English Journal - Volume 90, Issue 1, 2000

David Peter Noskin shares his methods for teaching writing, particularly how he’s adapted the writing process to his teaching in high school.

Offers a letter written by the author to himself 23 years ago in his first year as an English teacher. Offers four simple suggestions and a bit of extended advice to help him and his students. Encourages him to explore and use the wealth of adolescent literature that is available. Includes a list of young adult books worth reading.

Asks what English teachers must do to improve their quest for fostering vivid, dynamic, original, and thoughtful writers. Argues that conceptual shifts must occur, more people must be educated about writing and learning to write research from the past must fuel future research, a unified conceptual writing curriculum must be implemented, and classroom practices must be dynamically reshaped.

Focuses on Nancie Atwell’s “In the Middle,” a seminal description of a middle school reading/writing workshop. Discusses how changes in the recently-published second edition show a revised conception of the teacher’s role, of writing workshop pedagogy. Discusses implications for writing teachers and for the training of teachers of the English arts.

Argues that, after students are familiar with the characteristics of the five paragraph essay and the expectations of that genre, they can learn to play with those expectations to create lively writing that reveals more individual voice by mixing in other genres. Argues that such a strategy can teach students to engage in academic writing more personally and inventively.

Argues that the rigidity of the five paragraph theme actually dissuades students from practicing the rhetorical analysis necessary for them to become critical thinkers. Suggests that English teachers continue to teach the essay as a rhetorical form with three units, an introduction, a body, and a conclusion, which may consist of more than one paragraph.

Argues that too many teachers are looking for quick fixes for students’ writing problems. Shows how formulaic writing of the kind J. Schaffer advocates forces premature closure on complicated interpretive issues and stifles ongoing exploration. Argues that writing teachers must help students develop a repertoire of strategies for identifying and then handling the differences each writing situation presents.

In “The ABCs of Writing,” Mark J. Bingen shares and idea for using letters of the alphabet and words from the dictionary to get students writing and writing vividly and well.

Describes how the author used research booklets to be read by sixth graders, poetry books, and taking part in a city-wide writing competition with her eighth-grade students to combat a general apathy in many students’ writing efforts. Suggests the projects spoke to individual interests, helped students find a purpose to write, and improved the quality of student work.

Discusses aspects of the classroom environment that nurture young writers. Describes strategies and assignments (including cross-curricular poetry, a letter writing activity, multi genre papers, a tribute assignment, and a “read and retail” assignment) which helps students understand and develop voice. Notes that while students’ writing improved, their scores on Idaho’s Direct Writing Assessment did not, since it actually negates students’ voices.

Dawn Swartzendruber-Putnam outlines strategies for teaching students to reflect upon their own writing, including reflection, asking questions, writer’s log, the draft letter, using models, the portfolio letter.

Describes two research studies with high school teachers and students that examine various aspects of both students’ and teachers’ perspectives on teacher responses to student writing. Examines how well teachers put their own theory about writing instruction into practice with their response style; analyzes teacher comments and students’ understanding of them; and offers the teachers’ responses to the studies.

Describes how 20 high school teachers and university professors collaborated to initiate writing projects across the high school curriculum. Notes that the group learned the most about how to develop their collaborative cross-curricular writing program from projects in earth science and chemistry. Suggests that teaching students how to help one another was integral to the program’s success.

Smede gives solid sentence level revision strategies complete with a detailed revision checklist.

Considers the teaching of grammar and its importance in the writing classroom. Examines what grammar is; why writing instruction has moved away from grammar; differing opinions regarding grammar and writing instruction; and grammar’s place in the writing classroom of the new century. Argues that grammar must be applied to students’ own writing.