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I know a lot of my flist is in academia, and

zulu and I have been talking about teaching and teaching writing specifically, and I decided to host a post about teaching writing.

So, if you teach or have taught writing at any age level, what are some of the strategies you use? Specific assignments? General thoughts about writing instruction?

If you have ever been a student of writing, what are some things your teachers did that worked? Failed abysmally? General thoughts about learning/teaching writing?

Recs for books, essays, or websites also appreciated.

Please feel free to share this around.

I'll put my thoughts in comments rather than the top-level post.

Crossposts: https://lunabee34.livejournal.com/564792.html

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From:

I learned this from the National Writing Project when I was a Summer Institute participant (six week intensive writing course for grad credit).

I tend to start my writing classes with a short writing assignment that's related to the reading we're doing; I ask students to write for about 7 minutes and then ask students to share. I always write along with the students and share what I've written. It makes them much more willing to participate, particularly if the topic is something like, "A time you had trouble with a writing assignment and what you did to make that experience easier."

From:

zulu

That's a really good topic. I usually get my students freewriting about the text we're reading at the beginning of class--they hand those short paragraphs in for participation marks, and it does help them to have something to say about the book when we start the discussion. But having it be about writing could be interesting.

From:

I usually start off my writing classes with a few weeks that are about the reading process, the writing process, and modes of development (largely because between bookstore fuckups and the way federal financial aid works now, we can't rely on our students having books the first day of classes or even the first week of class; I've learned to build in activities to start with that don't require the book).

So first, we talk about how to read successfully, active reading strategies, etc. I ask them to write about a time they had something to read that was difficult, why it was difficult, and what they did to help make it easier.

Then I list on the board all the things they come up with and we talk about them, and I bring up anything they may have forgotten (like breaking large tasks down into smaller ones, etc).

Then we talk about the writing process, and I ask them to write about their writing process, the steps they take from being given an assignment to turning it in. Most of them say roughly the same things which is fine. We talk about how the process is recursive, etc. Usually several people write about procrastination, and that's a great jumping off point for a discussion of how procrastination can be motivating but also limiting.

I only have my students write narrative and argumentative essays. I used to do a bunch more of the modes of writing (when I first started teaching, I think I had them write five different modes!), so now I have a day where I briefly talk about each mode (here's what process analysis writing is, some key words that help you identify it when you encounter it in your reading, now take the next 7 minutes and write a five sentence process analysis paragraph about a task you do on a daily basis; or a comparison contrast paragraph about what you do for fun vs what your parents do for fun). The students share (me too!) and after they read, I point out the signal words they've used (like because for cause and effect or sensory words for description).

Edited Date: 2018-10-14 12:09 pm (UTC)

From:

zulu

We mostly do argumentative but I believe there's also a departmental research requirement as well. So that's compare-contrast and evaluative at the same time. (So-and-so said this, other person said that, my point of view is...) I think I'm going to entirely overhaul my research assignment, though. I was having the students do an annotated bibliography for articles they found themselves and...they were finding things, really interesting things even, but stuff that was going way over their heads. I think I'm going to pre-select some non-peer-reviewed articles and then see how they use them in their essays. Time to experiment.

From:

I hate annotated bibliographies. Hate them. I hated doing them as a student and hate grading them as a prof, so I never assign them.

Our 1101 has a research component, but I just make their final argumentative essay a research essay; they have to have a certain number of scholarly sources to back up their ideas.

1102 is literature based, and also requires at least one essay to be a research essay. What I have done before is have something like what you're talking about. Every student has to find one scholarly article about one of the short stories we're reading; they have to link it on the communal discussion board, they have to provide the correct MLA citation for it, and they have to write a short summary of it. This way, students have a small pool of articles they can go ahead and choose from instead of starting their research from scratch.

From:

lyr

I like to do an exercise with my students before they write their first paper in which we compose a short essay together as a class in whatever mode their first assignment is. We talk through what to add or take out and why, so they get a chance to see the thinking process they're going to need in action. The next class period, I have them break into small groups and write essays together in the same mode. Then we can talk through how it went without me to nudge them along.

From:

This is a great exercise. That's pretty much what Josh does when he teaches.

On a different note, it's been such a while since I've taught 1101 in the classroom instead of online that I find I'm being smacked in the face with their immaturity and apathy their semester in this face-to-face class. LOL

From:

I pretty much have nixed peer review from my writing instruction. I used to do a lot of it and have gradually decreased until I have almost entirely eliminated it. I do it maybe once a semester.

Most students just blow it off. It's a wasted class period.

I'd love to hear from anyone who is using it effectively.

From:

zulu

Yeah, so true. Even when students are willing and engaged and giving comments, the ones listening either take it badly, or take it in good faith but have no idea what to do with the information (if it's even good/relevant information in the first place).

Any attempt at workshopping first years' creative writing is even more like pulling teeth.

Yet I think it's a valuable skill. I wonder how to teach it without doing it? Probably demonstration--like, either me critiquing something or having a colleague come in and critique me? Hm. Maybe if I wrote an example introduction paragraph and then went through exactly what catches my eye? Except it'd be more authentic if it was an actual first paragraph a student had written.

From:

I mostly encounter students who rush through the exercise in ten minutes and then want to leave. LOL

But you're right; it is a really useful and important skill. I have done things where I put up a sample essay, either an essay from past semesters with identifying info stripped out or an essay from online, and we critique it together as a group.

From:

I found peer critique frustrating in high school because the people who looked at my 'write-a-fairy-tale' assignment thought I had made up the word 'lass' and couldn't figure out what it meant from context.

From:

Ha! Yes. That is always the problem with peer reviewing. Some students are terrible peer reviewers.

In an ideal world, the way this is supposed to work is that weak peer reviewers are supposed to benefit from the example of stronger ones and that weak ones are supposed to get better with practice. In the real world, that just doesn't happen.

From:

lyr

I've never been able to make it work, but I plan to try again someday. I think it would be easier and more valuable in upper division and grad courses, but at the freshman level it's like the blind leading the blind. I feel like it theoretically might help them at least figure out what to look for so they can see their own writing more clearly, but I think I would have to make it a much more structured, guided process with a specific set of steps to follow and questions to answer as part of the review process. One of these breaks I'll try to plan that out and experiment with it.

From:

I've experimented with having different worksheets with specific things they have to look for which helps. I had a colleague who used to have a lot of success with peer review, and she had them do a specific checklist and then they had to write it up and then the reviewee had to respond and etc. She's gone now, but I wish I had gotten her exact process from her before she left.

From:

zulu

Does anyone have a good method of using a rubric? Or a successful way to generate a rubric for an assignment that shows what you're looking for in a finished piece?

From:

No. LOL

I do have a rubric I put up in all of my classes, but it's one of those huge, unwieldy rubrics that have this is what an A paper is like, etc, not one that has points on it.

I have found that using a rubric for writing becomes really limited because a rubric is easiest to use for quantifiable stuff (like grammar, punctuation, spelling, formatting) rather than more subjective stuff like sentence quality and depth of idea. Every time I've tried to use a rubric, it's always resulted in horrible grades for students because they get dinged, dinged, dinged for SPAG.

I will be sitting on this thread hoping someone has an idea.

From:

zulu

That rubric sounds really good--this is what an A paper does and so on. Right now I have a 5x6 grid for a total of 30 points. But it's difficult for me to justify each and every box. It's a feeling not a measurement, and boy the students know it. They're like, "But why?" And when I'm grading, I decide on the grade the paper deserves and then tick the boxes, otherwise exactly like you say, they lose all their marks on the unimportant stuff and I have to re-do it anyway.

From:

I have a vague memory of high school teachers who gave each paper two or three different scores. So many points for grammar/spelling. So many points for logical structure/convincing arguments. So much for... I have no idea. Possibly research and citations? Possibly complexity of expression? Possibly both?

From:

zulu

Yes, that sort is what I have. I really don't like it but it seems to reassure some of my first-year students? I want to be able to clearly communicate what an assignment requires and what shows they've achieved that standard, but I don't think this is working as it stands.

From:

Check out lyr's rubric below.

From:

Yep. This is exactly the problem I encounter. I will try to remind myself to send you the rubric that has no points but just shows what a good paper is at each grade level. You might can adjust it to be what you want.

From:

lyr

Yes. I use very specific, weighted rubrics, so that students can see exactly which things they excelled or fell short on and how much relative importance each of those things had. This helps them to understand the reasoning behind their grades, and also lets them know what's most important to focus on in revision. I design a different rubric for each assignment that reflects exactly what I expect them to be able to do in that paper and gives the point value possible for each category so that they can see the relative weight of all the criteria. For instance, my students are turning in their causal argument essays this Thursday. They've already seen the rubric I'll be using, so they know that they need to concentrate most on use of credible, relevant evidence (1-15 points) and critical thinking as demonstrated by fully explaining their claims of chains of causality and the warrants that underlie them (1-15 points). By contrast, a correctly formatted Works Cited page is only worth up to 5 points, and skillful use of sources and quotes clocks in the middle with up to 10.

From:

That sounds really useful. I just struggle with making the rubric weight the right stuff appropriately; it sounds time-consuming to make a new one for each paper; does it get easier as you spend time making them?

From:

lyr

It really does. I can look back at the rubric I last used for the same kind of assignment and tweak it to match whatever I've covered differently with the current class, and that saves a lot of time.

From:

Would you mind at some point sending me one or two of the rubrics you use? Or even just cutting and pasting it here in comments so Zulu can see, too. I've love to get a closer look.

From:

lyr

Sure! Here is the one my first semester freshmen are working from right now. Their assignment is to write a causal argument based off of an issue raised by one of our readings:

Content, Development, and Organization

_____ 1-5 Paragraph organization
Paragraphs break in logical places, and all content is in the paragraph where it belongs.

_____ 1-15 Support
Evidence is relevant and well-developed. Examples serve to fully illustrate and substantiate your thesis. There is careful explanation of your causes.

_____ 1-15 Critical thinking
There is intelligent and thoughtful exploration of chains of events. You draw connections to larger warrants, and the reasoning behind all your claims is fully explored.

_____ 1-5 Introduction
The introduction is well-structured and does the job of introducing your position and your thesis.

_____1-5 Conclusion
The conclusion is well-structured and does the job of tying up your ideas into a developed thesis.

_____1-10 Focus
You remain on topic, and you include all the information you need without any filler or needless repetition. You clearly explain the relevance of all the evidence you use.

_____1-5 Body paragraphs
Your body paragraphs are well-structured with topic sentences, transitions if necessary, explanations and examples, and ties back to your thesis at the end.

Grammar, Vocabulary, and Mechanics

_____ 1-15 Grammar
Punctuation, verbs, pronouns, and sentence structure are correct.

_____ 1-10 In-text citations
You use at least 3 in-text citations and cite them correctly. You integrate the quotations smoothly to support your points effectively.

_____ 1-5 Word choice
The vocabulary you use is appropriate. Your words mean what you think they mean, and are also non-slang.

_____ 1-5 Works cited
You have a Works Cited page, and it is in the correct format.

_____ 1-5 Format
You follow MLA format correctly in the body of your paper. Your margins, font, spacing, and headers are all as they're supposed to be.

Also, for comparison, here is one from my second semester course. The assignment for this one is to write a research-based argument taking an issue affecting modern America and tracing it back to its historical roots:

Content, Development, and Organization

_____ 1-5 Paragraph organization
Paragraphs break in logical places, and all content is in the paragraph where it belongs.

_____ 1-15 Treatment of sources
Evidence is relevant and well-explained. You understand and accurately represent your sources. Examples serve to develop your position, but also fairly represent the position of the source material. Instead of merely reporting on the information you find, you use it to effectively strengthen your own thesis.

_____ 1-15 Argument
You build a strong, logical argument for your thesis. You make a clear, confident claim about the development of your issue from its historical roots, and you do not oversimplify the complexities of that development.You are not simply reporting the information you gathered from your sources, but using it to build and support an independent thesis of your own.

_____ 1-5 Introduction
The introduction is well-structured and does the job of introducing your position and your thesis.

_____1-5 Conclusion
The conclusion is well-structured and does the job of tying up your ideas into a developed thesis.

_____1-10 Counter-argument
You include at least one counter-argument that engages either why a reader would disagree with your position or how you disagree with one or more of your sources.

_____1-5 Body paragraphs
Your body paragraphs are well-structured with topic sentences, transitions if necessary, explanations and examples, and ties back to your thesis at the end. You engage with one or more sources per paragraph.
Grammar, Vocabulary, and Mechanics

_____ 1-15 Grammar
Punctuation, verbs, pronouns, and sentence structure are correct.

_____ 1-10 In-text citations
You use correct in-text citations and integrate quotations smoothly to support your points effectively.

_____ 1-5 Word choice
The vocabulary you use is appropriate. Your words mean what you think they mean, and are also non-slang.

_____ 1-5 Works cited
You have a Works Cited page, and it is in the correct format.

_____ 1-5 Format
You follow MLA format correctly in the body of your paper. Your margins, font, spacing, and header are all as they're supposed to be.

From:

This is so awesome. Thank you so much for linking this. I am going to experiment with seeing if I can get a variation of your rubric to work for me.

From:

princessofgeeks

I am so so interested in this but I do not have time today to contribute. Because I'm grading essays! But will check back.

Thank you.

From:

I completely understand. I should be grading but am not going to. LOL

Do come back when you get a chance even if it's awhile from now; I'd love to hear your take.

From:

I think that one of the basic bits of knowledge about writing that nobody tells students is that the rules are different, depending on what kind of writing you're doing. You use the same tools and some of the same techniques, but you apply them differently for, say, an op-ed versus a poem or popular science book versus a literary short story or a romance short story. Knowing exactly how to write one doesn't mean having mastered all of them.

If you learn to build bookshelves and keep doing it until you're an expert, you're still going to find building a table challenging while you figure out which things are different. You'll have an advantage over people who've never built anything at all, but that won't automatically make you an expert.

Paragraphing in fiction, for example, is utterly different from paragraphing in non-fiction. I see a lot of people writing fiction and working on the assumption that short paragraphs are automatically bad. That results in scenes with action and dialogue getting jammed together and divided by how many sentences in the paragraph rather than by discrete events or actors. Paragraphs do different things in each type of writing even though they've got the same name.

I think paragraphing for writing narrative fiction needs to be taught as a different technique than paragraphing for other types of writing. I am not a teacher and have not figured out a great way to explain it, but I'm working on it because, when I beta read for people, confusing flow of action due to paragraphing issues is the biggest and most common problem I run into.

Some people really do think that paragraph breaks happen after so many sentences or so many lines of text and that using short paragraphs in fiction equals bad writing.

From:

zulu

Very good point for teaching fiction. It's one of those things that we somehow expect students to absorb as they write, or to osmose from published fiction, but they don't. Even more importantly, and this is true of a lot of fiction techniques, is to show the effect of breaking the rules. "What if we broke the paragraph here? What would be emphasized? What would be blended together?" Like a big circular argument where both sides are supposed to look chaotic and ineseparable: I might put lots of dialogue together in one paragraph in that situation. Would be interesting to try to do as an exercise. Maybe, provide a short text, and see how students could paragraph it differently? As well as showing the "proper" way?

From:

I like that idea about the pararaphing exercise.

I don't teach creative writing, but if I was, it would also be really interesting to have students write poems and then experiment with how the poem changes with different line breaks.

From:

Yes!

I think you are very right. Conventions for essay writing and creative writing are very different.

I don't teach creative writing,but I do assign one narrative essay each class because in my experience, students feel more comfortable writing about themselves; it's a way to ease them into the more rigorous requirements of argument. They always struggle with paragraphing in terms of dialogue.

From:

I finally got an explanation last spring for why the local school system starts students with persuasive essays before expository essays-- The state of Michigan used to rely heavily on ACT scores to evaluate high schools and for admissions to state colleges/universities, and the essay required for that was always persuasive. Because of that, the school board decided that kids needed to start writing persuasive essays before any other type. 3rd-8th grade, my daughter didn't write any essays that weren't persuasive.

I still feel that it was the schools trying to teach a no-hands cartwheel before a forward somersault or bicycling before walking.

From:

Ah yes. The explanation for why we do so much, because it's tested. *sigh*

I agree that persuasive should not be the first rung of the essay-writing ladder. I would always start with narrative.

From:

chelseagirl

Kind of too broad for me to know how to answer?

From:

LOL I hear that.

I started a thread about writing with your students, Zulu is asking about rubric use (which I would love help with as well), and I started one about peer review. I'd love to hear anything you have to say about that.

Or anything you've learned as the director of a writing center that you'd like to pass on to writing instructors. I think you're in a really unique position to see where writing instruction is failing/succeeding on a systemic level.

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