I wanted to share this important reminder from Joan Sedita, author of The Writing Rope:
“It is not unusual for students who read at grade level or above to have difficulty writing well. Improving students’ writing quality requires more than simply having them write more. Explicit writing instruction is necessary, and it benefits all students, even those for whom learning to write seems to come effortlessly.”
— Joan Sedita, The Writing Rope
There are two things I want every teacher to take from this: Students can be strong readers and still struggle with writing, and simply asking students to write more isn’t enough. We have to explicitly teach them HOW to write.
A student can read on or above grade level and still struggle with writing.
We sometimes assume that strong readers will naturally become strong writers, but that isn’t always the case. Writing is its own complex skill, and students need to be explicitly taught how to write.
Simply having students write MORE doesn’t necessarily make them better writers.
More writing practice is valuable, but practice alone isn’t instruction. If a student doesn’t know how to organize a paragraph, develop an idea, use evidence, elaborate, or structure an essay, giving them another writing prompt doesn’t teach them how.
They need explicit writing instruction.
We don’t just need students writing more. We need to make sure we are teaching them HOW to write.