Writing is a life-long skill, and it has become more and more apparent that good written communication skills are key to future success in careers. It is well documented that most employers are looking for job candidates who demonstrate strong writing skills.A report published by the National Commission on Writing titled "Writing: A Ticket to Work…Or a Ticket Out, A Survey of Business Leaders" and published by the National Commission on Writing supports this claim. The researchers surveyed 129 human-resource directors in companies affiliated with Business Roundtable, an association of chief executives officers from leading companies in the United States. They found that the ability to write well "opens doors to professional employment." This survey stated that two-thirds of salaried employees in large American companies have some writing responsibility. People who cannot write and communicate clearly have little chance of being hired. This report concludes that writing skills cannot be developed quickly or easily, and they should therefore be the focus across the curriculum of schools and colleges from kindergarten through college.a1a
However, it is difficult to get students motivated and excited about writing. Most languages arts teachers would agree that there is generally a strong resistance to most writing. It seems logical then to ask the question, "Why have students learned to dislike writing so much?" Most students react to writing assignments with bored resignation. Their assignments contain an emotional flatness. Because writing lessons as well as writing assignments seem artificial and synthetic, students become passive. They are given "writing prompts" that ask them to explain or persuade an audience with the standard five-paragraph essay. These assignments are designed to mirror what students are to perform on the standardized assessments and they have created a student who has been "trained" to write a formatted essay. There is no real personal involvement in the writing except to achieve the coveted score of a 4 or 5 to pass the test.
We need to think honestly and deeply about why our students have grown to dislike writing. In many ways test-preparation activities for writing reinforce this pattern. Because these language arts lessons are so formatted, the student's creativity and personal voice can be stifled. Students need to become more deeply and personally involved in their writing, making it more authentic. Authentic writing releases thoughts and ideas without rigid rubrics that stress organization and mechanics. Authentic writing or "real" writing has some intrinsic value to the writer rather than being an academic activity performed for a grade. The natural connections in authentic writing increases creative expression. Research shows that writing instruction is most effective when it resembles real writing done for real purposes. a2a
Students respond when we allow them to choose their own form, voice, and audience as well as subject. a3a
They then can take ownership and responsibility and the assignment becomes a personal project rather than another dreaded writing task.
Students, particularly middle-school students, want to communicate. They feel a deep urgency to share ideas, experiences, and opinions. They love to pass notes, text message one another, write emails and communicate through social networking websites such as Facebook. Unfortunately, this type of writing is a far cry from the formal writing skills they need to develop for high school and college. Yet it is still evidence that they want to write when they feel that writing is authentic and meaningful. As we observe this behavior, we as teachers need to discover how we can use and expand on this natural and genuine urge to write. Writing can be a way for middle schoolers to sort out their ideas, thoughts and feelings as they struggle with social relationships among family and friends. As John Cheever once wrote, "When I began to write, I found this was the best way to make sense out of my life." Visual journaling provides a spontaneous, natural medium for such writing.
Another frustration that plagues many language arts teachers is that the students often do not transfer the skills learned from daily writing lessons to their final work. Why do they fall back on old habits of bland writing, forgetting the lessons on sentences, variety, using descriptive language, and so forth? What roles do short term-memory and long-term memory play in the writing process? It is important for teachers to understand how memory works and utilize this information in their teaching strategies to maximize the connection between the processes of teaching and learning. Understanding can help eliminate the frustration that occurs when a teacher assesses a student skill that has been taught and discovers that the skill was not learned.
