Dive Brief:
- Schools in Massachusetts and Texas have embraced concrete strategies for teaching students how to think about and approach writing, rather than simply asking them to do it and learn from the practice.
- District Administration reports one school in Massachusetts’ Plainville School District uses the "Empowering Writers" approach that focuses on tools for students as well as teachers, including graphic illustrations of good writing models for narrative, opinion and expository forms.
- While writing differs from subject to subject, teachers in a single school should have common language to describe aspects of it, and new technology can help with early revisions, giving students good feedback without so much teacher intervention.
Dive Insight:
No matter what students do after high school, writing will be an important aspect of it. College and job applications demand strong writing. Even absent responsibility to prepare reports, most students will have to communicate in writing at their future jobs, if only through email. But teaching writing is hard, perhaps most significantly because of the time it takes for instructors to go back and forth with edits and revisions on the way to improving student work. That is one place where new technologies can help. District Administration highlights Revision Assistant, Write to Learn and PEG Writing. As with other new classroom tools, professional development is an important component of incorporating technology. When teachers are on the same page with a district vision — or involved in deciding what page that is — students benefit.
