Content Area Writing…I’m convinced that one of the reasons that content teachers shy away from writing is the fear of grading. Two issues are at hand for teachers of social studies, science and other subjects: 1.) If I assign more writing I’ve got more writing to grade and more late nights ahead of me and 2.) I have no idea how to grade the papers in the first place. Though most content teachers are quite willing to try more writing assignments with their students, they first have to overcome the above concerns or risk falling into the trap of doing more and more of the same. To be sure, there is no way that schools are going to grow student writers in profound ways without involving content teachers. That starts with asking for their help and “holding their hands” until they are comfortable with literacy as a way of work.
The Teacher as Student: Like anything else that’s new, writing in the content areas is possible (even likely) as long as we meet all teachers halfway. I have always found teachers of all subjects open to literacy, especially writing. Their only concern is around the “types” of writing that best fit their classrooms and, even more importantly, how to “grade” the writing. Unfortunately, most teachers of social studies, science, math and electives view writing the way our students do -- as boring essays that are graded around thesis statements, spelling and grammar. I’m not sure when this happened but, somewhere along the way, we’ve stopped writing much outside of language arts classrooms and we’ve nearly done away with writing that isn’t a 5-paragraph essay or research paper. Worse yet, most of the writings that I see in schools today are graded on structural and mechanical items like: length of the paper, thesis statements, spelling, grammar, and (gasp!) notecards. Don’t get me wrong. I certainly don’t want our students to turn in papers that are littered with spelling mistakes. I also value a well written thesis statement. Still, there is more to writing than that, right? Where’s the style? Where’s the nuance? Where’s the voice? Is anyone valuing that anymore?
As a way of changing the way teachers view writing, I would ask that all teachers consider adding a variety of writing assignments to their classrooms (including creative writing) and to grade writing with a much wider lens. To this end, I’ve worked with a number of colleagues in my school to develop a new rubric that outlines what we “value” in good writing – with a little more emphasis on “voice” and “word choice” and little less concern for number of paragraphs and mechanics. Why? So we might help our students to become more confident, stylistic writers (which at present they are not). That rubric is attached here for your perusal. Keep in mind that the rubric is a working document and it may soon change (again). We’ve already tinkered with it dozens of times. While I’m not suggesting that having a rubric makes a student a better writer, it does create a common “language” that our students and teachers can use to talk about writing. A shorter, half-page version is attached here. It’s a statement about what we value with regards to writing. It also is the beginning of “teaching” content teachers about what we value about writing. At my school, I hope we can use the rubric as a training tool with teachers to show them that there’s more to good writing than spelling and mechanics.
The Student as Teacher: Of course, this conversation with teachers about writing must (at some point) lead to a conversation with students about writing. If not, we’re just wasting our time. So what does that look like? Like many writing coaches, I propose that we teach students in the only surefire way we know: through modeling. Once we help all teachers become more confident “graders” (or, more accurately, critics”) of writing, we can help students in the same way. Students are quick to grasp the concepts of voice and tone and word choice when we “show them” what that looks like. Instead of having the teacher grade each paper individually, I suggest that we show students examples of good writing and having them edit (or grade) their own papers until they become their own teachers (their own editors). In the end, the students become lifelong learners when they become their own critics. It’s the only way I’ve seen it work. And, trust me, I’ve seen it work.
