Rethinking The Process of Learning To Write
By Amy Patel & Sara Hollingsworth
Elementary Instructional Coaches, School District of Superior
If you are reading this, then you are probably a person that is curious, eager to learn more about the community in which you live, and to learn more in general. You value websites, such as this one, and blogs, newsletters, books and magazines of all sorts. Perhaps you find yourself asking, who writes this? Or even, could I write this, could I contribute?
The reality of our world today, with an ever-present media, is that communication through writing is critical. As Calkins, Ehrenworth and Lehman write in Pathways to the Common Core, “in this day and age, the ability to convey knowledge is becoming as important as the knowledge itself. Researchers share findings, clients expect clear communication, consumers give feedback, colleagues compose collaboratively—all through writing…whether our students become scientists, engineers, activists, or analysts, they’ll need to be able to write well to do well.”
Because of this demand, the Superior School District saw the need to rethink how we deliver writing instruction.
2014-2015 has marked an exciting year for learning at the elementary level in the School District of Superior. This school year we began implementing a new resource that is aimed to teach all elementary students how to write to meet the demands of the Common Core Standards and life in our world today. However, this resource is also one that serves as on-going professional development for teachers around the teaching of writing. In many senses, our teachers and students are learning how to become better writers together—they are on the journey side-by-side.
Lucy Calkins, Founding Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and author of the Units of Study in Opinion, Information and Narrative Writing writes this about the resource that we are implementing:
”We’ve written these teaching resources because writing matters. Demand for professional development in writing has far outstripped the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project’s abilities to provide this support. These books reflect our efforts to hand over what we know so that more children can be given opportunities to grow strong as writers and more teachers can experience the extraordinary benefits that come from participating in a community of practice that evolves alongside a shared inquiry into the teaching of writing.”
When students and teachers are engaged in a learning process together, everyone wins. Students in grades Kindergarten through Grade 5 in all buildings are participating in writing workshops, and learning skills to write narrative text, information pieces, and even how to share opinions and form arguments. And, teachers are working diligently to make this come to life. They have spent countless hours reading, discussing and planning lessons to meet the needs of each learner. Most importantly, however, is that teachers and students alike are excited about writing.
