An Inside Look: One Approach to Teaching Writing

According to a Reading Rockets 2014 interview with Steven Graham (2014) interview on effective writing instruction, writing instruction has been given significantly less research and even less attention in teacher preparation programs (Reading Rockets, 2014). Although this likely comes as little surprise to many educators, what is even more alarming is how many teachers, three out of five according to Graham, feel less than prepared to teach writing even while actively teaching. Many teachers, like myself, rely on our own professional development and post undergraduate studies to better equip ourselves for the needs of our writers. In these studies, educators often find several theories of writing that help guide best practices for writing instruction. However, as Tracey Hodges (2017) states in Theoretically speaking: An examination of four theories and how they support writing in the classroom, “No one theory currently encompasses all that is writing” (Hodges, 2017, p. 145). When I consider writing instruction in my own classroom, I consider the practice to based upon aspects of the cognitive process and sociocultural theories and founded on the principle that writing is a process not a product.

Writing, as a process, means we are engaging with learning through many stages of composition from brainstorming and planning to drafting and revising. In the cognitive process theory of writing, writers “proceed through a set of distinctive thinking processes” (Hodges, 2017, p. 140) that are cyclical in nature, often revisiting prior stages of the writing process. While writing as a tool for learning is not a new concept, and many theories of writing instruction embrace the need to write across disciplines, the cognitive process theory extends this principle by “providing students with a method for thinking through their ideas” (Hodges, 2017, p.140). Writers use their cognitive processes to “create a representation of the writing task, develop a plan to complete it, draw conclusion about the audience and possible writing content” utilizing long term memory for genre, vocabulary and knowledge about topic (Graham & Harris, 2019, p. 11). In my classroom, this looks like students using quick writes, informal writing opportunities, brainstorming, and using graphic organizers. One concept particularly unique to cognitive process theory is the idea of creating an idea bank, where students are encouraged to keep the ideas that they brainstorm but decide not to use for the current writing task or that they ultimately eliminate from their writing through edits and revision processes. According to Hodges (2017), “by keeping these ideas, children learn that all ideas are valuable and have a place somewhere else” (p. 140) thereby creating an intrinsic motivation for writing. When a writer whose ideas are seen as important feels appreciated and valued.

This intrinsic motivation leads into the sociocultural process belief that writing is driven by motivation and social influences. Therefore, writing moves away from a solitary endeavor into the realm of collaboration- between the writing and writing; between teacher and writer; and between peers. Writing extends beyond classroom content to include prior knowledge, motivation, understanding of language, and technology influences (Hodges, 2017, p. 141). While collaboration between individuals is more overt and visible, we should not diminish the processes involved in determining topics, selecting details, conveying meaning clearly motivating by social and cultural contexts. The more visible, and in a sense more “teachable” collaboration is that between individuals. As we embark on a new writing unit, for example, students are actively providing input as I model composition. I am walking through creating a visual representation of my thinking as I brainstorm and ask them to add ideas to help me decide on a topic. I meet with students to provide individual writing conferences where we work together to reflect on a writing piece and establish individualized writing goals. Writers are not seeing me as an evaluator or judge, but rather a partner in their writing journey. Peers collaborate with one another as they are drafting or revising using a clearly defined structure for providing feedback. They learn to provide positive, meaningful feedback that extends both participants’ thinking about writing. These types of collaborations are only possible in my classroom because I have worked to establish a writing community that values its members and has a very specific steps for sharing feedback- find x number of things the writer did well to compliment and x number of recommendations for making the writing stronger (Reading Rockets, 2014). By listening to their writing read aloud and applying an actual audience, writers are more motivated to apply the skills and strategies they are learning.

Steven Graham and Karen R. Harris posit that writing is “a social activity involving an implicit or explicit dialogue between writer(s) and reader(s).. however, it requires the application of a variety of cognitive and affective processes” (Graham & Harris, 2019, p. 7). Essentially, writing is complex in that its bound by the limits of individual cognitive capabilities and influenced by the sociocultural community in which the writer composes. For example, a writer that is struggling with foundational writing skills like spelling and handwriting will struggle with recalling ideas or plans they held in their working memory. Hence why “teaching handwriting, spelling and typing to children in the primary grades has a positive impact on their writing: (Graham & Harris, 2019, p. 21). Although these cognitive processes are crucial for writing development, they cannot be the foundation, in isolation, for writing instruction. Writing instruction also needs to focus on sociocultural aspects of writing like goal setting, planning, self-evaluation, and collaboration. This is writing as process not product.

In my classroom, I want my students to understand writing as an on-going process and not the end product they produce. I firmly believe more learning happens in the act of composing, when writers move through several stages of writing, versus writing and turning in. For that reason, my students are taught from the beginning, in writing they are not allowed to raise their hands and say “I’m done.” A typical writing lesson in my classroom, even during the pandemic learning, begins with a mini lesson. Currently, my students are beginning their All About informational writing. We start by creating a shared writing All About book. Because we are also reading informational texts during our reading, it is not necessary to teach into what informational text looks or sounds like. Day one of informational writing begins with a mini lesson focused on what writers do to get ready to write. I begin all writing units with this lesson. We talk about the physical writing tools we will use (i.e. planning pages, new writing paper, etc.) and how before we write informational texts we need to first decide on a topic. I will hold 5 fingers up and remind them we can use our fingers as a thinking tool to help us decide if we know enough about our topic. By modeling this approach to choosing a topic, I am demonstrating using our choices and prior knowledge to help us pick a strong idea. By brainstorming aloud, writers can hear the process and hopefully apply that to their own thinking before they write. Let’s say we decide to write about all about polar bears for our shared writing, each finger represents a true fact I know about polar bears already, like where they live or what they eat. As I hold up a finger and let my writers think of a fact, we all have a planning page to record our thinking. We are bridging from the brainstorming to planning stage. I will model writing out three facts that are shared but will call on many students to share what they know. This shows my writers all ideas are valued. Then I will ask my writers to go back to their independent writing spaces and try to add at least two more facts to

their planning page. I am setting a goal for each writer as a class but will circulate to monitor and remind students of their individual goals as well. Some students may be working on stretching out their words. In that case, I will remind these students to focus on getting their idea written, but once they’ve written their facts they should go back and check to make sure they have a letter for each sound they hear in the word. I reference and encourage these students to make use of their writing tools like tap mats to help them visualize the stretching out. Likewise, students struggling with letter reversals or letter formation will be encouraged to go back and cross reference their alphabet chart to help them form the letters correctly. After several minutes, I will call my writers back to me. This is a well-established writing routine in our classroom. It is that another opportunity our lesson for collaboration. At this point I will ask my writers to turn and share with their writing partners. Each partner will share one idea they added to their planning page. If the partner did not also have that fact, she or he will add the fact shared by their partner to his/her own planning page and vice versa. After several minutes, I will once again call them all back to me. We end our lesson by sharing as a group what we noticed about our own writing and our partner’s writing and begin to think about what comes next.

If I were to go back through these lessons to label the writing theory woven throughout, you would clearly see there are distinct cognitive theory and sociocultural process theory working in tandem throughout. I do not believe it is possible to effectively teach writing where cognitive function and capabilities are separated from the sociocultural processes involved with writing. In fact, most of the work I do at the beginning of the year in writing is in creating a sense of community within our classroom where every peer feels valued and supported. This requires the educator to take a step away from the role of “assessor” and step into the role as guide. I can say, my approach to writing was not always this way. My personal writing theory was born out of my own reflection and shortcomings as an educator. I went from teaching high school English to teaching Kindergarten with little more than some curriculum guide books and generic lesson plans and an undergraduate experience that starkly emphasized reading instruction over writing instruction. My first year teaching Kindergarten I did not know any better so I started where the plans led me. Kindergarten students would begin with writing a personal narrative about something they did over the summer. I had not established writing routines and goals, at least not like I do now. I had not defined steps for peer collaboration. Essentially, I had not explicitly defined a safe space for brand new writers to feel successful. After witnessing the visible anxiety and frustration, I refused to continue teaching writing that way. I took what I learned as a mother, particularly as a mom of a struggling reader and writer and redefined what writing would feel like in my class. Now that I explore writing theories and pedagogies, I am reassured the practices I am implementing in my classroom are rooted in best practices.

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References

Bazerman, Charles, et. al. (2017). Taking the long view on writing development.

Research in the Teaching of English. 51(3). 351-360.

Graham, Steve & Harris, Karen R. (2019). Evidence-based practices in writing. In S. Graham, C.A. MacArthur & M. Hebert (3rd Ed.). Best practices in writing instruction (p. 3-28). New York, NYL Guildford

Hodges, Tracey S. (2017). Theoretically speaking: An examination of four theories and how they support writing in the classroom. The Clearing house: A Journal of Educational Strategies 90(4). 139-146.

Hyland, Ken. (2008). Writing theories and writing pedagogies. Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching 4(2). 1-20.

Reading Rockets (2014). Steve Graham: Effecting writing instruction [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp4l-oBbgXQ&feature=emb_logo