Their Own Voices: Empowering Students with Choice in Writing Tasks

Choice in writing assignments empowers students to take ownership of their work. Now that the new Common Core Standards require more writing to be done in classes, student engagement is more important than ever. If students are to spend extended amounts of time revising and editing a single piece of writing, it is critical that they care about the topic or assignment. The standards also call for specific types of writing assignments to be completed, and there are many ways to incorporate choice in these assignments. Choice alone will not help students become better writers, so teachers must guide students in careful study of mentor texts and models of exemplary writing.