The document discusses a revolutionary call for improved writing instruction in high schools due to a nationwide decline in writing proficiency among students. It highlights recent legislation, statistics indicating insufficient writing assignments, and proposes strategies for enhancing writing education, including a national writing policy and assessment redesign. The document emphasizes the need for educators to adapt their teaching approaches to prepare students for college-level writing and the demands of a multimodal communication environment.

1. High School Teachers, Take Notice:
The Revolution Has Begun
Maggie Cotto
ENC 6712
December 6, 2009

2. Purpose of this Presentation:
 To provide busy high school teachers with current
information regarding writing instruction and education
policies.
 To suggest new instructional goals proven to increase
learning proficiency in writing skills.
 To provide teachers with resources and guidance to achieve
these goals.

3. Recent Legislation related to Writing
Instruction:
 2002: College Board establishes the National Commission on Writing in
America‟s Schools and Colleges.
 2003: This Commission publishes a report calling for a revolution in
writing instruction entitled “The Neglected „R‟: The Need for a Writing
Revolution.”
 February, 2009: President Obama signs a stimulus law that “requires
states receiving stabilization money to work to improve courses and tests
so that high school graduates can succeed without remedial classes.”
 April, 2009: Florida Department of Education notifies schools of
Senate Bill 1908 implementing college readiness testing in high school,
along with college readiness and college success prep courses.

4. Why this Call for a Revolution?
 Nationwide decline in writing scores.
 Secondary schools found to neglect significant writing
instruction.
 Changes in college-level writing curricula.
 Wide gap between secondary and post-secondary writing
instruction.
 New research and theories in the field of writing instruction.
 Increase in standardized testing, which complicates classroom
objectives.
 Advances in technology offering new tools for
communication and composition.

5. Statistics
 Most fourth-grade students spend less than three hours a
week writing, which is approximately 15 percent of the time
they spend watching television.
 Nearly 66 percent of high school seniors do not write a
three-page paper as often as once a month for their English
teachers.

6. Statistics
 75 percent of seniors never receive a writing assignment in
history or social studies.
 the senior research project has become an educational
curiosity, something rarely assigned because teachers do not
have time to correct such projects.

7. Statistics
 At grades 4, 8, and 12, about one student in five produces
completely unsatisfactory prose, about 50 percent meet
"basic" requirements, and only one in five can be called
"proficient.”
By the first year of college, more than
50 percent of the freshman class are
unable to produce papers relatively free
of language errors or to analyze
arguments or synthesize information.

8. Conclusions
These statistics demonstrate that schools across the nation are
in drastic need of changing their writing instruction policies
and techniques. The writing commission states clearly:
“Although there is much good work
taking place in our classrooms, the
quality of writing must be improved if
students are to succeed in college and
in life.”

9. The Strategy of the Revolution
--According to the National Commission on Writing
1. A Writing Agenda for the Nation
 All states‟ standards ought to include a comprehensive
national writing policy, which would require schools to
double the current amount of time spent writing in all of
the students‟ subject areas.
 New education students would take a course in writing
theory and practice before obtaining a teaching
certificate.
 Congress would provide the financial resources necessary
for the additional time and personnel required to make
writing a centerpiece in the curriculum.

10. The Strategy of the Revolution
--According to the National Commission on Writing
2. Assessment Redesign
 Assessment of writing competence must be fair and
authentic. In other words, it should be thoughtful and not
performed in an “assembly line” fashion.
 Standards and curriculums must be aligned across content,
so that all teachers are responsible for writing instruction.
 Assessments should provide students with adequate time to
write and should require students to actually create a piece of
prose.
 Best practices in assessments should be more widely
replicated.

11. Best Practices
 Writing assessment should place priority on the
improvement of teaching and learning.
i.e. Teachers, use early assessments to
analyze students’ strengths and weaknesses
and THEN design later assessments that
focus on strengthening areas of weakness.
This means that your assessments will be
DIFFERENT each time they are
administered.

12. Best Practices
 Writing assessment should be based on continuous
conversations with as many stakeholders as possible.
Talk to your students about their assessment
results, talk to their parents, talk to their
other teachers.
 Writing assessment should include appropriate input
from and information and feedback for students.
Discuss assessment prompts and criteria
THOROUGHLY with students; allow them to
ask questions and share ideas, provide
suggestions and model texts. Discuss their
work with them afterwards.

13. Best Practices
 Writing assessment should use multiple measures and
engage multiple perspectives to make decisions that
improve teaching and learning.
Assign different types of assessments, with
different time limits, administered by
different teachers, addressing different
subjects.
 Writing assessment should recognize diversity in
language.
Recognize and incorporate the multiple values
and ways of expressing knowledge by students
present in the classroom and local communities.

14. Recent Research in Writing Pedagogy
Scholars have recently revisited the field of writing instruction
and have come to view writing in fresh terms, leading to
changes in college writing curricula.
Now, this scholarship and these changes need to reach the high
school level.

15. Current Theories of Writing
Writing is a SOCIAL PRACTICE
 When students understand that writing functions within various
social contexts, and that the writing itself varies respectively, they
can then learn to transfer skills and adapt to different writing
situations better than practicing the act of writing as an isolated
task separate from the environment in which it is accomplished.
 The social dimension of the activity of writing involves the
relationship between the writer and the audience, as well as the
socially-constructed artifacts that the writer makes use of during
the activity of writing.
 The act of writing is not social just because of its communicative
purpose… it is also social because it is a social artifact and is
carried out in a social setting.

16. Current Theories of Writing
Writing is COGNITIVE
Writing to Learn- is a pedagogical approach that values writing as
a method of learning.
 When students write reactions to information received in class or
in reading, they often comprehend and retain the information
better. Writing can also help students work through confusing new
ideas and apply what they learn to their own lives and interests.
Also, because students write more frequently, they become more
comfortable with writing and are able to maintain or even
improve upon their writing skills.
 WTL assignments are typically short and informal and can be
performed either in or out of class. Examples include writing and
reading journals, summaries, response papers, learning logs,
problem analyses, and more.

17. Current Theories of Writing
Writing is CONTEXTUAL
Writing in the Disciplines - recognizes that each discipline has
its own unique language conventions, format, and structure.
 The style, organization, and format that is acceptable in one
discipline may not be at all acceptable in another.
 To participate successfully in the academic discourse of their
community, students must be taught discipline-specific
conventions and should practice using these conventions.
 Some common WID assignments are reports, literature reviews,
project proposals, and lab reports. WID assignments can also be
combined with WTL activities to help students think through key
concepts, ideas, and language of in their disciplines.

18. Writing across the Curriculum
WAC – is based on the above theories, which acknowledge
writing as social, cognitive, and contextual.
 WAC-has been replacing traditional First Year Composition
courses in colleges and universities across the nation.
 WAC- is based on the pedagogical approaches of Writing
to Learn and Writing in the Disciplines.

19. Advances in Technology
With an infinity of digital resources available,
students are learning to compose and
communicate through various media, some
containing written, typed, or “texted”
messages, while others utilize other media
such as sound, image, and video.
 Sarah Beck says “it cannot be denied that the nature of writing is
undergoing rapid and dramatic changes in the present multimodal
age.”
This means that students expect to write and learn
in environments made up of multiple modes of
communication.

20. Teachers’ Views of Writing Instruction
in the Digital Age
 Karl Fisch, director of technology at Arapahoe High School in
Centennial, Colorado, [says] being literate ... means using critical
thinking skills to analyze, critique, and evaluate information –
essential skills in an information-abundant society.
 Dawn Hogue, who teaches a class called Cyber-English in
Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, [states that] the key for students
today... is the “authenticity” of the audience – in other words,
creating for and sharing with someone other than the teacher.
“Students are reaching literally global audiences online,” she
explains. “Why would they be motivated to write an essay for
only one person, who is only reading it because it is his or her
job?”

21. Some Digital Composition Projects:
Networked Writing Environments
In a wiki-based composition project, where students can log-on
and access each other‟s writings, comment, add to, and even
grade them, their own writing improves:
 Students produce better work in a peer-reviewed
environment.
 Grammar and mechanics are contextualized and there is
greater motivation to create error-free work.
 Students read each other's work, which forces them to
consider their arguments carefully in order to avoid repeating
someone else's point.

22. Some Digital Composition Projects:
Digital Storytelling
Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to
tell stories.
 As with traditional storytelling, most digital stories focus on a
specific topic and contain a particular point of view. However,
digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based
images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music.
 Digital stories can vary in length, but most of the stories used in
education typically last between two and ten minutes.
 The topics that are used in Digital Storytelling range from
personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from
exploring life in one's own community to the search for life in
other corners of the universe.

23. Some Digital Composition Projects:
 Create a digital book review of an independently read book in the
form of PowerPoint or video to present in class.
 Perform Internet research to locate and relate current news
stories to short story plots and conflicts.
 Design, create and use web texts, blogs, online writing portfolios,
audio essays, and other digital compositions.
 Experiment with different genres of digital representation (e.g.,
documentary, literacy autobiography, interview) and primary
resources (e.g., letters, photographs, maps, sound recordings.

24. Preparing Students for College
High School Graduates are Unprepared
 60 percent of students enrolling at two-year colleges, and 20
percent to 30 percent at four-year colleges, take remedial
courses.
 More than a million college freshmen across the nation must
take remedial courses each year, and many drop out before
getting a degree.
 We need to “better align what we expect somebody to be
able to do to graduate high school with what we expect them
to do in college” (Dillon).

25. Suggestions for Narrowing the Gap
 Explain and discuss the social, cognitive, and
textual aspects of writing with your students.
 Allow them to practice analytical writing in
various content areas.
 Align high school classroom objectives with
college composition areas of focus, including:
• The use of argument in compositions, including a claim, evidence, and
acknowledgement of objections.
• Interpretation of assignments, understanding of professors‟ expectations.
• A clear point or thesis.

26. Policies for Preparedness
Florida Senate Bill 1908
 This policy will include communication between community
colleges and local high schools.
 The Florida College Entry-Level Placement Test will be
administered to high school students at the beginning of the
tenth grade for the purpose of obtaining counseling regarding
future college and career planning and for the purpose of
providing remedial instruction that may be appropriate.
 High school eleventh or twelfth grade students also may be
given the option of taking the Placement Test.

27. Policies for Preparedness
Florida Senate Bill 1908
College readiness and college preparatory courses will be made
available to high school students for .5 elective credit.
They are entitled:
 Math for College Success
 Mathematics for College Readiness
 Writing for College Success
 Reading for College Success

28. Conclusion
 Policymakers and administrators depend on educators‟ knowledge
of best practices for writing instruction and assessment.
 Educators, in turn, need to make administrators and policymakers
aware of necessary changes to curricula and testing criteria.
 In the classroom, teachers need to see and teach writing as social,
cognitive, and textual, rather than isolated or immediately
producible.
 Technology will continue to be implemented in schools and
workplaces, which means that teachers and students must be
mindful of writing standards, even while utilizing multimedia
programs in replacement of pen and paper.
 Finally, by building transferable and contextual writing skills, high
school teachers may better prepare their graduates for the
learning and writing tasks ahead of them.

29. Prepare Yourselves
Prepare your Students
Take part in the revolution.