Welcome to…

Moving Forward in the Teaching of Writing

August 5, 2008

Presentation by Melody Munger and Karen HamlinOregon Writing Project

Let’s see who is in the room…

I am the one who:

I am the teacher who. . .I am the administrator who. . . I am the writer who. . . I’m the reader who. . .

Goals of the session

To look at the call for ‘intensive writing’ as part of a comprehensive literacy program for adolescents

To examine the characteristics of quality school writing programs

To give you a chance to reflect on what this might mean for your teaching and curriculum

To connect you with colleagues through the Oregon writing project sites who can think with you and your staff about what’s next in the teaching of writing

But first, a word about the National Writing Project

…and the Oregon writing project sites in particular

National Writing Project Sites

Oregon Sites

Oregon WP at Eastern Oregon UniversityEastern Oregon University, La Grande

http://www.eou.edu/owp

Oregon WP at Lewis and Clark CollegeLewis and Clark College, Portland

http://www.lclark.edu/dept/nwi/owp.html

Oregon WP at Southern Oregon UniversitySouthern Oregon University, Ashland

http://www.souwritingproject.org

Oregon WP at the University of OregonUniversity of Oregon, Eugene

http://owp.uoregon.edu

Oregon WP at Willamette UniversityWillamette University, Salemhttp://www.willamette.org/owp

Site List

What goes on at a writing project site?

Invitational Summer Institute

Advanced institutes on special topics, conferences, continuity meetings, teacher-research and study groups

Professional development offerings for schools and districts

We’ll come back to the NWP and the Oregon writing project sites at the end.

The American public wants more attention paid to strong preparation in writing.

Recent examples…

Commission on Writing http://www.writingcommission.org

National Panel on Second Language Learners http://www.cal.org/natl-lit-panel/reports/Executive_Summary.pdf

New SAT and ACT tests with writing samples http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/about/sat/writing.htmlhttp://www.act.org/aap/writing/index.html

Emerging interest in students as writers in a digital world

And our own survey of public opinion demonstrates that the American public wants more attention paid to writing

Nearly 7 in 10 Americans (69%) believe writing should be taught across all subjects and grade levels

The majority of Americans agree that learning to write well helps students perform in all subjects and improves students’ standardized test scores

Helping teachers teach writing is a priority for most Americans

A goal of the NWP is to place a writing project site within reach of every teacher in the country.

There are currently nearly 200 writing project sites which serve over 135,000 teachers per year.

http://www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/print/nwpr/2300

http://www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/print/nwpr/922

The National Commission on Writing: A Ticket to Work or a Ticket Out

A survey of 120 major American corporations employing nearly 8 million people concludes that in today’s workplace writing is a “threshold skill” for hiring and promotion among salaried employees. Survey results indicate that writing is a ticket to professional opportunity, while poorly written job applications are a figurative kiss of death. Estimates based on the survey returns reveal that employers spend billions annually correcting writing deficiencies. (p. 3)

National Governors Association SurveyWriting: A Powerful Message from State Government

Despite the high value that state employers place on writing skills . . . of state employees compared to the general workforce, about 30 percent of professional employees fail to meet state writing expectations.

Comments from post-secondary stakeholders:

“Employees in the military write all the time if you count up the bits in the stream of e-mail, memos, reports, etc. They have to be clear, direct, unambiguous. And the thinking behind them has to be very, very careful. One thing the military will teach you is that lives really do ride on what you write and how you write it.”

Kinds of writing recent high school graduates are expected to do in the workplace and military:

Emails and memos (e.g., announcements, agendas and programs, recommendations)

Letters (e.g., application letters, letters of complaint, thank you letters, letters of request, customer service responses)

Reports (e.g., sales reports, meeting minutes, accident/injury reports, performance reports, maintenance reports)

Proposals (e.g., detailed project plans for proposals for problem solving, work plans to organize tasks)

Manuals (e.g., employee policies or instructions)

Summaries (e.g., trip, interview and meeting summaries)

Other (e.g., advertisements, news releases, newsletters, brochures/flyers, job descriptions)

Postsecondary Expectations for Writing

This move toward “texts at work in the world” is behind the renewed attention to:

Audience and purpose Genre as a focus of direct teaching Subject-specific writing and writing in the

disciplines Writing in the context of problem/project-based

learning Writing connected to service learning,

community outreach, youth leadership Publishing and digital dissemination projects

Let’s take a look at an example from the most recent NAEP

Find the handout showing the newspaper article: “Studies Show Students Need To Sleep Late: Night Owls Versus Early Birds”

Take a few minutes to study this actual NAEP prompt. Then, talk with your neighbor about how you would approach this task if you were the writer and had to respond to the task in 25 minutes — the time frame for a NAEP response.

Actual NAEP prompt used in 2005 NAEP Writing Assessment: Prompt: “Imagine that the article shown on the

next slide appeared in your local newspaper. Read the article carefully, then write a letter to your principal arguing for or against the proposition that classes at your school should begin and end much later in the day. Be sure to give detailed reasons to support your argument and make it convincing.”

Studies Show Students Need to Sleep LateNight Owls Versus Early Birds

The Journal of Medicine announced today the results of several recent studies on the sleep patterns of teenagers and adults. These studies show that adults and teenagers often have different kinds of sleep patterns because they are at different stages in the human growth cycle.

The study on teenagers’ sleep patterns showed that changes in teenagers’ growth hormones are related to sleeping patterns. In general, teenagers’ energy levels are at their lowest in the morning, between 9 a.m. and 12 noon. To make the most of students’ attention span and ability to learn, the study showed that most teenagers need to stay up late at night and to sleep late in the morning. They called this pattern “the night owl syndrome.”

Studies of adults (over 30 years of age) showed the opposite sleep pattern. On average, adults’ energy levels were at their lowest at night between 9 p.m. and 12 midnight and at their highest between 6 and 9 a.m. In addition, a study of adults of different ages revealed that as adults get older they seem to wake up earlier in the morning. Thus, adults need to go to sleep earlier in the evening. Researchers called this sleep pattern “the early bird syndrome.”

Researchers claim that these studies should be reviewed by all school systems and appropriate changes should be made to the daily school schedule.

Comments from post-secondary stakeholders:

“Sure, we want our employees to write clearly and correctly. That’s the bottom line in being understood. But the real concern is with getting a clear, concise analysis of a problem or a situation with thoughtful recommendations about what can be done. It’s all about leading to action for us.”

If you were to do the prompt for real, (not for a test) you would need to: Look carefully at the research

Study the sociological and cultural implications

Conduct focus-groups with stakeholders in the community

Examine the financial impacts

Come to a reasoned and defensible recommendation

Write numerous ‘texts’ to explain and argue for the position to be delivered in varying occasions and to diverse audiences

What’s next?

Making it real! The attention to writing, and to

adolescent literacy more generally, connects to the interest in reforming our schools to be more engaging, demanding, significant places for young people to do meaningful work.

So, if we are to make this an ambitious moment, what does that mean for us as teachers and administrators?

Recommendations from Because Writing Matters•Teach writing and use writing to learn strategies frequently, beginning in the early grades.•Integrate the teaching of literacy skills (reading and writing.•Assign diverse writing tasks and use multiple strategies.•Have students write for authentic purposes and in ways that engage them in problem-solving, reflecting, analyzing, and/or imagining.•Teach writing skills of how to organize thoughts, develop ideas and revise for clarity.•Teach writing as a process.•As a school, develop common expectations for good writing and fair and authentic writing assessments that are aligned with high standards and reflect student progress beyond single-text evaluations.•Provide professional development opportunities in teaching writing so that all teachers and administrators value, understand, and practice writing themselves.

Can the mandates of "No Child Left Behind" and the National Commission on Writing's recommendations be reconciled?

Professional development requirements in Title II of "No Child Left Behind" might point the way to a solution:

Provides for teacher mentoring team teaching reduced class schedules Opportunities to develop innovative strategies for intensive

professional development

National Commission on Writing: Writing a School Reform p. 21

OWP Inservice in Oregon schools.

Teacher consultants come on-site to learn about school needs.Consultants design programs specifically to meet site needs.Average programs are 10 hours in length.Presenters are experienced classroom teachers (following the “teachers teaching teachers” model).Presenters all have Writing Project training and experience.All sessions include writing and demonstration lessons.

Oregon Sites

Oregon WP at Eastern Oregon UniversityEastern Oregon University, La Grande

http://www.eou.edu/owp

Oregon WP at Lewis and Clark CollegeLewis and Clark College, Portland

http://www.lclark.edu/dept/nwi/owp.html

Oregon WP at Southern Oregon UniversitySouthern Oregon University, Ashland

http://www.souwritingproject.org

Oregon WP at the University of OregonUniversity of Oregon, Eugene

http://owp.uoregon.edu

Oregon WP at Willamette UniversityWillamette University, Salemhttp://www.willamette.org/owp

Site List

For more information, visit

www.willamette.edu/soe/owp.

August 5, 2008Karen Hamlin and Melody Munger

Oregon Writing ProjectWillamette UniversitySchool of Education

900 State St.Salem, OR 97301