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In Dr. Steve Graham’s podcast, he addresses why writing is important and what educators as well as parents can do to support their children’s development as writers. One of the things that stood out to me was, when he spoke about the consequences of not learning to write well which leads to a student being at-risk for school failure. Students are required to write more as they more and more as they move up the educational ladder. So if students don’t write well or they have a dislike for writing especially at the middle school or high school level, which is the primary way in which their writing is graded by things they write on an essay, a test, or reports then they are at a great risk for failure. This then will have a great impact on them when they move into college, since most college require a writing portion on the SAT which will have an influence on whether or not they get into the college of their choice. Also beyond college, writing is a gateway into the world of work and therefore, people who do not write well are at-risk for not getting jobs or salary they desire, as well as being able to advance in their professions. Businesses have lost millions of dollars due to very poor writing skills of employees. At the core of students writing issues are the teachers, most of which feel very much unprepared to teach the skills necessary to produce effective writers in the classroom. Dr. Graham went on to recommend that teachers can look into taking at least one or more course in ‘how to teach writing’ so that they can become better writing teachers.

Dr. Graham went on to discuss several effective instructional strategies, one of which is positive feedback.  He discusses that positive feedback is highly effective for struggling writers and there’s considerable evidence that pointing out positive features is beneficial to effective writing. It is very important the type feedback that we give students especially those who have learning disabilities or those who simple do not get it. It’s not about ignoring the things that need improvement in students writing, but more about picking one or two things at a time that we can focus attention on. Approaching students writing in a more positive way can encourage them to participate in discussions which will great benefit them in writing better.

Reflecting back on Dr. Graham’s video on the several effective instructional strategies discussed, there is much evidence that reveals that they are all effective, however, at the end of it all it is the individual teacher that makes the biggest difference in the writing instruction. My goal as an educator is to be that teacher that will have a great impact on students’ writing no matter what level they are at.

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SPED 773_Response to Dr. Graham_R. Fleming

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Chun Li Jourdain

Writing Next

Dr. Steve Graham is a teacher who devoted his life to teaching writing and learning how to improve his practice. After spending most of his life investigating and teaching students how to read he decided to change his focus because he realized that not many people were actually investigating the reason why students are unable to write well.  Even though he was never a strong writer, Graham went on to to research the qualities of a good writer. He struggled with writing when he was in  primary school but was able to improve his writing skills after meeting his 5th grade teacher who helped his writing improve. Graham's daughter also was a struggling writer until she began playing the video game Xena. She liked the game so much that she was able to improve her spelling level three grades after just two months. Graham, amazed with his daughter's progress, decided to dive deeper into the world of writing and developed important strategies for teaching writing across content areas. He also laid out the importance of instilling these skills  into all of our students.

Dr. Graham argues that writing should be focused on and  taught across all content areas. It should be a school wide approach implemented in all school especially in high school. One of the biggest challenges with this approach is that not all teachers know how to teach writing or incorporate writing instruction into their content classes. In a US study where researchers surveyed several thousand teachers across the nation, they found that over 72 percent of teachers had little or no preparation in college to teach writing. These numbers are alarming but can be fixed by having teachers take classes on writing, building their writing skills, and preparing teachers across all content areas in college/gradschool. If we fail to effectively teach reading to our students, it can cause lasting effects on them. Graham explains that poor writing can put a student at risk of failing school, lowers their chances of going to and succeeding in college, and decrease the likelihood of them getting a good paying job. In school students are constantly graded as assessed on their written work and if they are already below grade level in writing, the it will make it harder help that student catch up and pass their classes. This in turn affects their chances on going to a  competitive school because their grades may not be good enough to get in. If the student does decide to apply for college, they usually have to  write essays and give in samples of their writing. Poor writing will eventually prevent from getting a higher paying a job because most of those jobs require a certain level of writing that the student may not be able to produce. Poor writing can negatively  affect multiple aspects of a student's life and that is why Graham pushed for a school wide approach to writing instruction.

Reference

http://www.readingrockets.org/podcasts/experts/transcripts/graham

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Self-regulated strategy development

Dr. Graham’s perspective on self-regulated strategy development is that we should be teaching our students strategies that will allow them to organize their behaviors, which will in turn help them successfully accomplish academic tasks across content areas. This strategy emphasizes the need to teach students when, where are how to use these strategies. This is called “strategy knowledge”. The way to go about teaching strategy knowledge is by goal setting. Students should be able to go out and set goals where they are applying what they learn. Afterwards, it is important to meet with the student to discuss whether or not they were able to implement the strategies successfully so that it can be determined whether or not they need to modify it. Goal setting is a fundamental part of self-regulated strategy development so that the student and teacher are able to measure how successfully it is being implemented so the necessary modifications can be made.

Grammar Instruction

Grammar is often difficult to teach and is often overlooked in many ELA curriculums. Dr. Graham discusses two very different approaches. One approach is a traditional and straight forward method. For this approach, the teacher defines the part of speech and give some examples. Next, the teacher prompts the students to come up with their own examples. Once they have done that, they practice and do various types of skills. The issue with this practice is that even if the students prove mastery during drills, they often have a difficult time applying it to their own writing. Another grammar instruction strategy is to teach kids by giving them smaller sentences and teach them how to combine them and make complex sentences and once they show they can successfully implement that strategy, teach them to apply it to their writing so that the quality of their grammar usage and writing improve. Another technique is to do the traditional method backwards. To do this the teacher would prompt the students to generate examples first (Dr. Graham’s example has the students come up with describing words for a dog). Once the students understand what [describing] words are, the teacher puts a name to it. In Dr. Graham’s example, an adjective. The issue with this practice is that there is not a lot of evidence to support its effectiveness.

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Lily brings up the idea of positivity and feedback, and this resonates with my current (always-evolving) teaching philosophies. Graham points out early on that motivation is a powerful learning catalyst. This goes hand-in-hand with the idea of positivity and positive feedback. For many, being able to deliver feedback to a student in a constructively positive manner is a struggle. It isn’t that we intend to be negative, but many of us were brought up by teachers who would say “this is wrong” or “this is bad”, and we sometimes instinctively resort to those attitudes. Again, it is doubtful that this was done out of any ill-intent. But it is clear from the research and tried-and-true strategies posited by Dr. Graham that there is a much better approach.

I think that this concept of positive feedback applies to teacher-training and teacher education as well. Granted, negative feedback is much less likely to exist or have a comparable negative impact on a macroscopic level, but it is still worth considering how we can implement this positive attitude in teachers early on. Graham mentions the National Writing Project (https://www.nwp.org/) as an excellent source for information and training, and the fact that it is continuously growing, expanding and changing the current status quo is evidence that this practice is effective not only for young students: Graham describes this organization as “Positive, having a can-do attitude, and very forward-thinking.”

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Kiegan Munn

Dr. Graham, with his surprisingly soothing voice, makes an enormous case for the importance of teaching writing in our current educational facilities throughout the country. The truth is that there is not enough people who study the best methods for teaching how to write, compared to teaching how to read and improve reading. I think it is interesting that he mentions interviewing students who identify as having struggled with writing in the past, but are now more successful: The great majority could only attribute this growth to a single teacher! When I look back at my own experience, I can also only attribute my writing skills (which are quite mediocre) to a single teacher. I think this says a lot about the current situation. There are serious consequences to not being able to effectively read, but I would argue that there are the same and even worse consequences to not being able to write. Graham mentions 3 main areas where writing is key: Academic (high school and college requirements depend on writing now more than ever), Occupational (acquiring any salaried, white collar job and advancing upwards is next to impossible without decent writing skills) and Social (especially considering the widespread popularity and importance of social media platforms and text-based communication.)

There are many strategies, approaches and methods to teach better writing that can be done in a school-wide manner and include everything from Goal Setting to Reciprocal Teaching, and other self-regulating practices. To me, this all ties into the idea of motivation: If we are not motivated to do difficult tasks, the tasks become almost insurmountable. On the other hand, when we are motivated we can make unprecedented progress compared to the alternative. Graham uses a personal example of this, with his daughter improving her spelling dramatically through the use of a spelling videogame that she was very involved in and motivated to use. I think that, regardless of what tools and strategies teachers use in the classroom, this idea of motivation should be prevalent and scaffolded in from the ground-up. This not only should reflect in lesson plans, but also in attitude and language during any discourse of the matter. I think that no amount of pedagogy can replace the intrinsic learning abilities that exist within all students when they are interested and motivated.

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Dr. Stephen Graham says that  if students want to become better as writers they must learn the engage in the process of planning, revising, evolving, evaluation and monitoring their own writing. In addition teachers can support these young writers by helping them plan and draft, give them feedback on specific topics and  allow them to give feedback to other students writing.  This is so important in the classroom because most students need to plan and learning how to structure writing by creating a plan will help them not only in school but into the jobs that they go into. As a teacher we are usually swamped with grading papers but one easy way to take that burden off is allow the students to assess themselves and or each other. This is a great tool because it allows students to get involved in peer review and it allows for students to see the different styles of writing that can be done.
Graham also speaks about using 21 century tools to help with the writing process. He says that more students are writing/ reading now more than ever and he is true. With Texting and snapchat, and comic books and all these things more students are reading but we need to find ways to engage them by using the technology that they use everyday. As a teacher we need to think outside of the box when teaching students to read and write. Lastly, and most important Graham talks about the classroom culture and how that atmosphere helps create the most growth for a young writer. He says the teachers set up supportive , pleasant classrooms that help students develop as writers. As a teacher I want to be able to set up students for a win and help them become great writers.

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Dr. Stephen Graham argues throughout his interview that the foundational nature of writing necessitates strong writing instruction, especially for students who struggle. He begins by explaining, through using an example about his daughter, that writing is very personal. We have individual motivations and interests that are influenced by our early experiences. If we are faced with difficulties when we start out learning to write, it becomes harder to motivate ourselves to push through and ultimately enjoy the practice. There are vast consequences of not learning to write well, which Dr. Graham outlines in detail. Ultimately, since we use writing in all aspects of our lives, weak writing skills are a major setback to personal and professional success.

In order to prevent this from happening with our students, Dr. Graham suggests a variety of techniques to strengthen writing instruction. I was interested in his discussion of providing student feedback in particular, as these suggestions can be applied to all different content areas, not just literacy courses. As Dr. Graham mentions at the beginning of the video, writing is very personal - more so than many other things we produce. Our writing is meant to demonstrate our own ideas and beliefs. Thus, we “want to be very careful about saying negative things about the content of what kids write.” Instead of saying, “I don’t like this part,” we can say, “I don’t know exactly what you meant there, can you tell me?” The feedback we provide can make or break a student’s confidence with their writing skills.

As a math teacher this year, I want to be very careful to frame my feedback to students in a positive way as well, particularly for my struggling students. I think Dr. Graham’s comments on the sensitivities struggling students may have about their writing can apply to any skill in any content area. For such a stigmatized subject like math, students have a particular propensity to disengage when they struggle. I hope that ensuring that my comments highlight the positives in student work and ask for clarity rather than berate them for inaccuracy will allow students to feel more supported to challenge themselves.

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Dr. Steve Graham does a great job explaining to us the importance of teaching writing from an early age. It is important that we start teaching writing as early as elementary school. One of the biggest issues regarding teaching writing is that we don’t have many teachers who are teaching writing skills. This is mainly because teachers themselves are not prepared to teach writing. About 3 out of 7 teachers (almost half our teachers!) do not get the proper preparation to teach writing effectively. This is very fascinating since a lot of the subjects as well as statewide exams consist of writing.

He also stresses the importance of positive feedback. If we are able to point out the positive aspects of a student’s writing it actually encourages the students to continue to write. As oppose to giving negative feedback which will set them back. It is crucial to not tell a student that we do not like their work or a certain part of their work. Instead it is better to have the student explain the content. We allow students to advocate for themselves and also provide to us a reasoning behind why they chose to write what they wrote.

I agree with Dr. Graham on this because, a student may not necessarily like what we tell them to read or write about but they still have to do the assignment. So, we should not ostracize them for the content they chose to write about. We can give them an opportunity to explain to us why they chose that topic which then will help us gauge what they were trying to convey by writing about this topic and how it relates to the assignment. Limiting them from writing certain things through negative feedback can discourage the student from writing in the future.

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In the podcast interview Dr. Graham provides very important lessons about pedagogy. He specifically discusses techniques strategies to help teachers improve their writing instruction. This post will discuss Dr. Graham’s approach to providing feedback, issues with grammar instruction, and sentence-combining.

Providing positive feedback is a powerful practice. Dr. Graham suggests that teachers recognize and develop a positive/encouraging way of providing feedback on written pieces. This positive feedback has the ability to engage students into the discussion on how to improve their writing. In this sense, feedback should be specific and actionable. Instead of using a red pen, which intuitively leads teachers to mark errors, perhaps using a green pen would lead teachers to provide suggestions for the learner on how to improve the piece of writing.

Dr. Graham also discusses ways on how to improve Grammar Instruction. This instruction tends to be assessed on a de-contextualized situation (for example, fill-in-the-blank or picking the correct answer type of questions). And this type of instruction, according to research, does not carry over to their writing. Dr. Graham recommends turning Grammar Instruction on its head by starting from the example (or de-contextualized situation) to the definition. Following, there is scaffolded instruction on application and then students use it in text on their own. While there is not much evidence on the effectiveness of this strategy, Dr. Graham believes that this has the potential of being more effective than the traditional approach.

When discussing Sentence-Combining instruction Dr. Graham points out a vital idea of education: “[i]t’s important to realize that there is considerable variation in what is effective for other people”. Teachers must continually realize that students have different learning styles and are gifted with multiple intelligences. In this sense, it is important to differentiate instruction to allow for multiple points of entry. Sentence-combining, the practice of combining two or more basic sentences into a compound sentence, has a positive, moderate effect on writing (Graham & Perin, p. 18). Dr. Graham emphasizes that teachers provide scaffolded assistance through modelling so that students can apply it back in the text.

These strategies and techniques for writing instruction are also important to prepare students for post-secondary life. They appear actionable and I will definitely have used some of these and will attempt to use and focus on others in the future.

References

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing Next: Effective strategies to improve writing
of adolescents in middle and high schools – A report to Carnegie Corporation of New
York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Graham, S. Podcast Interview with Dr. Steve Graham.

http://www.readingrockets.org/podcasts/experts/transcripts/graham/

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Janessa brings up something that I think is very important in writing, but something I also struggle with: feedback. The type of feedback given to students is important to their growth. It affects their self confidence and that affects how hard they word to become better writers. It also affects where they improve. The only problem with that is that we cannot give actionable feedback in 10 different areas and expect growth; its too much to focus on. My mentor always tells me to choose 2 or 3 areas to give feedback in so that students can focus on those as places for improvement. I struggle with figuring out what skills a student should focus on if their writing is already way below grade level.
One postiive that I've started doing in feedback, however is doing grows and glows. That way feedback isn't always viewed as "this is what you did wrong." And I try to give one more glow than grow. So if I gave 2 grows then I will give 3 glows. This way, the students sees more positive feedback then negative and may feel less dismal about their abilities.

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As I read the transcript of his interview, I found myself agreeing with pretty much everything that Dr Graham said about writing instruction, from the assertion that writing is necessary for life (jobs, communication, etc), to the idea that teaching writing should be a task taken up by all teachers, not just language arts teachers. As I was reading one thing that kept  coming to my mind was, "why don't we present it to students this way?" The concept of needing writing in life shouldn't just inform planning and instruction, it should be told explicitly to students. I have a few students who do not see the value in writing well. "I'm not going to college" or "I don't care about writing" are things that I hear often. It should be instilled in students from elementary school that learning to write well is necessary to function in the world. If you don't know how to construct a grammatically and stylistically coherent sentence, then you will have trouble getting your point across and that may cause you to fail a class,  not get a good grade on a standardized test, be denied an internship opportunity, or even lose or be denied a job.  Students tend to think that everything learned in school only matters for school. But if we instill in them that writing a skilll that extends beyond the classroom, there would be a lot more buy-in from students during writing instruction.

Another thing that I found myself agreeing with wholeheartedly is the concept of writing being taught in all content areas. This is something that would help students to see writing as more an an "ELA" thing, and will help prepare them for college where they will be expected to write essays and reports in non-English classes. This also makes sure that the "burden" of teaching writing doesn't fall on one ELa teacher, but all teachers that students come in contact with so that, as Dr. Graham said, we no longer have 70% of people saying that only one teacher helped them become better writers. Additionally, one way that writing skills and style is learned is through being exposed to different writers. So if students are exposed to different teachers who have different writing styles, assign different types of writing, and have expectations in different skill areas regarding writing, they will likely be more well rounded.

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I am in agreement with your agreement with Dr. Graham on the points of writing being important; the importance of positive and constructive feedback; and the utility of collaborative writing. I myself always model writing before I provide my students with such an assignment. I consider specific, constructive feedback to be the greatest source of student learning, even moreso than grades. This is because while grades provide an objective measurement of a students' performance, grades don't necessarily provide a failing student with the requisite skills they need to succeed. I have seen many, many teachers provide many, many grades to students with 0 constructive, actionable feedback. Grades count as feedback to be fair, however they are in and of themselves a poor substitute for genuine advice and can actually hinder skill development, as is the case with many at-risk students. If I had to choose between providing grades and constructive feedback, I would choose feedback hands down. And although this is a false dilemma, many teachers use grades as a substitute for feedback, and many students suffer as a result.

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Self-regulation in students' writing, and in anything really, should be the ultimate goal of all education; however, teaching students generalizable skills is difficult, especially so for SPED and ELL students who struggle with even the most basic of writing analysis skills. As much as we are learning to scaffold texts and assignments, the translation of these scaffolds into concrete skills that students can take with them to college and beyond is particularly difficult when you consider the fact that we often have to start from scratch with many students who, up until high school, have been given a free pass. Thus it is our duty to teach students such generalizable skills as best we can so that then they do make it to college and beyond, the rug is not pulled out under their feet.

I also agree with Dr. Graham on the benefits of technology, especially for struggling writers. Students don't have to re-write the same essay 10 times. They can use the software to make smaller edits. Many students have told me personally that they take so long to write because they are simply trying to avoid having to re-write it again. Ironically this takes much longer than writing it twice (with corrections), hence why software can really help students. However, all students should be required to take a standalone typing course. I could not type more than 10 wpm until I did so, and now I can type upwards of 80 wpm. Technology is the way of the future, and I will continue to incorporate it into my teaching strategies.

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"You are at risk for school failure" was one thing Dr. Graham mentions. Writing is extremely important. If you do not want to write, you don't write well you are in in trouble because as you move up in school writing is required more and more. If students do not learn in middle school they will struggle in high school and in college. I also agree with Dr. Graham when he states, "Writing serves as important social function" . It is evident that we need writing to communicate and express ourselves. You will not be able to communicate and advocate for yourself if you do not write well.

During my resident year i teach middle school writing and reading. I constantly explain and drill in my students the importance of writing and reading. Writing is necessary for completing their assignments, states exams, writing persuasive letters, SATs and college admission application. I can relate to many of my students because i hated writing and i struggle with writing. I try to push them and give them positive feedback. The story Dr. Graham mentions on feedback is true, the more we mark up students paper the more discouraged the become. I try to give students next steps as feedback and give them feedback on their strengths. I enjoy teaching writing because i learn along with them and I;m doing the same writing activities with them, so they know they are not alone.

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The importance of writing is evidenced throughout history. Before people knew how to read and write they could be oppressed by those that controlled the information and the tools to communicate that information.

Dr. Graham rightly points out this within his section where he talks about consequences in life. For example Dr. Graham says "As an example of this, there was a study a couple of years back that had kids in Israel who were in settlements write about their daily lives." If these children had instead been required to keep these feelings inside and not been able to communicate them through writing they would have definitely suffered even worse damage than they did already. Writing is therapeutic and positive.

Positive feedback is also vital as well. Dr. Graham points out "We also want to be very careful about saying negative things about the content of what kids write. Content is very personal to each of us. So if we're unsure about something kids write, we can say, "I don't know exactly what you meant there, can you tell me" versus saying "I don't like this part". We can do this in a much more positive way that then gets the kid to be a participant in the discussion. I think that's particularly important." I agree with this in particular because negative experiences have been proven to be stickier in our memories. I always ask my students clarifying questions instead of dismissing their writing responses.

Lastly, I hadn't yet considered collaborative writing, most likely because I myself had never been allowed the opportunity to try it. Dr. Graham tell us that "when you work with another person, you see how they carry out that task. It makes it more likely that you might incorporate something that they were doing in your own approach to writing." Dr. Graham couldn't be more right. Modeling is the basis of how I learn how to do many tasks in my life and it does help to see a peer model that task. It gives me more of a sense that I'm capable of completing that task.

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I would have to say that DR Graham has nipped the problem right on the nail. One thing I liked that he mentioned was that we must make writing enjoyable to the students something that they can relate to and grow on their own. One thing he mentioned was that individualized lessons may be very difficult for each and every student in that classroom. Making sure that you have one major structure that one can modify accordingly.

Feedback is by far the most important factors when helping students write. I like that he brought it back to his personal experience because I have felt the same way. I cannot imagine just giving negative feedback to a student, how will that interest them to continue writing. While listening to Dr. Graham is resonated with me what I have learned through Hunter course work and the current book Mather/Wending/ Roberts, Chapter 4. That not all students need the accommodations just the ones you find appropriate to those struggling writers.

Never saw it like that but I do plan on using one of the strategies Dr. Graham described with one learning lab students. When writing sentences she is not ver descriptive and Dr. Graham mentions one way to get them to add it to their personal and in class writing. Grammar is very important, but there is many steps and taking it step step bases will help.

Great Video/Transcript

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Positive feedback is important to students because as teachers we are guiding students toward success and our comments can make or break their ego. If students are constantly getting negative feedback they may withdraw. If teachers highlight good aspects of students writing they may not be so bummed when getting some constructive feedback.

Self regulated strategy development was one of the writing instructions that was mentioned in Writing Next.  One thing i found interesting and true is that students will learn strategies but not realize when they are useful to be applied. It is important for students to be able to know when they can use strategies. It is stated that students can learn this through discussion. I guess that is why there is more discussion math.

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Dr. Graham pointed out something that I struggle with being a first year teacher that being giving feedback. As teachers we need to be able to give constructive feedback to our students in order for them to be able to use it to revise their work. Especially giving positive feedback is very important for students in all different spectrum. Being able to point out the positive things while also being able to point out the negatives in a way where we are saying it in a way were we are showing them what they need improvement on. What I understood from Dr. Graham is that we have to be able to give feedback in where we can make it an on going conversation. Also in the textbook it states that we need to help students develop a more positive attitude towards writing and this is where you can use positive feedback to do so. By giving a child positive feedback will motivate them greatly and help them built up an excitement for writing.
One topic that caught my attention was the effect of text massaging. In all honesty we are teaching a generation whose writing has become effected by technology. Even myself I noticed my writing was effected by it, there were times when I was in college were I did alot of misspellings and grammar errors. Grahams suggestion on being able to embrace it and use it to our advantage is a good idea but students need to be able to differentiate between texting and writing an essay. Maybe having class sessions where students can learn how to build an essay and how to make sure to be aware on the errors they make. We need to be able to hold some kind of standards on our students writing and. They still have to go into the real world and know how to write a constructive essay in college, we still need to ave expectations for them to meet no matter what.

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Dr. Graham brought up some very important information about teaching writing to students. What I found most interesting is what teachers can do to become better writers themselves. As a teacher, it can be difficult teaching a skill that you are weak in. The National Writing Project may be an organization I would look into if I need further assistance in improving my writing skills.
I never realized the importance of modeling the writing process to the students and verbalizing aloud your thought process. It sounds like a great method to teaching writing, as opposed to just strictly teaching it explicitly. For students with learning disabilities, small groups and working collaboratively would be very beneficial. Dr. Graham also talked about the importance of prepping students for providing constructive feedback. Students need to be able to ask questions on anything that is confusing and point out good aspects of their fellow classmates writings. The same goes for teachers, the topic of a paper is not as important as the structure. We have to make sure not to discourage our students from writing. After providing timely, constructive feedback, we have to make sure our students follow through on not making the same mistakes over and over again.
One topic I learned about was self-regulation. Making sure that students are aware of the writing process is very important. They need to monitor their performance and set their own personal goals for writing. Student will have to write in different content areas and setting goals to implement the writing skills in whatever they have to write is a plus.

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The importance of writing goes beyond English class.  Being a quality writer is integral to success in other content areas, and educators should receive proper instruction in teaching writing.  I greatly agree with Dr. Graham on this.  In elementary school, middle school, and high school my math teachers rarely gave students opportunities to write; I remember only a handful of times I had to write out an explanation for an answer.  If my teachers during those years gave me more of a chance to write, I may have ended up liking math more; I felt more comfortable explaining my rationale through writing, than raising my hand to explain it to the entire class. The only extensive writing I did in math was as a high school student, when I was forced to create a story and weave in a geometry problem into it; my teacher provided no example.  The purpose of writing varies as people go through their educational career, in middle school writing is creative, in high school writing is about analyzing and summarizing, and college is about expository writing as well.  I see in my math experience some of the errors pointed out by Dr. Graham. There was no model and  no preparation in writing for content areas outside of English.  To make high school students creatively write for the first time in a math class, with: no model, no brainstorming activity, no peer editing process was detrimental set us up for failure. Graham’s 11 elements for effective writing and podcast aim to do away with that instruction and empower students in written expression by helping to guide teachers through the writing process.

Quality writing instruction is largely dependent upon the teacher.  Teachers must come into the classroom prepared; all teachers should have writing benchmarks or guidelines.  Although not every student learns at the same pace, it will be incredibly difficult to teach any writing segment without a road-map of material you want to cover before, during, and after the writing process including flexible deadlines.  Once this road-map has been created, instruction can be altered to meet the needs of individual students, as stated by Dr. Graham during the podcast.  One way to alter instruction is through modeling.  Although all students can benefit from analyzing a quality piece of writing, for those who may be struggling through a certain step, giving them more examples of good writing can help more beneficial.  It will provide the necessary assistance needed to help them reach their goal of completing the writing assignment.  It will also provide examples of quality pieces of writing to emulate and help them think through the question “what makes this good writing”.

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Dr. Graham states that writing is now a gateway into the world of work and an advancement. It is now viewed as being necessary by employers when looking at applications as well as promotions. Writing also serves a very social function- think social media- need to be good at writing so that you can effectively use these platforms. I think this could be a very good way to teach writing. When thinking of something like Twitter, in which you are given a character limit, you must be able to effectively convey what you want to say in the limited space. This can be used to help students become better at summarizing. Writing has a physiological and psychological benefit to it as well, when you write about something that you have experienced, you feel better about it.

Something I found to be very interesting was the idea that many teachers are not teaching this skill as well as they need to and they are not prepared to teach it. Dr. Graham says that Language Arts teachers are generally the ones who fell ready to teach writing and that they should then be responsible for the majority of teaching students to write. Other teachers need to then use it as a tool for learning in their content areas. Writing helps people to think about what that are learning. He also emphasizes the fact that students need lots of positive feedback, they need to feel good about what they are doing and this will help to encourage them to be good at it. I like the peer editing process in which he talks about students needing to find something positive to say about each others work and how that encourages them to want to include the things that get the positive comments. Something that I have seen work in math class, and could easily be transferred to writing is giving students the chance to grade each others work as well as their own work, given a rubric. I have found that students tend to be very thoughtful when trying to provide a grade or score and often describe the things they are looking for. I think that engaging in this process more will encourage students to be just as thoughtful during the process and not just after the fact.

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Leeba Keller-Johnson's response to Dr. Graham 

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Leeba Keller-Johnson's response to Dr. Graham 

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Dr. Graham stresses the importance of being able to write well. A key factor to writing well is having feelings as to why you are learning how to write. If there is no feeling in a task that you are supposed to do, who really expects that person to do it well? This is a common situation we, as teachers, run into on a daily basis. We need students to understand the importance of writing but we don’t want them to feel like it is something that is being forced down their throats. Students are very receptive of what teachers need and what teachers want. We want them to be able to like writing enough so it doesn’t feel like a chore getting prepared for the regents.
My focus class is an English class and MY students avoid writing like the plague. They start doubting themselves and don’t have any self-confidence. I notice this change in the students that were moved from self-contained to ICT. They begin to act out and don’t know how to channel their behavior into something positive to product some material. They give up before even trying. They are so critical of themselves that it is hard to get them out of that head space. Students need to be given the encouragement of success. When they’re finish with their work, they feel some sort of enlightenment.
We try to get them peer editing work when producing an essay or multiple paragraphs since it takes away the anxiety of “not being good”. Their peers can help them with grammar since a lot of students don’t know how to use proper grammar. Their peers are not walking in the dark; they will have a rubric to guide them on what they should be looking for. They will know exactly what the teacher will mark in their essay. With proper scaffolding and modeling, students will produce quality work with more help from their peers and less from the teacher. And although grammar cannot be taught in schools, if it is correct enough times, the student will learn from their mistakes. Dr. Graham has a strategy for peer editing that encourages students to give positive and critical feedback. This strategy encourages students to be able to self-monitor, self- regulate, and gives a sense of empowerment.

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Demetria Harvin-Shomala--Respons to Dr. Graham 

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Demetria Harvin-Shomala--Respons to Dr. Graham 

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I applaud Dr. Graham for approaching this topic as I believe writing instruction is vastly overlooked in public schools. I have noticed huge writing deficits in many of my students and want to thank Mr. Graham for giving me some ideas on where to start. I like his emphasis on "modeling" and showing students your thought process as you begin to write. I can see how this will help my students to confront any fears and feelings of self-doubt as they strive to set writing goals and cope with writing blocks and difficulties.
I also like the fact that Dr. Graham encourages teachers to take writing courses. As someone with a writing/journalism background I've encountered many adults who fear writing and have asked for assistance in editing their work. Most people don't realize that good writing comes with practice and keeping a journal is a great place to start as it not only improves writing skills but reduces stress as Dr. Graham notes. Also reading the work of prominent writers has helped me to appreciate good writing and find my voice.
We are judged by our writing skills so it is important that we give students the tools they need to be successful in this area. I recently taught a mini-unit on argumentative essay writing and saw firsthand how my students struggled to put their own opinions on paper. They asked if their opinions were right or wrong on topics such as the "legalization of marijuana," "gun control" or "lowering the mandatory minimum drinking age." After I showed them how to look at both sides of an argument before taking a stand, they were able to craft a thesis statement and cite and explain evidence to support their arguments.
Dr. Graham's strategy for peer editing is a great idea as it gets students to examine their own work as well as the work of others. However, I think peer editing works best when students are given clear revision guidelines and a checklist that helps them to identify strong writing components. Finally, I think his advice on providing positive feedback on student work will empower them to embrace writing and improve their self-regulatory skills.

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I think building self-regulatory strategies into whatever approach you are using whether it be SRSD writing strategies, Pre-writing activities, or Content Area Learning, etc., is important not only for students with learning disabilities but all students can benefit. Students take a series of steps to get from beginning to end product and along the way have to direct behavior, organize materials including themselves, and be aware of where they are in each step regardless of the content subject. With students who have learning disabilities, they may need very explicit teaching concerning the steps of a technique or strategy. These students cannot always be expected to set goals, try them out alone, return with stories of success and failures as well as modifications. However, with the proper scaffolding at each step including modeling these components can be broken down and practiced until competency is achieved.

Students need to be set-up to produce goals, recognise when something makes sense or not, and finally, make modifications. The use of the KWL described in our text, Content Area Writing provides a good example for science. First, students write down anything they KNOW about say, Photosynthesis. This is basically getting them to identify any prior knowledge. They are always surprised that they know as much as they do. Normally, these answers may be one word or short phrases. Instead of censoring or editing the ideas too much, now turn them into what we want to KNOW about Photosynthesis. I did this in my class on the board and the students came up with excellent questions for their level and this stimulated curiosity. We kept a KWL chart in the front of the room and whenever we LEARNED something new, it was added to the L column. I used Entrance, Exit Tickets and Summaries and had the students add to the list over the course of topic. This evidence empowered students to build self-regulatory strategies or at least accept them as part of the process.

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Test

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Dr. Steve Graham’s interview, “Writing Next”, is very informative and comprehensive.  He covers a number of major points and teaching practices essential to helping educators develop the writing skills of their students.  I share Dr. Graham’s feelings in regards to why learning to write well is so important.  Students are expected to write more and more as they continue through higher education, but often don’t receive the tools necessary to be more effective writers during their formative years.  These students are at greater risk of academic failure.  Writing is necessary to complete essay portions of state exams, high school applications, college applications and job applications.  School administrators and employers will review your writing skills as a testament to your overall intellect and/or performance, so having poor or limited writing skills lowers your chances of being considered for more advanced placement.  Unfortunately, during elementary school and middle school, many teachers are unsuccessful teaching students the “art of writing”.  There is more focus on writing conventions and organization, but not necessarily enough attention given to helping students to develop artist’s craft.  In lower performing schools, many students continue to be promoted, year after year, while their writing shows no improvement or use of conventions and/craft at all.  How can educators develop stronger writers who are motivated to improve their writing and appreciate the benefits that result from becoming more engaged writers?

I am a strong advocate for and practice many of Graham’s recommendations for improving the skills of struggling writers.  Positive feedback is key.  When grading the writing of my students, my co-teacher and I use purple colored pens.  Red has a negative connotation and students are less likely to build the nerve to go through corrections or suggestions for improvement when their paper is scribbled up in red ink.  We always point out what they did well and what we hope they can expand on first and we present our comments in “glows” and “grows”.  You’d be surprise what a change in language can do.  We also provide our students with rubrics prior to instruction, so that they can fully review and engage with the standards and expectations of an assignment.  This way, when we grade their papers, we can reference the rubric when providing feedback.  Additionally, prior to any teacher grading, students are expected to do self and peer review before submitting written assignments.  Students review their work first using the rubric and list “glows” and “grows”, before writing a second draft.  Then their peers review their work, following the same process.  By the time students complete their third and final draft, they have reviewed feedback from themselves as well as their peers.  This ensures that by the time we review their work, they had ample time to provide the best writing piece possible and have already engaged fully not only with the task, but in providing constructive feedback for themselves and each other.  This practice increases student independence and self-maintenance of skills.

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Becky Kim - Response to Dr. Steve Graham

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Becky Kim - Response to Dr. Steve Graham

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In explaining the different components of writing instruction, Dr. Steve Graham emphasizes the importance of positive feedback to students who are learning how to write. Dr. Graham explains that positive feedback is highly effective with struggling writers, as these students already feel a sense of lacking and self-consciousness in regards to their writing skills. Many students come into the classroom believing that they are “terrible” writers and this is largely due to their previous encounters with negative feedback towards their writing. What I found to be particularly interesting and compelling about Dr. Graham’s explanation of positive feedback was the notion that the content of any writing is special to its writer. What students write is unique and individual to them and oftentimes, teachers must be very careful in phrasing negative feedback in order to avoid saying negative comments about the content of the writing. Being careful with the phrasing of the “grow” feedback would help students understand constructive criticism without finding them to be offensive, all the while receiving an opportunity to revise their writing for improvement. Additionally, providing students with more positive feedback regarding their written work would build confidence within them, which would ultimately lead them to take more pride and ownership in their own writing.

Dr. Graham also discusses several effective writing instructional strategies and one that I found to be the most useful in my own teaching is self-regulated strategy development. In this strategy, students would monitor their own writing process as they set their own goals and work towards meeting those goals. This resonates with my teaching, as my instruction always includes students working towards independence and the ability to monitor their own work progress. In completing writing assignments, I provide students with a checklist that helps them regulate and organize their tasks while double-checking to see if they had met all of the requirements in completing their written task. Also, I provide my students with the rubric for the task and provide them the time and opportunity to assess their written work based on the rubric that I would be using to assess their work. In doing so, students are able to see their written work from the teacher’s perspective and can analyze their work based on a concrete rubric that the teacher will use. Providing students the opportunity to self-regulate their writing process allows them to reflect on their progress and the final outcome while also providing them with the opportunity to make any revisions that they find necessary. In having students actively think about their writing process, they will gain the knowledge of how to construct a coherent and effective written work.

Another writing instruction Dr. Graham explained that I heavily agreed with was grammar instruction. Because of the factor that grammar is no longer being explicitly taught to students in any grade level, majority of the students do not know how to write using proper grammar. Dr. Graham states that grammar can be taught in a similar format as sentence-combining strategy, where students take smaller sentences then combine them to construct more complex and longer sentences. Another method of teaching grammar is to provide sentence examples first, then analyze the sentence to come up with a grammatical rule for it. I find this strategy an effective way to teach grammar, as the students are receiving hands-on experience in dissecting the sentence structure on their own and then determining a possible rule that can apply to it. Although there is no longer a heavy emphasis on grammar instruction, grammar still remains an essential part of writing that holds one’s written work to a certain level of sophistication. Keeping this in mind, instructors of all contents should take grammar into consideration when grading written work and hold their students up to a certain standards as well.