What Is Happening in the Teaching of Writing

Abstract

It has been almost 30 years since the last systematic look at writing instruction in middle schools and high schools in the United States (Applebee, Writing). Since that report, there have been a number of signifi cant changes in the contexts in which we teach and in which our students learn to write. In the larger culture, the technologies for creating written text have changed from electric typewriters to word processors and a plethora of related tools. In a related development, Internet search engines and the resources to which they lead have become a primary source for information from the mundane to the exotic. The context of schooling has also changed, with programs and practices affected most directly by an emphasis on standards and assessments as part of a growing concern with accountability. Given a focus on reading, rather than writing or literacy more generally, by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), this movement has had an impact on teaching and learning at all levels of public education. It has also led to reemphasis of the importance of professional “capacity”—and on the continuing development of teachers’ knowledge and expertise to be sure that such capacity exists. Amid all of these changes, it is time for those of us concerned about the teaching of English to take stock of the state of writing instruction and to ask, What has been happening to the teaching and learning of writing in American schools? How have these changes, particularly the emphasis on reading rather than literacy more broadly, infl uenced the ways in which writing instruction is offered by teachers and experienced by students, across the curriculum? Fully answering these questions will require a new national study of writing instruction, a project that is currently underway as part of a collaboration between the Center on English Learning and Achievement and the National Writing Project. Check our website (http://www.albany.edu/ cela) for updates as that study progresses. Before gathering new data, we began by examining information available from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP; Applebee and Langer). During the spring of 2007, the US Department of Education released the latest results from its periodic assessments of the writing achievement of American school children. Stretching back to the 1969‐70 school year, NAEP, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, gathers background data about teachers’ and students’ perceptions of curriculum and instruction as well as measuring student performance. It thus provides some interesting perspectives on changes over time in writing instruction as well as in writing achievement.

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