Writers or Test Takers?

Early this year, after giving the first major writing assignment, I noticed that my 8^th grade students were having trouble expressing their thoughts in writing.  In discussions, they showed unusual thoughtfulness and an ability to respond critically to one another’s ideas.  When it came to writing, they were not afraid to put pen to paper and get started, as some of my former students have been.  Most were surprisingly comfortable banging out a paragraph (or three) on a topic.  At first I was pleased.  They appeared to have greater fluency in writing than some of my former classes of students. 

 

Then I read the work.  My students’ voices were completely different in writing than they were in class discussions.  The thoughtfulness I’d come to expect and enjoy from their spoken words seemed to fade behind muddled sentences that did not flow, contradicted one another, and ultimately communicated very little substance.  I felt like a doctor who’d just opened up a healthy-looking patient for a routine surgery and found something completely unexpected.  What was going on?

 

After careful assessment of my students’ writing and some interesting conversations with them about it, I think I know what's been ailing them.  They had not thought of writing as something that starts in the mind and is an extension of their thoughts and spoken voices, a tool to communicate ideas to others.  Instead, writing for most of my students had felt more like some alien language that comes out of a pen when the teacher asks for it!

 

I needed to help the students connect what they think and say with the act of writing.  I applied a method I call Writing Outloud, in which students in speaking in front of the class on a topic, off the cuff, and then write about what they say, or respond in writing to what another student says.  They turn these ideas into paragraphs, and elaborate on them, both through speaking and in subsequent paragraphs.  Then we identify the big idea that each student has focused on and thinks is significant; we shape essays around these big ideas.

 

I now have complete drafts in front of me, and I am happy, because they are substantive.  Students are writing from real thoughts, experiences, and beliefs about important, relevant topics. 

 

But there is still much work to be done, and I’m not comfortable simply commenting on the drafts, correcting errors, and asking students to rewrite, (though they expect this).  I need to teach them to revise.  To do this authentically, students and I are going to need to think a little more carefully about audience and purpose.  I want them to stop thinking of me as the audience.  Who would they really like to reach in this piece, and how might they adjust their writing to do it better? 

 

The problem with authentic revision is that it’s going to take us away from formulaic writing.  What’s wrong with that, you might ask?  Nothing, except that everything I’ve learned over the years about the standardized test my students will take in mid-January tells me they need to be able to follow a strict, dry, five paragraph essay formula to do well on it. 

 

Who is the audience for the essays my students must write on the statewide ELA test?  What is the message they need to communicate to that audience?  The message is a superficial one that has nothing to do with the content of what they are writing, and everything to do with proving they can answer a question in a prescribed format.

 

This sounds startlingly similar to the initial problem I had with my students’ writing.  Their words were superficial and lacked voice and substance.  They were constantly looking for a right answer from the teacher, and if one wasn’t presented, they were trained to make it up and package it neatly in paragraphs. It was very hard for them to write clearly and compellingly, because they were not actually writing to communicate. 

 

I’m stuck at that familiar crossroads where I'm sure many other teachers in this country find themselves throughout the year.  Teach for the child or teach for the test?  If I dismiss my own professional judgment of what my students need and simply teach the test’s formulas, are they really guaranteed to perform better?  What exactly do they gain from the difference?

 

It’s November 11, and I’m going to invest some time in developing my students as real writers, because I just can’t see the logic in anything else. Some people have said good teaching is good teaching, and the scores will follow.  I’m not so sure, but I’m willing to take the risk.  Will let you know how it works out.

 

Comments

[Bob Heiny]

Another thoughtful post. I don't seem the conflict you mention. As I understand it, the writing test assess minimum student writing competence. Your expectations appear to exceed the minimum five paragraph expectations. Can't you teach to both expectations using one as a prerequisite for the other? Just let students know that's what's happening?

[Ariel Sacks]

Interesting question. Ideally, this would be true--the formula would serve as a framework for baseline-level writing. I think the conflict lies in that the *intentions* behind the formula-type writing and what I would call real or quality writing are so different. Quality writing does not naturally build on formulaic writing. In fact, I've heard many college professors complain of having to help their students "unlearn" the formulaic writing of their k-12 education in order to write at the college level.

The 5 paragraph essay, while simplistic, is not necessarily an easy form for middle school students to learn. They struggle with it, and part of the reason they struggle with it is that it does not tap into their natural desire to communicate. Instead it provides one more arbitrary structure to which they must learn to conform, which seems to shut down their motivation and critical thinking skills. It would be worth it if the formulaic essay were actually good writing, but since it isn't? I'm for rewriting the tests, so that they measure the kind of writing my students need to be able to do to get through college, and beyond. [Even blogging. no one blogs in 5 paragraph essays...]

But I'm still sorting some of this out. Any other teachers of writing want to weigh in?

[Cindi Rigsbee]

You have just described my teaching life for over fifteen years; that was when our state's Writing Assessment began for seventh graders. I struggled with all of the same problems and questions mentioned. I also researched, and I mean REALLY studied, every sample prompt and essay our state released, looking for the answers. In workshops, we were told to discourage the use of the five paragraph formula. At the same time, the papers I saw that scored the highest were based on that formula, although they always included flowery descriptions and a very present voice that was confident and sometimes humorous. After many years, I realized that it was imperative that I teach my students the difference between writing and the writing "test." I went to a wonderful workshop based on the book On Demand Writing by Anne Ruggles Gere, Leila Christenbury, and Kelly Sassi. There's also a website - www.writingondemand.org. What I learned was that it's okay for kids to know the difference between the well thought out and revised-until-almost-perfect paper and the paper they write for the state test. I learned strategies for helping kids unpack a prompt and for taking a finished essay and working backwards to determine what the prompt was and what the prewriting may have looked like. My students have always been pretty good at knowing that, unfortunately, some things we have to do are because of a test. We just have to be sure that we're working in those other writing experiences as well, and that they know the difference.

[Ariel Sacks]

Cindi, thank you for this! I will certainly check out those resources. I think you and Bob are right that making a distinction between "test writing" and "real writing" for students is the way to go. But I'm concerned with the order in which these two types of writing need to be taught. It seems to me that students first have to find their voices in order to be competent writers, even on the exams. Students are coming to me with very little experience of "real writing" and so I am charged with helping them develop their voices AND teaching test writing all before January! One might think I could teach test writing in the first half of the year and authentic writing after January, but I'm concerned that students don't actually do well with test writing if they don't already have some experience with real writing to communicate. (I leave fiction and poetry for the spring, but even within essay writing, there is a big distinction between the types.)

Also, Cindi, or anyone else who has managed to successfully teach authentic writing and testing genres, I'm wondering whether you have found that there is some value in the types of writing the test calls for...or is it just, for the moment, a necessary evil?

I am being unusually pushy, I know, but I'm really having a bit of an internal crisis here.
As I more forward as a writer myself, I am questioning more and more the way we teach writing to students!!!

[Cindi Rigsbee]

Ariel,
I definitely believe in teaching the authentic writing first. Kids have to understand that there is a purpose for writing in order to understand the "purpose" of writing for a test. I also make sure that I start with writing activities and prompts that are interesting so that they will actually WANT to write and then I incorporate those same types of themes in the "writing on demand" prompts. And I can absolutely say that I see some value in students being able to answer to a prompt on the spot. They are actually using many of their critical thinking skills as they prepare to write... by analyzing the prompt, organizing their paper, writing main ideas, and summarizing. All of these skills transfer to make them better readers, too.

[Ariel Sacks]

Thank you, Cindi. This is helpful. Your 15 years really show in the clarity you have around this grueling topic!

[TeachMoore]

Ariel,
Cindi's advice is right on, and you are certainly not alone in struggling over this question.

A few thoughts: The prompts for state-level writing tests are notoriously uninteresting for student writers, and I've found it's best to prepare them for that, too. Like Cindi, my colleagues and I closely studied the writing samples and old tests, and she's right that the ones that stuck closer to the formula were more likely to score well than those that showed more original thinking or structure.

Since I've made the move to teaching both community college and high school, I see the other side of the writing instruction picture more clearly. Students, especially average or struggling ones, do not easily transfer skills. For them, the formula is a scaffold to help them in a high-stakes, stressful writing situation (which is usually repeated again at the high school level as a graduation requirement). Once they have that test/formula approach drilled into them; however, the shift to more mature writing can be very difficult. I'd love to touch base with you and share more detailed help than I can get into here on the blog.

[John Norton]

Some years ago, after the advent of the five-paragraph "test essay," I interviewed a number of middle school E/LA arts teachers in Louisville about the changes they saw in students when schools began to obsess on the formula. It confirmed what Cindi and Renee are saying -- it became more difficult for students to find their own writing voice if their first exposure to the writing process was "writing for assessment." Plus, many students came to see writing as just another school chore.

Juli Kendall was a TLNF'er who studied the writing process in great depth and later wrote two books for Stenhouse. (She passed away in 2006.) Here's a resource she recommended to middle grades teachers who were trying to balance authentic and "test" writing:

http://cela.albany.edu/publication/brochure/guidelines.pdf

You might also check out Juli's book "Writing Sense" --

http://www.stenhouse.com/shop/pc/viewprd.asp?idproduct=8989

[Ariel Sacks]

It really helps to hear your perspectives. When I entered NYC public schools 5 years ago, NCLB was a baby and the tests existed, but it wasn't such a big deal, because principals' jobs did not depend on them and students were not being held back as a result of failing the tests. People were just beginning to obsess about the test. But by now, my students have been doing copy-cat test writing since third grade. In many cases, up to 50% of an elementary school day was filled with "literacy" and test prep. And I'm noticing a change in the kinds of writers they are when they come to me. And that change is not good. On the reading end of things, I see more students being able to do basic decoding than before, which is a good thing for kids and makes my job that much easier. But the writing is seriously troubling. The connection between written and oral language seems to be missing. I'm guessing that has something to do with the fact that oral language is not tested.

I'm glad to know that many of you have been able to find a balance. Renee, I'd love to talk more about the methods you've developed, and John, I am looking at Julie Kendall's work, and will be sharing it with my ELA department. I have to say, though, I'm still quite troubled by what I'm seeing.

[Val Mehlig Curry]

This discussion hits me where I live. Now in my 30th year as a freelance writer and my 5th as a public school teacher, I profoundly share the deep concern of how to help students pass those mandated 5th, 8th, and 11th grade Writing Assessments without sacrificing the development or the demonstration of their authentic and unique voices.

A couple of stories, master teachers, and recommendations come to mind immediately. Firstly, as a journalist, I'm always asked to "write to a format." As adults, we’ve all completed college essays, reports, and other documents, which require "formatting" that in essence translate into "formulaic writing"---if we allow them to. So how can both we adults and our students retain our own genuine writing voices throughout our lives in spite of the “hoops” through which we must jump?

The best advice I got to address this thorny issue was in June 2007 from the lips of the illustrious Georgia Heard (http://georgiaheard.com/ ) who stood at a podium addressing the Gwinnett County Writer's Institute audience (see Amy Buckner, Institute co-founder at http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department36.cfm). This Institute is a 9-day training for 200 or so in-county teachers of any subject. A decade-old, in-service, world-class experience, it’s where leading teachers of writing expound their hard-won wisdom along with some oh-so-practical tips and tricks of our trade.

Ms. Heard explained to us that “personal writing” was at the heart of any excellent writing. This is true regardless of the age of the writer or of the writer’s “assignment.” Practicing “personal writing” or narratives, thus, develop a writer’s voice in a way that the other genres simply do not. Purely personal writing or expression is found most readily in the genres of Poetry, Memoir, and Journaling. Therefore: Trying to teach a couple of months (or weeks) of writing to our teenagers by focusing on Exposition and Persuasion, for example (my state’s 8th grade assessment genres), while neglecting first and foremost the other aforementioned genres will result, during the Writing Assessments, in generally “formulaic writing.”

But what if time and circumstances do not allow you to spend a month or two in Poetry, etc., using Writers Workshops to develop a feeling for figurative language and style, exceptional focus and original ideas, as well as well-organized and logically flowing narratives with pizzazz and punch (see Nanci Atwell at http://books.heinemann.com/authors/109.aspx and Ralph Fletcher at http://www.ralphfletcher.com/)?

For example, last fall I was tied to working with a poorly developed 8th grade curriculum at my Title I school, new-to-the-school teachers like myself, and numerous Special Ed. students included with my often foreign-born students. So, being in an “emergency situation,” three out of the four of us 8th grade L.A. teachers invested in teaching the “craft” of writing that would most impact our struggling students---many of whom did not even use English as their primary language. After spending a bit of time on mentor texts that hooked the kids (e.g., “The Jacket” by Gary Soto), we focused on demonstrating and teaching a handful of skills that were key to the looming January assessment---including killer “hooks” and “clinchers,” creating details in a body paragraph, using statistical statements and personal anecdotes, employing vivid verbs and nouns, and finally, yes, sticking to the five-paragraph essay format.

We emphasized to our students that many of these skills involved techniques that they could use to write anything, but we were teaching these items specifically to ensure passage of their state assessment. The students understood. With 70% or so of them being on free and reduced lunch, 85% of them passed the assessment---including the Special Ed. ones---the first time they took it. So at least their writing would not hold them back from proceeding on to high school…..

This year I was hired to teach 6th grade gifted Language Arts in a public charter school. I allocated one whole month each this first semester to Exposition, Persuasion, Poetry, and Memoir. At the October Parent conferences at my non-Title I school, the parents expressed gratitude that I was helping their children to prepare to excel on the state assessment in two years AND also, primarily, to become well-educated citizens who write in their own voices. Indeed many of my students are starting to even like, if not love, to write---as their teacher clearly does. Both my Monday afternoon club (writing fiction and nonfiction to publish) and my Thursday afternoon club (journalism) are gaining members as the year progresses.

[Laurie Wasserman]

Ariel,

Your story about your middle school kids really hit home with me... When I went through my National Boards I chose a writing lesson for my video as well as a writing assessment tool for part of the portfolio. Working with middle school kids who are also on IEPs was no easy task. The authentic writing, as you have written about so accurately, as well as the insightful comments from everyone above, brought all those memories flooding back...

In the state where I teach, 6th graders aren't tested on the lengthy 5 paragraph writing, but need to respond to "open response questions." It is a huge challenge, particularly because in order to score a perfect 4, they have to hit all the points of formulaic writing, while using prompts that may not be something familiar to them. to help them practice, I was constantly having them repond to prompts but they resisted me when the prompts weren't something they enjoyed writing about or were outside their comfort zone.

Like you, I teach city kids, and kids who don't have English as their first language, and their life experiences can be somewhat different. So if a prompt is to describe in detail some of their favorite vacation destinations and why they enjoyed them so much, well, that's just too hard. One thing I've tried with my sudents who are so very frustrated with the writing process in general, is to compare what their coaches make them do to prepare them for their beloved ice hockey and cheerleading tournaments: practice and more practice. I explain the drills they do to prepare for their championships is the same as preparing for our state's writing tests: we just keep doing it until we're the best we can be.

It's probably wicked corny, but I tend to be a wicked corny teacher.

[Ariel Sacks]

I am so glad I wrote this piece and that I've been able to get feedback from so many great teachers. Val, your description of Georgia Heard's theory of the value of personal writing, I think, is exactly what I've been dancing around. And the list of essentials for string 5 paragraph essay responses is very helpful. A minor technical question comes up: in terms of hooks, on a test is it okay to begin with an anecdote that leads into a thesis statement? I certainly believe a good essay often begins with a story, but will that be appropriate on a standardized test? If so, I feel a little better about the writing the kids have to do there. I absolutely loathe the essay that begins with a thesis statement, then lists 3 examples. Then the body paragraphs simply explain each of the 3 examples in detail. SO boring to read!!! boring for the kids to write! boring to teach! I think you've suggested that an interesting hook is actually important in order to score high on a test....

Laurie, I totally hear you about the types of prompts on the tests often being irrelevant for the kids and reflecting cultural bias of the tests. I've found that the tests have improved just slightly over the years on this issue of bias, but not enough to really level the playing field. I watch the mental gymnastics our kids have do to be able to write about something they don't know or care about using the proper formula. Sometimes it just doesn't seem productive to me.

I think we need to redesign these tests and develop some "common language" and themes that cut across culture. The "success stories" that we so often see on these tests I think achieve this. Every child can recognize the value of hard work and determination, and identify those aspects in the text on a test. I'd like to see the tests engage students in problem-solving (not math, but life) and creative processes. Students would be given a set of conditions, which would need to be checked for bias. They would need to make a plan to solve a problem, or design something to improve the conditions, or write a scene in which characters from a text play out their conflict... then i'd like to see students explain and support the decisions they made in their response to the prompt. This might test more accurately their real-world ability to write something of importance.

Anyway, this has been really interesting and helpful. Thank you for helping me think more clearly about this.

[Thesis Writing]

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