Making Time for Writing

Earlier this summer I received a forwarded message via email of our state superintendent's updates, and my heart sank when I read the following paragraph:

In this budget, the legislature has suspended the writing assessment at 4th and 7th grades and has limited the high school writing test to one opportunity in the 11th grade. This will result in a significant cost shift to districts at a time when they can least afford it and will result in fewer opportunities for our students to demonstrate their mastery of writing. We know that writing is a key predictor of college and career success, and starting in 2013 all students will be required to demonstrate their proficiency in writing in order to meet new graduation requirements. These cuts to the writing assessment mean that we are making it harder for students to earn a high school diploma. Because of this reduction, we will need to ask more of our districts and schools in order to provide the supports and opportunities critical to student success. 

While dismayed, I was not completely shocked. In the previous years I had seen the state go from two raters in grades 4, 7, and 10 to only single scores in 4th and 7th grade to save money. I had heard teachers in Idaho talk about how their writing assessment had already been eliminated. Immediately I also thought, "What's tested is taught," and I sent an email to a team at my school explaining that I hoped we would maintain a focus on writing, despite this change, to the benefit of students long-term.


As I was looking for a link to her announcement, I noticed that back in May Susan Castillo had talked about why she did not agree with proposals to eliminate the assessment. In the article, Kimberly Melton wrote, "But some state lawmakers say they must identify more cuts, including scraping the state writing assessment, a move they say could save the state nearly $3 million. Writing is the only state assessment not required by the federal government." And there it is, confirming my initial thoughts, the logic that if it is not tested, why do we need it? As if writing was not pushed to the side enough already with the majority of the attention shifted to math and reading. I fear that without assessments at different points along the way, there is a big danger that writing just won't happen in many schools (or at least not taught enough). 


Balancing time is always a big area of reflection. Recently Ashlee asked me: 

How do you integrate the use of a notebook in middle school? We don't get a lot of time with the students as it is, so how do you schedule writing time? Every day? Bellwork time? 

About three years ago when I shifted over to being a mainstream teacher (as opposed to ESL and reading pull-out support in the first three years), I started to read voraciously about writing and teaching writing. I remember early on reading about how it is not too uncommon for some schools or teachers to push writing up until the assessment and then not include writing as much or at all. I remember the author(s) advocating for the place that writing has in the curriculum all year long. This highly influenced me, and I have tried to always keep this in mind. Nonetheless, as Ashlee mentioned in her full comment, time is often an issue in language arts when there is so much that it could encompass. 


Throughout the years my schedule has changed. Two years ago, I had longer class blocks. Last year it was shortened to about an hour to an hour and twelve minutes, depending on the class period. It was a difficult juggle trying to decide how to incorporate all that I thought was important in a shorter period of time. Nonetheless, I was dedicated to incorporating writing every single day of the school year. In the very rare occasion that we did something out of the ordinary of our regular workshop schedule, such as watching a Teach for Tolerance film during our Take a Stand Unit, then students did not have writing workshop per se, but they did write a reflection on the video. 


This year, in a typical class about 45 minutes was spent on reading, while around a half an hour was spent on writing. With regards to notebooks, I introduce them early on in the school year and emphasize them as a tool to gather ideas and explore. I also emphasize the power of slice of life stories. As far as whole class, guided activities with writer's notebooks, I typically utilize them more at the start of a genre studies, as we collect and share ideas together before moving into drafting. However, during writing workshop, I let students know that they can always use their writer's notebook to gather more ideas or to aid in other stages of the writing process. 


In my first year of teaching, I did have my high school ESL students start with independent reading, followed by a daily prompt response in their notebooks, but I have not done this since. I have read about others using writer's notebooks for prompt quick writes and would like to experiment with that on a consistent basis again because I think about how I appreciate and grow as a writer because of Laurie Halse Anderson's Write Fifteen Minutes a Day or Ruth Ayres' new discover. play. build. prompts. There are so many possibilities with notebooks... 


Next year the class blocks may be even shorter. Regardless, language arts is always a delicate balance - considering how to integrate everything that we value. I remember reading once that it is essential that every component of language arts serves multiple purposes and to emphasize the link between reading and writing to maximize the time available. I am a firm believer that decisions need to be based on considering the big picture, thinking about the purpose of education, as well as what we think contributes to well-rounded individuals, rather than simply focusing on the narrow range of what is tested.