cal.org/natl-lit-panel/reports/Executive_Summary.pdf

New SAT and ACT tests with writing samples http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/about/sat/writing.htmlhttp://www.act.org/aap/writing/index.html

Emerging interest in students as writers in a digital world

And our own survey of public opinion demonstrates that the American public wants more attention paid to writing

Nearly 7 in 10 Americans (69%) believe writing should be taught across all subjects and grade levels

The majority of Americans agree that learning to write well helps students perform in all subjects and improves students’ standardized test scores

Helping teachers teach writing is a priority for most Americans

A goal of the NWP is to place a writing project site within reach of every teacher in the country.

There are currently 195 writing project sites which serve over 135,000 teachers per year.

http://www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/print/nwpr/2300

http://www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/print/nwpr/922

Recommendations from Writing and School Reform, by the Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges (pp. 28-29)

Perseverance: Improvement is slow, incremental, and builds on itself

Practice-Based Inquiry: Develop and test practical frameworks for improving the teaching and learning of writing in the classroom

Public Engagement: Ensure that legislators, administrators, educators, and the public understand the importance of writing and how it fits into the reform agenda

Partnerships: Establish partnerships with other school and community organizations and with higher education

http://www.writingcommission.org/

What’s next? #2

Greater emphasis on texts at work in the world

National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2011–2020

Directive to assess writing with a view toward Postsecondary Preparedness: The NAEP in Writing should assess skills recent high school graduates need to meet postsecondary expectations for writing…

Comments from post-secondary stakeholders: “We took a careful look at what writing students were

expected to do at our university. Two-thirds of the assignments were either about analyzing information or argument or synthesizing information from several sources. They needed to articulate a thesis or position, assess and use evidence, and consider and incorporate counter arguments. Of course we want them to be able to plan, draft and revise and to write correctly. But the point of the planning and the revising is to make a strong argument.”

Postsecondary Expectations for WritingKinds of writing recent high school graduates are expected to do in postsecondary education:

Persuasive essays or position papers

Analysis of literature, of problems, of issues, etc.

Research papers and critiques of research

Reports and summaries

Journals and personal essays

Creative writing (e.g., fiction, parodies)

And increasingly these are multimedia products

Comments from post-secondary stakeholders:

“Sure, we want our employees to write clearly and correctly. That’s the bottom line in being understood. But the real concern is with getting a clear, concise analysis of a problem or a situation with thoughtful recommendations about what can be done. It’s all about leading to action for us.”

Comments from post-secondary stakeholders:

“Employees in the military write all the time if you count up the bits in the stream of e-mail, memos, reports, etc. They have to be clear, direct, unambiguous. And the thinking behind them has to be very, very careful. One thing the military will teach you is that lives really do ride on what you write and how you write it.”

Kinds of writing recent high school graduates are expected to do in the workplace and military:

Emails and memos (e.g., announcements, agendas and programs, recommendations)

Letters (e.g., application letters, letters of complaint, thank you letters, letters of request, customer service responses)

Reports (e.g., sales reports, meeting minutes, accident/injury reports, performance reports, maintenance reports)

Proposals (e.g., detailed project plans for proposals for problem solving, work plans to organize tasks)

Manuals (e.g., employee policies or instructions)

Summaries (e.g., trip, interview and meeting summaries)

Other (e.g., advertisements, news releases, newsletters, brochures/flyers, job descriptions)

Postsecondary Expectations for Writing

This move toward “texts at work in the world” is behind the renewed attention to:

Audience and purpose Genre as a focus of direct teaching Subject-specific writing and writing in the

disciplines Writing in the context of problem/project-based

learning Writing connected to service learning,

community outreach, youth leadership Publishing and digital dissemination projects

Let’s take a look at an example from the most recent NAEP

Find the handout showing the newspaper article: “Studies Show Students Need To Sleep Late: Night Owls Versus Early Birds”

Take a few minutes to study this actual NAEP prompt. Then, talk with your neighbor about how you would approach this task if you were the writer and had to respond to the task in 25 minutes — the time frame for a NAEP response.

Actual NAEP prompt used in 2005 NAEP Writing Assessment: Prompt: “Imagine that the article shown on the

next slide appeared in your local newspaper. Read the article carefully, then write a letter to your principal arguing for or against the proposition that classes at your school should begin and end much later in the day. Be sure to give detailed reasons to support your argument and make it convincing.”

Studies Show Students Need to Sleep LateNight Owls Versus Early Birds

The Journal of Medicine announced today the results of several recent studies on the sleep patterns of teenagers and adults. These studies show that adults and teenagers often have different kinds of sleep patterns because they are at different stages in the human growth cycle.

The study on teenagers’ sleep patterns showed that changes in teenagers’ growth hormones are related to sleeping patterns. In general, teenagers’ energy levels are at their lowest in the morning, between 9 a.m. and 12 noon. To make the most of students’ attention span and ability to learn, the study showed that most teenagers need to stay up late at night and to sleep late in the morning. They called this pattern “the night owl syndrome.”

Studies of adults (over 30 years of age) showed the opposite sleep pattern. On average, adults’ energy levels were at their lowest at night between 9 p.m. and 12 midnight and at their highest between 6 and 9 a.m. In addition, a study of adults of different ages revealed that as adults get older they seem to wake up earlier in the morning. Thus, adults need to go to sleep earlier in the evening. Researchers called this sleep pattern “the early bird syndrome.”

Researchers claim that these studies should be reviewed by all school systems and appropriate changes should be made to the daily school schedule.

If you were to do the prompt for real, (not for a test) you would need to: Look carefully at the research

Study the sociological and cultural implications

Conduct focus-groups with stakeholders in the community

Examine the financial impacts

Come to a reasoned and defensible recommendation

Write numerous ‘texts’ to explain and argue for the position to be delivered in varying occasions and to diverse audiences

What’s next? #3

Making it real! The attention to writing, and to adolescent

literacy more generally, connects to the interest in reforming our high schools and middle schools to be more engaging, demanding, significant places for young people to do meaningful work.

So, if we are to make this an ambitious moment, what does that mean for us as teachers and administrators?

One thing it may mean is that we need the support of colleagues who share our ambitions and our commitments to students.

Oregon Sites

Oregon WP at Eastern Oregon UniversityEastern Oregon University, La Grande

http://www.eou.edu/owp

Oregon WP at Lewis and Clark CollegeLewis and Clark College, Portland

http://www.lclark.edu/dept/nwi/owp.html

Oregon WP at Southern Oregon UniversitySouthern Oregon University, Ashland

http://www.souwritingproject.org

Oregon WP at the University of OregonUniversity of Oregon, Eugene

http://owp.uoregon.edu

Oregon WP at Willamette UniversityWillamette University, Salemhttp://www.willamette.org/owp

Site List

For more information, visit

www.writingproject.org

August 8, 2006Judy Buchanan and Elyse Eidman-Aadahl

National Writing ProjectUniversity of California

2105 Bancroft Way #1042Berkeley, CA 94720

510-642-0963