Before the 2nd graders began writing, Ms. Bond modeled starting a paragraph with the sentence starter, “My favorite foods are ___.” Then, she gave the class time to write while she worked in a small group with students who needed support. When I walked into the classroom, Dante raised his hand excitedly asking to share his writing. I knelt by his desk and read, “Pizza. Hot dogs. Hamburger.”—each word written on a separate line. He had completed the task as if it were a fill-in-the-blank question instead of a writing assignment.
Dante was a strong student with grade-level reading skills and lots to say. In kindergarten, he always had a story to tell, but somewhere between kindergarten and 2nd grade, he learned that one-word answers got more praise than long stories, especially when teachers asked questions or gave prompts. Dante applied that knowledge to his work and produced writing he hoped would be praised.
Children Are Storytellers
As a kindergarten teacher, I found that my students came to school as natural-born storytellers, opinion writers, and historians. At every opportunity, they would launch into detailed stories about their experiences at home, on the playground, or in the neighborhood. However, like Dante, they learned as they moved through the grades that teachers don’t have time to listen to all of their stories and ideas. What they wanted was short, rapid responses that focused narrowly on the questions being asked. Students felt more successful when they left their imagination behind.
All students come to school with stories and ideas to share. What they sometimes lack is the skill and habit of communicating those ideas to others, especially in writing. As they reach the intermediate and upper grades, they are asked to complete more and more written assignments. Unfortunately, those writing tasks seldom involve communicating their original ideas to an audience.
Children who are not used to communicating with an audience often struggle to make the leap to effective writing. Without an audience of family members, teachers, and other caring adults who listen to their stories, ideas, and opinions, children may not see a purpose for encoding their thoughts in writing. And when they do, they may limit their writing to the short, limited responses that are commonly accepted in the classroom.
Writing Is for Sharing Ideas
By the time students are in high school, many view writing as a chore to be avoided instead of a way to express themselves. We inadvertently make this worse in schools because we seldom organize writing instruction around the process of communicating one’s ideas. Instead, teachers often treat writing as a separate subject that is too time-consuming to engage in every day.
This leads to common complaints from students and teachers alike. Students say, “I don’t know what to write,” “I don’t know how to start,” or “I hate to write” because writing feels boring, difficult, or meaningless. Teachers say, “Writing is my least favorite subject,” “I don’t have enough time in my day to teach writing,” or “Getting my students to write is like pulling teeth” because writing instruction feels like another task rather than a way to hear from students.
All students come to school with stories and ideas to share. What they sometimes lack is the skill and habit of communicating those ideas to others, especially in writing.
Students do not develop as writers by simply completing assignments that require them to fill in the blanks, copy information, take notes, or write down others’ ideas. Instead, students become stronger writers when they write to communicate meaningful, important ideas to important people.
This is why students who routinely engage in meaningful, extended conversations with adults and peers often become confident writers. They are accustomed to communicating in ways that easily translate to writing.
Making Writing Real
To help children become strong writers, teachers must help them develop the skills, habits, and confidence to write confidently by building meaningful extended thinking, idea sharing, and communication with an audience into classrooms every day. Teachers should:
- Allow, encourage, prompt, and support students to develop ideas beyond one-word or one-sentence answers. Build in regular opportunities for students to expand upon their ideas in journal entries, 3–5-minute quick writes, or assignments that allow for writing stories and explanations instead of filling in the blanks or selecting multiple-choice responses.
- Be the audience for whom students tailor their communication. Having an audience they consider important helps students embrace writing as communication. Your comments, questions, responses, conversations, or shout-outs show students someone is reading their writing.
- Directly teach students strategies for engaging, informing, and interacting with their audience. Let students know that planning how they will engage and interact with their audience through writing is an essential part of communicating their ideas. Help them examine texts they read in class to see how writers engage and communicate with an audience.
- Clearly connect all writing tasks to authentic communication of original ideas. Create writing prompts that focus on meaningful topics, ideas, or questions and clearly identify an audience. When the topic is not meaningful or the audience is not identified (as is often the case on standardized tests), help students identify their own meaning, purpose, and audience for their writing.
The Audience They Need
Two weeks after my first visit to his class, I was invited to read Dante’s writing again. Ms. Bond had recently taught the students about writing for an audience. Dante was excited to learn that writing was a way to share ideas and stories with another person. Ms. Bond said the students could invite a school adult to be their audience for their new writing project.
This time, Dante wrote a full paragraph about his favorite things to do during recess. As he wrote, he thought about his audience (me) and added the details I would need to understand his message. Like Dante so beautifully demonstrated, when we provide an audience for our students, they have the purpose, incentive, and encouragement they need to translate their natural-born storytelling abilities into strong, confident writing.
