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Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Writing: Are Kids Getting It?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I recently bumped into a friend who is teaching freshman composition at a metro Atlanta college. She said she’s surviving her first semester in the classroom, even enjoying it at times. But many of her students are struggling.
Several are taking this course - required of basically every college freshman on the planet - for the second time. They need a lot of help. “If only I could get them to come to class,” she lamented. Other students try hard but lack the foundation.
The thing about writing, it’s not something a teacher can demonstrate once then expect students to be able to do it. There is no foolproof way to teach writing (Or is there? Readers?), no ideal method for getting a student without a strong writing background up to speed quickly. Mainly, teachers like my friend just try to encourage their students to keep putting words on paper.
A Wall Street Journal story recently stated, without attribution, that high school teachers have a hard time getting students to do any writing these days, much less a term paper. The story said parents and students revolt when a teacher expects them to labor over a long writing assignment.
This does not match my observations in Georgia classrooms, where I see student writing posted on bulletin boards and hear from teachers that they are madly trying to prepare their students for the writing portion of the New SAT.
But I am concerned that the emphasis is too much on short writing assignments and less on longer, more in-depth ones, the type a student is likely to be assigned in college. My fear is that shorter assignments focus more on writing mechanics and not enough on content. The point of writing is to say something. If you fail to do that, it doesn’t matter whether you put the commas in the right places.
Thoughts?
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