The act of writing is primarily treated as a performance meant to impress a teacher or score well on a standardized exam.
I love this phrase and find it super relavant. As a student in high school I for sure catered my writing to fit what was needed to impress or score high, I even catch myself doing it now as a college junior. I find that this leads to some of my worst writing and I'm generally unhappy with the final product.
Seriously. Let’s end it.
Yes!!! I think it's a great concept to teach beginner writers how to structure their writing but it can't be the only acceptable form of essay or academic writing that students work with throughout their learning career.
recognize their own role in learning;
A huge part of the transition from high school to college level learning and understanding is recognizing this!
consistently take advantage of in-class (peer and instructor responses) and out-of-class (writing or learning center support) opportunities to improve and refine their work.
As a future educator I wonder how we can encourage and support students in taking that extra time to learn and grow outside of the classroom environment without pushing them towards a negative relationship with that subject.
examine their own perspectives to find connections with the perspectives of others;
Discussions and Seminar based classes seem to really focus and use this skill set when asking students to be comfortable and open to all ideas and theories produced during a session.
approach learning from an active stance.
I think this is such an important factor of learning! If the students are not actively engaging with the learning and skills (in any format) then I think it's harder for them to implement those skills and practices into their life.
variety of fields and disciplines.
Good to note that these habits of mind can be applied to any type of writing or discipline meaning that students in tradition "non-writing" based tracks can still learn and benefit from these skills.
For example, many students are taught a specific and quite rigid structure for writing an essay, commonly known as the “five-paragraph essay.”
Even as someone who was taught the 5-paragraph format years ago and has since then learned other ways to write effectively, this particular format seems to be my default when I am uncertain of the criteria expected from me.
traditional grammar instruction is unlikely to help improve the quality of students’writing.
I'm curious as to the reasoning behind this. If it has something do with the changing forms of language in modern society or if grammar instruction has never been wholly effective but used only as a means of teaching to what was deemed "important" for young writers.
The study of models providesadolescents with good modelsfor each type of writing that isthe focus of instruction
This seems to be common strategy in AP style classes where the teacher is preparing the student for the type of writing they will have to do and showing essays that earned high scores or ones that earned poor scores. They then discuss the aspects of each essay and encourage the students to think about the reasoning for the scores.
adolescent literacy levels have remained stagnant
I think this indicates that something in our education system is not working for our young readers and writers. To me it seems as though there is something lacking in our teaching methods that has resulted in this unchanging literacy levels.