8 THE RIGHT TO GO BEYOND FORMULA

I have to admit that I was involved in promoting the 5-paragraph essay as a way of helping teachers prepare their students for our state writing test.  In addition to suggesting the hamburger analogy, we (writing project consultants) also recommended the train as a way to help students understand the necessary components of an effective essay.  These were ways to demonstrate the introductory paragraph (top bun/engine) that included the topic sentence; the developmental paragraphs (meat/cars), the connecting ideas (condiments/couplings), and the concluding paragraph (bottom bun/caboose).  In addition, the student could strengthen the writing with an attention-getter, much as the train’s whistle that signaled the train’s approach.  We were able to be quite creative!  

The problem that occurred was students/teachers relied so heavily on this formula because it was so easy to follow (and to correct) that we failed to help students develop more genuine ways of writing. We should have been instructing students in ways to go beyond this basic formula. Rarely do we find five paragraph writing in the real world, except in essay tests. We needed to spend more time helping them develop effective writing that depends on audience and purpose.  As Spandel shares, “The most important reason to avoid formula – indeed, to run from it as fast as our feet will carry us – is that it stifles higher thinking skills.” (p. 125, The 9 Rights of Every Writer)   

As they craft their pieces, writers should consider purpose, audience, and format. One way to investigate possible options is to do an activity such as RAFTSin class. Here’s a sample:

Role	Audience	Format	Topic	Strong Verb
student	administrator	action plan	school issue	persuade
(Who)	(Reader)	(Product)	(Focus)	(Purpose)

Create (instructor/students) multiple options and then mix and match possible writings. Such an activity should generate interesting possibilities and help to develop more authentic writing.

Throughout all writing various types of assessment occur – whether for class, school, state, college, etc., and these assessments all include the same features: clarity, focus, organization, development, conventions.  Often a rubric(a set of scoring criteria) is provided to explain the possible score, from below passing (1) to exemplary (5) so that students will know what is expected and how they will be evaluated.  In addition to the rubrics created by institutions, I liked to have my classes create their own rubrics for various assignments.  In addition to providing an exciting class discussion, the task of creating the rubric gave students a better understanding of the assignment’s components, and of what was expected.  

Writing that follows the five-paragraph formula tends to discourage voice.  I’m not certain the first time I heard about voice in writing – I know that it was well into my career as a teacher.  I certainly understood voice in music, but no one had introduced me to this component in writing until I became involved with the National Writing Project.  I knew that I found certain writing more effective and enjoyable than other writing, but I didn’t identify it as the voice in the writing. The writing assignments using the five-paragraph formula become virtually cookie-cutter pieces with little evidence of the writer (personal voice).  How refreshing it is to read a student’s creation that “sings” with clarity, focus, organization, development, and control of conventions.

Response to: THE RIGHT TO BE ASSESSED WELL

Yes, I agree with Spandel about her concerns with a writing test; however, having a test as a requirement for graduation in Minnesota did have several positives.  I think it was the first time in my teaching career that professional development (when districts could offer it ) focused on ways to improve the teaching of writing.  In my district we worked together to create rubrics for various writing assignments, as well as shared ideas/strategies for instructing.  We investigated writing from our classes and determined characteristics of strong to weak writing.  One activity that we used for such a task was RAG (read around groups).  In case you aren’t familiar with this activity, here is a quick overview:

1.    Code papers.

2.     Group participants and distribute collection of papers.

3.     Each participant receives one paper and reads for one minute (not necessary to complete

reading the entire paper, but long enough to get a strong feel for the paper).

4.     At signal, pass paper clockwise to next reader; repeat reading.

5.     End of reading, group determines which paper is “best.” (two minutes)

6.     Repeat with each group until all have read all papers.

Groups share which papers were identified as “best.” Why?  Discuss implications. This procedure can be used for a variety of purposes from determining scoring criteria to implications for future instruction.  I also used it in my writing classes to involve students in evaluating/focusing on different features of writing.

Looking back through my files when I was the Minnesota Writing Project Director, I discovered a letter written to the Commissioner of Education about the elimination of our state writing assessment.  I cited benefits that have occurred because of the state writing assessment: 

·     increased awareness of the importance of writing

·     more attention paid to the teaching of writing

·     better articulation of writing criteria

·     focus on staff development

·     more breadth of writing introduced and covered

·     improved writing program evaluation by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of writing instruction

and my hope that the department would

·     encourage districts to institute or maintain in-house writing assessment

o   offer strong staff development opportunities

o   provide opportunities to examine student work, to focus instruction, and to identify students who need more individual support

·     identify resources/agencies that can provide quality staff development 

o   to design and deliver writing instruction

o   to design writing assessments and conduct scoring

·     provide opportunities for districts to share ideas

Finally, I would recommend taking a look at the Position Statement on Assessing Writing (https://ncte.org/statement/teaching-writing/)published by NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English).  It begins with “(a)ssessment of writing involves complex, informed, human judgment” and includes several factors that teachers need to understand.

7 THE RIGHT TO BE ASSESSED WELL

"One thing that happens in an assessment-heavy environment is that inordinate amounts of time are devoted to preparing for 'the test.'"

From the moment I stepped into my large, public school district in 1992, the importance of testing to the writing curriculum became readily apparent. We had a writing test that needed to be passed before graduation. As a result, the test was given each year from 10th - 12th grade. Once passed, it was no longer necessary to take the test. Not passing the test could result in one being denied graduation.

The test was basic: a. Write a business letter complete with correctly formatted headings, salutations, spacing and closings. Errors needed to be minor in the body of the letter. b. Write a formal essay related to a prompt. Again, errors needed to be minor to pass. Both essays needed passing scores for graduation requirements to be complete. Students might pass on the essay and continue to fail on the business letter mainly because of formatting errors.

A few years later, a state test was developed and for a short time, students were required to take both tests with district graduation requirements still based on the district test. Gradually, we moved to only requiring passage of the state test for graduation. Again, it could be taken a number of times. Because of the competition between districts for numbers of students passing, teachers felt coerced into spending inordinate amounts of time teaching the format versus the content of a passing essay.

Today, there is no state or district writing test. What have we learned? Vicki Spandel carefully lays out the problems of writing tests in this chapter from The 9 Rights of Every Writer.  First, there are times when test preparation for writing becomes a curriculum unto itself. Second, test prep often doesn't honor the writing process. In other words, because they want their students to pass the test, teachers often resort to formulaic teaching of writing like the use of the 5 paragraph essay, and they never go beyond what is expected on the test. And, because test prep is formulaic, students often are denied the experience of the complete writing process.

Having spent countless hours on writing teams, grading writing tests, creating writing prompts and working with a variety of rubrics and teaching writing in the classroom, I have no easy solutions. Yes, it's important for students to know how to write a coherent essay, but do they all need to be in the same format? Where does idea development and the writing process come into play?

What is your experience with evaluating writing and helping students to grow as writers? How and when should we judge proficiency?

Additional reflection to THE RIGHT TO SEE OTHERS WRITE

Micki's post emphasized the significance of reading and its impact on our writing.  I strongly agree.  I can't imagine teaching writing without using books, magazines, newspapers, etc. as mentor texts.  We need to utilize all of the resources we have available.

Using a class novel as a mentor text is a definitely a great resource.  I have had students bring in favorite books (including children’s books) and identify passages that they felt were very effective to share in class. Another idea is to have students keep a journal of impressive passages they notice as they are reading the novel.  Becoming more cognizant of the effectiveness of professional authors’ (or colleagues’) techniques is another step toward improving our own writing.  

As students begin to share their writing, it can be simply in Pair/Share– just listen to my draft and share a reaction, such as what stood out to you or Say Back what you heard.  This method works well with younger/beginning writers.  As writers mature, more complex feedback can be required.  Sharing writing in conference groups (usually 4-5 students) definitely increases the opportunities for students to develop stronger writing.  However, in order to create effective conference groups, you need  to give students some guidance.   In looking through my files, I found some worksheets for peer response that might be helpful in preparing for conference group meetings.  Here is one I used:

1    Please give me feedback for the following questions I have about my writing.

                        Question #1     

                        Your feedback:

                        Question #2

                        Your feedback:

2    Underline those parts of my draft you especially liked, found effective, or found   memorable.  In the left hand margin next to each part underlined, briefly note why you underlined it.

Here is a reflection sheet for that process:

1     The single most helpful comment (written or oral) that I received was

2    As a result of the group feedback, I changed my draft in the following ways:

3     My conference group as a whole worked well in these areas:

4   My conference group as a whole had difficulty with:

The right to see others write should include seeing instructor’s writing as well as classmates’ writing and published authors’ writing.    

            

RESPONSE:

After reading Muriel's post, I started thinking about how I learned to write. I only had one speech class, and that was in eighth grade, so I know it wasn't then. In high school, we wrote many "themes," but I don't remember any instruction given other than an assigned topic.

I think I learned to write by being an avid reader. I was always reading so always had a story in my head. My favorite essays to write were expository, ones where I could describe in detail a personal experience. Summers at our lake cabin lived on my paper.

I tried to create the vividness of scenes from my favorite books. I think this is also the reason that I strongly advocate the use of mentor books for writing instruction. I wanted to describe and set scenes the way my favorite authors did. And I think it's an effective way for students to internalize qualities of good writing. By examining how authors/professional writers put together effective sentences and paragraphs, their own writing will improve.

You can use mentor pieces for any type of writing. For example, I love Gloria Anzaldua's essay on "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," which begins with a trip to the dentist.

"We're going to have to control your tongue," the dentist says, pulling out all the metal from my mouth. Silver bits plop and tinkle into the basin. My mouth is a
motherlode.·
The dentist is cleaning out my roots. I get a whiff of the stench when I gasp.
 "I can't cap that tooth yet, you're still draining," he says."We're going to have to do something about your tongue," I hear the anger rising in his voice. My tongue keeps pushing out the wads of cotton, pushing back the drills, the long thin needles. 
"I've never seen anything as strong or as stubborn," he says. And I think, how do you tame a wild tongue...

To use this as a mentor text, have students draft experiences of their own, and then give them copies of Anzaldua's piece and have them look at the length of the sentences and how she uses quotes, and how descriptive words like "plop" and "tinkle" add to a visual picture for the reader. After examining the essay, they would return to their own writing and adapt some of her style to their own piece. For older students, the entire essay may provide a model for how to take an experience and use it as a metaphor for something bigger in life.

If you are doing a whole class novel, perhaps after examining the style of the writer, students could try some writing on their own using that same style. If you haven't tried it yourself, I think you will be surprised at how effective this process is in improving the quality of a piece of writing. Let us know what you discover...

6 THE RIGHT TO SEE OTHERS WRITE

Last week during this difficult time for educators, I participated in a Zoom meeting Connecting the Network hosted by the Minnesota Writing Project.  It was/is an attempt to provide an avenue for sharing ideas.  I learned that MWP has created a blog https://mwpconnect.wordpress.com that provides another place to find support. I was also reminded of the great resources the National Writing Project; among these is nwp.org where I would recommend checking out The Latest. It will lead you to another useful blog where you can find more helpful ideas. 

How did I learn to teach writing?  As an English major, I, of course, wrote several papers during my college days; however, I didn’t have a specific course on the writing process – I do remember a rhetoric book that set up expectations for different types of writing (expository, argumentative, comparison/contrast, etc.) that we basically followed; however, I really think that I wrote the assigned essays around my understanding of what was needed in a speech.  I knew that an introduction needed to catch the reader’s attention, and I understood the organization of ideas.  I don’t remember meeting/sharing writing in any form of a conference group.  So when I began to teach, I basically had students writing the way that I wrote.  It wasn’t until I became involved with the National Writing Project that I began to gain understanding and resources for TEACHING writing.  

Being able to show our students our own writing process – from generating an idea to creating a final piece is invaluable.  How do you compose?  Do you use a computer or write by hand?  I admitted to my students that composing on the computer felt too final for me (of course over the years that feeling has changed). Also, I tend to be a “chunk” writer; I start and restart sections several times before I am confident enough to commit to one version.  I find that I need to take a break – go for a walk (compose in my head), listen to some music, etc.  In sharing my draft (s) with others, I am most comfortable if I can identify what I think works and where I need more help.  

My association with MWP (Minnesota Writing Project), an organization of K-College educators was extremely influential in providing support for using writing groups.  In summer institutes and ongoing workshops teachers worked together, sharing successes (and failures) in creating writing groups in their classrooms.  We discussed the advantages/disadvantages of writing groups that remained together throughout the entire course, as well as creating new groups for each aspect of the writing process (generating ideas, drafting, revising, etc.). We investigated the effectiveness of creating groups by interests, by gender, and also size of the group.  In our summer institutes our writing groups were a mix of teachers from different grade levels and school districts.  We discovered that we gained so much from each other’s writing process.  We returned to our classrooms more confident/comfortable to share our own writing and to use writing groups.  Not only did my students gain from my sharing, but also from their fellow students. I vividly remember one student after a conference group asking me, “Why can’t I write like ____?” which opened an opportunity for me to suggest possible ways to improve.  

By modeling our own process for our students, and by having students work in conference groups from generating through drafting, we are making the invisible, visible.  We can do this, if not in person, through the wonders of technology!

RESPONSE

I love the idea of the highlighting! This gives us, as teachers, a window into what our students are thinking as well as a way to understand where they are in the writing process. The more tools we can use to help students understand that writing is just that...a process, the better.

A final thought on portfolios and the writing process:  When I first used portfolios, I designed a form that asked for student reflections on their writing in their "private" portfolios at the end of each quarter and then another form which they took home with their "public" portfolios at the end of each semester. This was an opportunity for parents to read what their students had been writing as well as see the progress they had been making. I asked parents to comment on a couple of things: What impressed you about your student's work? What was your favorite piece? What would you like your student to work on in the future? I tried to keep the questions positive. Students were required to have their parents sign the comment sheet and then bring the portfolio back.

Notice that I had "public" and "private" portfolios. Students kept all of their writing and drafts in a portfolio that remained in the room. When they took work home to show their parents at the end of each semester, they selected the work they wanted their parents to see. I mention this because I always felt that students should be allowed to write about anything that crossed their minds, but that it didn't always have to be turned in for a grade or seen by anyone else. Much of the writing we did during the week was ungraded. On occasion, pieces were selected for revision and final drafts.

Today, keeping portfolios is a much cleaner process, because it can be managed electronically. I still would encourage you to have students set up 2 portfolios. One can be finished work and be a public portfolio and the other, unfinished or work that is not to be made public. There are many free portfolio sites or perhaps your district has already set something up. In either case, I encourage you to think about getting parent feedback at least once or twice during the year. Students found this to be a very positive experience.

Please share your experiences and questions regarding portfolios. We would love to hear what's happening in your classroom.