Welcome to

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Welcome toMoving Forward in the Teaching of
Writing
August 5, 2008 Presentation by Melody Munger and
Karen Hamlin Oregon Writing Project
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Lets see who is in the room
I am the one who I am the teacher who. . . I
am the administrator who. . . I am the writer
who. . . Im the reader who. . .
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Goals of the session

• To look at the call for intensive writing as
  part of a comprehensive literacy program for
  adolescents
• To examine the characteristics of quality school
  writing programs
• To give you a chance to reflect on what this
  might mean for your teaching and curriculum
• To connect you with colleagues through the Oregon
  writing project sites who can think with you and
  your staff about whats next in the teaching of
  writing

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But first, a word about the National Writing
Project

• and the Oregon writing project sites in
  particular

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National Writing Project Sites
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Oregon Sites
Site List
Oregon WP at Eastern Oregon University Eastern
Oregon University, La Grande http//www.eou.edu/ow
p Oregon WP at Lewis and Clark College Lewis and
Clark College, Portland http//www.lclark.edu/dept
/nwi/owp.html Oregon WP at Southern Oregon
University Southern Oregon University,
Ashland http//www.souwritingproject.org Oregon
WP at the University of Oregon University of
Oregon, Eugene http//owp.uoregon.edu Oregon WP
at Willamette University Willamette University,
Salem http//www.willamette.org/owp
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What goes on at a writing project site?

• Invitational Summer Institute
• Advanced institutes on special topics,
  conferences, continuity meetings,
  teacher-research and study groups
• Professional development offerings for schools
  and districts

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Well come back to the NWP and the Oregon writing
project sites at the end.
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The American public wants more attention paid to
strong preparation in writing.
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Recent examples

• Commission on Writing
• http//www.writingcommission.org
• National Panel on Second Language Learners
• http//www.cal.org/natl-lit-panel/reports/Executi
  ve_Summary.pdf
• New SAT and ACT tests with writing samples
  http//www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/ab
  out/sat/writing.html
• http//www.act.org/aap/writing/index.html
• Emerging interest in students as writers in a
  digital world

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And our own survey of public opinion demonstrates
that the American public wants more attention
paid to writing

• Nearly 7 in 10 Americans (69) believe writing
  should be taught across all subjects and grade
  levels
• The majority of Americans agree that learning to
  write well helps students perform in all subjects
  and improves students standardized test scores
• Helping teachers teach writing is a priority for
  most Americans

A goal of the NWP is to place a writing project
site within reach of every teacher in the
country. There are currently nearly 200 writing
project sites which serve over 135,000 teachers
per year.
http//www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/print/nwpr/2
300 http//www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/print/nw
pr/922
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The National Commission on Writing A Ticket to
Work or a Ticket Out

• A survey of 120 major American corporations
  employing nearly 8 million people concludes that
  in todays workplace writing is a threshold
  skill for hiring and promotion among salaried
  employees. Survey results indicate that writing
  is a ticket to professional opportunity, while
  poorly written job applications are a figurative
  kiss of death. Estimates based on the survey
  returns reveal that employers spend billions
  annually correcting writing deficiencies. (p. 3)

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National Governors Association SurveyWriting A
Powerful Message from State Government

• Despite the high value that state employers
  place on writing skills . . . of state employees
  compared to the general workforce, about 30
  percent of professional employees fail to meet
  state writing expectations.

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Comments from post-secondary stakeholders

• Employees in the military write all the time if
  you count up the bits in the stream of e-mail,
  memos, reports, etc. They have to be clear,
  direct, unambiguous. And the thinking behind
  them has to be very, very careful. One thing the
  military will teach you is that lives really do
  ride on what you write and how you write it.

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Postsecondary Expectations for Writing

• Kinds of writing recent high school graduates are
  expected to do in the workplace and military
• Emails and memos (e.g., announcements, agendas
  and programs, recommendations)
• Letters (e.g., application letters, letters of
  complaint, thank you letters, letters of request,
  customer service responses)
• Reports (e.g., sales reports, meeting minutes,
  accident/injury reports, performance reports,
  maintenance reports)
• Proposals (e.g., detailed project plans for
  proposals for problem solving, work plans to
  organize tasks)
• Manuals (e.g., employee policies or instructions)
• Summaries (e.g., trip, interview and meeting
  summaries)
• Other (e.g., advertisements, news releases,
  newsletters, brochures/flyers, job descriptions)

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This move toward texts at work in the world is
behind the renewed attention to

• Audience and purpose
• Genre as a focus of direct teaching
• Subject-specific writing and writing in the
  disciplines
• Writing in the context of problem/project-based
  learning
• Writing connected to service learning, community
  outreach, youth leadership
• Publishing and digital dissemination projects

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Lets take a look at an example from the most
recent NAEP

• Find the handout showing the newspaper article
  Studies Show Students Need To Sleep Late Night
  Owls Versus Early Birds
• Take a few minutes to study this actual NAEP
  prompt. Then, talk with your neighbor about how
  you would approach this task if you were the
  writer and had to respond to the task in 25
  minutes the time frame for a NAEP response.

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Actual NAEP prompt used in 2005 NAEP Writing
Assessment

• Prompt Imagine that the article shown on the
  next slide appeared in your local newspaper. Read
  the article carefully, then write a letter to
  your principal arguing for or against the
  proposition that classes at your school should
  begin and end much later in the day. Be sure to
  give detailed reasons to support your argument
  and make it convincing.

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Studies Show Students Need to Sleep LateNight
Owls Versus Early Birds
The Journal of Medicine announced today the
results of several recent studies on the sleep
patterns of teenagers and adults. These studies
show that adults and teenagers often have
different kinds of sleep patterns because they
are at different stages in the human growth
cycle. The study on teenagers sleep patterns
showed that changes in teenagers growth hormones
are related to sleeping patterns. In general,
teenagers energy levels are at their lowest in
the morning, between 9 a.m. and 12 noon. To make
the most of students attention span and ability
to learn, the study showed that most teenagers
need to stay up late at night and to sleep late
in the morning. They called this pattern the
night owl syndrome.
Studies of adults (over 30 years of age) showed
the opposite sleep pattern. On average, adults
energy levels were at their lowest at night
between 9 p.m. and 12 midnight and at their
highest between 6 and 9 a.m. In addition, a study
of adults of different ages revealed that as
adults get older they seem to wake up earlier in
the morning. Thus, adults need to go to sleep
earlier in the evening. Researchers called this
sleep pattern the early bird syndrome. Research
ers claim that these studies should be reviewed
by all school systems and appropriate changes
should be made to the daily school schedule.
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Comments from post-secondary stakeholders

• Sure, we want our employees to write clearly and
  correctly. Thats the bottom line in being
  understood. But the real concern is with getting
  a clear, concise analysis of a problem or a
  situation with thoughtful recommendations about
  what can be done. Its all about leading to
  action for us.

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If you were to do the prompt for real, (not for a
test) you would need to

• Look carefully at the research
• Study the sociological and cultural implications
• Conduct focus-groups with stakeholders in the
  community
• Examine the financial impacts
• Come to a reasoned and defensible recommendation
• Write numerous texts to explain and argue for
  the position to be delivered in varying occasions
  and to diverse audiences

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Whats next?

• Making it real!
• The attention to writing, and to adolescent
  literacy more generally, connects to the interest
  in reforming our schools to be more engaging,
  demanding, significant places for young people to
  do meaningful work.

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So, if we are to make this an ambitious moment,
what does that mean for us as teachers and
administrators?
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Recommendations from Because Writing Matters

• Teach writing and use writing to learn strategies
  frequently, beginning in the early grades.
• Integrate the teaching of literacy skills
  (reading and writing.
• Assign diverse writing tasks and use multiple
  strategies.
• Have students write for authentic purposes and in
  ways that engage them in problem-solving,
  reflecting, analyzing, and/or imagining.
• Teach writing skills of how to organize thoughts,
  develop ideas and revise for clarity.
• Teach writing as a process.
• As a school, develop common expectations for good
  writing and fair and authentic writing
  assessments that are aligned with high standards
  and reflect student progress beyond single-text
  evaluations.
• Provide professional development opportunities in
  teaching writing so that all teachers and
  administrators value, understand, and practice
  writing themselves.

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Can the mandates of "No Child Left Behind" and
the National Commission on Writing's
recommendations be reconciled?

• Professional development requirements in
  Title II of "No Child Left Behind" might point
  the way to a solution
• Provides for teacher mentoring
• team teaching
• reduced class schedules
• Opportunities to develop innovative strategies
  for intensive professional development
  National Commission on Writing Writing a
  School Reform p. 21

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OWP Inservice in Oregon schools.
Teacher consultants come on-site to learn about
school needs. Consultants design programs
specifically to meet site needs. Average programs
are 10 hours in length. Presenters are
experienced classroom teachers (following the
teachers teaching teachers model). Presenters
all have Writing Project training and
experience. All sessions include writing and
demonstration lessons.
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Oregon Sites
Site List
Oregon WP at Eastern Oregon University Eastern
Oregon University, La Grande http//www.eou.edu/ow
p Oregon WP at Lewis and Clark College Lewis and
Clark College, Portland http//www.lclark.edu/dept
/nwi/owp.html Oregon WP at Southern Oregon
University Southern Oregon University,
Ashland http//www.souwritingproject.org Oregon
WP at the University of Oregon University of
Oregon, Eugene http//owp.uoregon.edu Oregon WP
at Willamette University Willamette University,
Salem http//www.willamette.org/owp
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For more information, visit www.willamette.edu/soe
/owp.
August 5, 2008 Karen Hamlin and Melody
Munger Oregon Writing Project Willamette
University School of Education 900 State
St. Salem, OR 97301