Being a better writer and teacher requires a daily practice
by Angela Stockman
When was the last time you curled up with your favorite pen, a bit of high-quality paper, and a bunch of ideas that you were truly interested in writing about? Devices might make for quick and efficient work, but they can be rather soulless writing instruments. If you want to fall in love with writing, and you will need to love it as much as you might loathe it if you ever hope to teach it well, then writing with soul really matters. Leading with it inside of your classroom does as well. How do we achieve this?
Most begin by becoming writers themselves: people who make a dedicated practice out of communicating their ideas purposefully, about things that really matter. We don’t have to publish, although many make this a goal. Some begin by keeping notebooks where they gather and tinker with new ideas, while others commit to reflective writing each day, using their practice as a vehicle for professional or personal growth. Many set goals that motivate them to get their work out into the world, but going public isn’t a requirement. It’s a choice. The one thing that all writers seem to have in common is the desire to use their words with intention and their willingness to do so habitually. Discipline is soul-work, after all.
The Bigger Challenge
That few teachers identify themselves as writers is troubling, but the notion that their vocation undermines their potential to do so is a bitter irony that is worthy of greater attention. Teachers struggle to find the time and energy to sustain writerly habits, as many over-scheduled working people do. The consequences of limited writing practice may be greater for teachers, though. When teachers aren’t writing, their productivity and progress isn’t the only thing that suffers. They fail to develop the confidence or the skills necessary to support their students as well. According to Duke University political scientist and scholar writer Michael Munger, consistency is key for those who intend to become writers and especially, for those who hope to teach writing. “We train people in methods, and theory,” he suggests, “but we don’t tell them that writing is something you have to practice.”
The history of writing instruction in the United States seems to confirm this. Fifty years ago, writing teachers provided direct instruction of spelling, punctuation, grammar and mechanics. The rules mattered more than the consistent practice of writing, and while some students became proficient writers this way, others did not. This inspired schools of education to shift away from traditional instruction as they embraced a far more creative and collaborative approach. Students were invited to experiment with diverse modes and genres, share their works in progress, and seek feedback from peers as well as teachers. This movement turned teachers’ attention to the process of writing and the development of certain habits and attitudes. Many students thrived in this new culture, but some did not.
Today, writing teachers struggle to balance students’ attention to quantity and quality as they fight for time to consistently coach writing in their classrooms. Some have reduced their curriculum to quick assignments and lessons that attend only to the surface of a text. They hope that teaching the mechanics of writing will be enough to build better writers, but as poignancy takes a back seat to proficiency, writing becomes formulaic and unimaginative, and teachers lose confidence in their abilities to coach the craft well. As the demands of other content areas and the special needs of students grow, those who were never able to fully realize the potential of quality writing instruction often choose to eliminate it altogether.
The Change
It’s true that those who fail to write well often underperform in other content area classes, but what’s more disturbing is that weak writers typically lack the ability to successfully advocate for their own needs and the needs of others. Perhaps poor test scores aren’t enough to inspire significant change in how teachers support writers, but this reality should: inequities in writing instruction and performance inspire social inequities and injustices as well. Confident writers stand up and speak out while those who lack confidence fall silent.
Developing a robust understanding of quality writing and the skills necessary to produce it is the work of a lifetime, and the result of consistent practice. Becoming a quality teacher of writing is the work of an entire career, and it requires just as much dedication. Systems that nurture the development of writers and teachers of writing cultivate curriculum that attends to far more than state or local standards. Here, specific habits, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are defined, modeled, and assessed with great intention. Most importantly, everyone, including teachers and administrators, writes daily.
Professional development moves beyond events intended to merely build awareness or deepen knowledge. Writing and learning communities are established by and for teachers, and differentiated pathways for building capacity are created. The theories of change that drive these initiatives include one critical goal as well: the need to build and sustain teacher-writers and encourage their leadership at all levels of the system. This includes making teachers the true leaders of professional learning and positioning traditional facilitators as their mentors who serve them instead of experts to be obeyed.
In healthy systems where writers thrive, data drive the decisions that are made by students, teachers, and administrators alike. Nuanced understandings about data and its uses are encouraged as well. Rather than relying on numbers generated by tests, teachers learn how to code and establish hunches from qualitative data that are gathered from rich and rewarding learning experiences. People are consistently invited to share their interests, expertise, and needs. Audio and video recordings are captured, making the writing process and the learning that students engage in far more visible. Those who plan for change consider how it will be reflected in the ways people behave and feel rather than focusing exclusively on activities and performance outcomes. Everyone within the system becomes a learner, and all learners engage in consistent reflection. Documentation inspires deeper learning, and time for this kind of data analysis is regularly scheduled and carefully protected.
The Next Generation of Teachers and Writers
As social media inspires more frequent and deeper global connections among teachers, opportunities to begin and sustain powerful habits abound. Those in need of writing inspiration, support, and a bit of accountability can easily find it inside of thriving virtual communities. What’s more, the relationships built there and the learning that transpires often helps teachers begin to identify as writers and gain the confidence they need to experiment with new and improved practices in their classrooms. These teachers become beacons for others who know how important writing is and how much courage it takes to practice it regularly.
The next generation of writers and teachers will likely require fewer reminders about the importance of writing and more opportunities to get better at it. The fact is that most of them are writing outside the classroom for authentic purposes daily, if not hourly. They have meaningful things to say about their lives and their experiences, and they’re connected inside social networks where opportunities to raise their voices and support or even challenge others are ready and waiting for them. Those who are unable to use their words with discretion suffer immediate and even long-lasting discomfort, while others who have a way with words find their abilities to influence others and make a positive difference in their world rewarding.
This raises new questions for teachers of writing who are committed to regular practice. Is it important for them to engage on social media? How might they use their words to make a difference inside their networks? What does soulful social media engagement entail? How might they coach the writers they support to pursue this kind of writing as well?
As I consider these questions and the challenges we continue to face in our endeavors to build better writers, I’m reminded of one simple truth: when we run out of problems to solve, we run out of opportunities to teach and learn. Finding the right problem to address is worthy work, and chasing new problems once we’ve found our first solutions is even better. If history has shown us that our attention to the mechanics, the process, and even the culture we build around writing has helped some thrive while others continue to flail, perhaps it’s time to revisit the influence of consistent practice on the development of young writers. Perhaps it’s time to invest ourselves in our own daily writing practice as well.
Author
Further Reading
- The Irish Times – The pros and cons of being a writer
- EdWeek – Education Leaders Write Collaboratively
- UCONN Today – Improving the Teaching of Writing
Three out of 10. A statistic that those in education don’t like to talk about. It’s a startling stat about the number of teachers who leave the profession after just five short years. To put that into perspective, if students earned a three out of 10 on an assessment, that would be a failing grade. Schools across the country are earning an F in keeping their educators in the classroom.
I’m not talking about just in those big, obvious “wow” moments. Don’t get me wrong, when the whole class is well-behaved and earns off-the-charts assessments scores that is great! I’m also not referring to when your instructional coach gives you a level four rating in all domains. That’s great too, but that isn’t what keeps teachers walking into the jungle of education. I’m talking about those little tiny moments of awesome that fit together perfectly to build one great, big awesome year! Like when you sit down at your desk for the first time all morning at 10:42 a.m., have your first sip of coffee and it’s magically still hot. Or when a student dances down the hallway because they have a beat stuck in their head. Let’s step back and cherish those.
Let me be clear, it’s wasn’t the writing that changed things for me. It was the celebrating. I once read that a simple answer to one question sums up your perspective in life. The question format is every student’s favorite, fill in the blank with no word bank. Life is a ___________. How would you fill in the blank? I know my answer. Party. I believe each and every day we get the opportunity to celebrate this awesome gift. And as teachers, this celebration isn’t a party of one. It’s a party of 28 kids in your classroom. (ok so maybe 32 if your budget is tight) It’s a party with numerous other teachers. It’s a party with parents and school leaders and community members. Tons of people have RSVP’ed for this awesome celebration of education so take a seat at the head table and embrace the educational confetti and the jello surprise.
Just remember, awesome is all around us. Every day you walk into your school something amazing is bound to happen. Some days that awesome is easy to see, it comes in the form of laughter, academic progress, achieving goals and building relationships with kids.
Editor’s Note: This is part of a new series on edCircuit. Connie Bosley is a professional writer with a Masters Degree in Education and a passion for EdTech and its role in the future of education. In this series, Connie talks with EdTech leaders to explore their world and the value they bring to learners.
“Answerables itself is a school, a new version of a school, not the kind my grandfather envisioned in 2001,” said Mark. As a first-grade teacher, Wu, a SERT (Special Education Resource Teacher), saw firsthand that engagement was vital to students staying on task long enough to learn new material. Young students learn much easier through games.
Mark and the future co-founder Peter were talking in a coffee shop one day when Mark asked, “Hey Buddy, do you want to jump ship, leave our comfy safe jobs as teacher and IT guy with guaranteed salaries and try creating this new learning game?” Peter said, “Yeah, let’s try it.” They started using the education fund left by Mark’s grandfather. “We took advantage of the opportunity to turn this new type of school into an innovative virtual learning system directed at early elementary-aged children, using the game format,” said Wu.
Answerable was awarded for Social Networking and Communications -Standard for the 21st Century Learner in 2015 by the AASL (American Association of School Librarians). Since that time this unique learning system has begun to form partnerships with schools and other companies in the United States. Interested schools in California, Pennsylvania, New York and rural Kentucky have all been in contact with Answerables about their system.
Mark has been working with diverse groups of students for more than 15 years as a classroom teacher, Special Education Resource Teacher, and school administrator. He has a wealth of experience teaching learning disabled children and supporting their parents and teachers.
The education sector is famous for having many enthusiastic “one-offs,” or teachers who stand out from the rest in their tech and app use. School administrators often wonder how they can get “everybody else,” meaning all the other teachers in their school, to be the same.
We are likely in the stage of “crossing the chasm” as a society with education into a new digital reality. This is because once the early adopters and the early majority begin to transition to new technology or adopt change, a certain momentum creates inevitable for every other part of the market.
Based on that data, the alternative shift is at least 20 percent, and indications are that it will continue to be pushed politically. These are also indicators that the technically sophisticated among us have allied with the monied interests to take advantage of the potential of digital learning, particularly items with consumer-like distributions.
I never wanted to be a writer. If someone had told my young self that I would become a writer one day, I would have laughed—or thrown up—or run away. The idea of becoming a writer never even crossed my mind.
This is hard enough to deal with if you know you are dyslexic. But imagine the difficulties that undiagnosed dyslexics face, dealing with the social, emotional, educational and professional complications of dyslexia every day of their lives, but never knowing the reason why.
So if you know—or suspect—you are dyslexic, how can you make the most of your reality, discover your genuine potential, and have your own best life? Try the following suggestions:
What about dyslexic children? Early diagnosis and intervention are crucial from an educational standpoint: there’s a short window of time during which children learn to read, and after that point, children must be able to read with comprehension in order to continue learning. Indeed, literacy is key for a developing a healthy self-concept, learning practical life skills, and reaching optimal psycho-social milestones.
Kids with undiagnosed dyslexia are in a terrible situation — they have come to believe that regardless of what they do, they will not succeed. They see no light at the end of the tunnel; instead, their vision is filled with images of continued failure. This is why it’s so crucial for parents and educators to be alert to possible signs of learning challenges. Every child has potential, and the sooner interventions and accommodations are in place, the sooner the child’s vision for themselves can begin to include hope. As mentioned above in the tips for adult dyslexics, getting informed, developing understanding, and questioning and replacing inaccurate beliefs are key for helping dyslexic children as well.
Older children with dyslexia will be slow, reluctant readers. They avoid reading out loud whenever possible. They make wild guesses about unknown words since they have no strategy for sounding out new words. Longer, more complex words are frequently mispronounced. When asked a question, they take longer to reply, often using word whiskers such as “ummmm” to give themselves time to process. Learning things in sequence is challenging or impossible: timelines, phone numbers, multiplications tables, for example. Handwriting is messy, and most dyslexics print block letters rather than write cursive. 
When children with dyslexia understand what’s going on with their brains and are taught how to make things better, the difference in their outlook is astounding. Early detection and intervention is key to giving kids with dyslexia a good foundation in reading, but also a good foundation for developing coping skills that will give them hope and the ability to live up to their full potential.
In 1973, an article appeared in Policy Sciences, a periodical with a small but devoted readership. Written by Horst Rittell and Melvin Webber, the piece introduced the concept of tame and wicked problems. Soon after, Gerry Weinberg (he’s a household name in computer science) suggested that “All the easy problems have been solved. From now on the problems will be much tougher.” What they suggest is that we need to better understand wicked problems. Not wicked in the sense of evil, but in the sense of the higher level of thinking we need to tackle them.
It’s always tempting to look back at that past as simpler and safer, somehow. I started teaching using chalk, mimeographs, and film strips. It seemed like a simpler time with clearer answers. Yet this year I have provided as many virtual learning sessions as face-to-face. To make them work, I’ve had to change not only how I deliver my message, but how I think. I’ve found delivering webinars and web-based retreats to be challenging, exciting, and wicked. I, like all of us, am liable to fall into the trap of tame problem thinking. Tame problem thinking — that I can simply transfer face-to-face teaching to the Web — wasn’t sufficient, as I discovered very quickly.
The second equation captures an event. 1,232 American bison X 13 Native American hunters = 19 days of protein for the village. It’s a snap shot, a possibility, and it’s an example of wicked problem thinking. It’s not the answer, nor is it a solution, yet it can increase our understanding and insight. Here are the characteristics of wicked problems:
I’m very grateful for all the teachers who dealt with this infernally curious boy. I must have been fun and a pain. I was always asking questions. Still do. And these wonderful folks provided me with a great baseline of useful tame problem knowledge. Arithmetic. Trigonometry (which I still use when I go sailing). Information about chemistry, physics, biology, history. I also had some wicked problem teachers — two I remember in high school, several in college — who made me uncomfortably better.
Due to the Net, at the same time we can find out just about anything about anything, we are also liable to all kinds of misinformation and fabrication. The Web has presented us with our most recent wicked problem. We can focus on helping our learners in this increasingly complex world with a critical element in Wicked Learning: Skepticism.
We can also practice, and model, using more open questions. These are questions that invite exploration rather than focus on a single answer. We can ask, “Who can tell me when Columbus discovered America?” A nice tame problem question (it has an answer) that is useful as a framework to set the stage for a wicked learning opportunity. Then we can follow up with “What are some of the fears that must have been on the minds of the folks on the three ships that sailed in 1492?”