Research on what makes good writing instruction

There’s not a lot of quality research on good writing, but a recent report summarized the finding of 14 high-quality studies.  Here’s an article about the research and here’s one really interesting finding (my underline): 

Beyond a well-structured writing course, Slavin and his colleagues noted that in these studies of writing, the classes were “exciting, social and noisy.”

“Motivation seems to be the key,” Slavin and his colleagues wrote. “If students love to write, because their peers as well as their teachers are eager to see what they have to say, then they will write with energy and pleasure. Perhaps more than any other subject, writing demands a supportive environment, in which students want to become better writers because they love the opportunity to express themselves, and to interact in writing with valued peers and teachers.”

From Marshall Memo 811:

Nine Questions for a PLC Data Meeting

            In this sidebar in All Things PLC, Robert Eaker and Janel Keating suggest an agenda for a grade-level teacher team looking at the results of an assessment given to all students. They suggest about five minutes for each item, with more time for two toward the end:

-    What are the “power standards” or learning targets measured by this assessment?

-    In what areas did our students do well?

-    What instructional strategies helped our students do well?

-    What skill deficiencies do we see?

-    What patterns do we see in the mistakes, and what do they tell us?

-    Which students did not master essential standards and which need additional time and support?

-    What interventions will be provided to address unlearned skills, and how will we check for success? (20 minutes)

-    Which students mastered standards and what is our plan for extending and enriching their learning? (10 minutes)

-    Do we need to tweak or improve this assessment?

“Team Analysis of Common Formative Assessments” in All Things PLC, Fall 2019 (p. 35); these questions come from Every School, Every Team, Every Classroom: District Leadership for Growing Professional Learning Communities at Work by Robert Eaker and Janel Keating (Solution Tree, 2012)

from Marshall Memo 811:

Small Teaching Moves with Outsize Impact

(Originally titled “What You Practice Is What You Value”)

            In this Educational Leadership article, Paul Bambrick-Santoyo (Uncommon Schools) says that for novice teachers, being coached on seemingly minor points – for example, standing still and facing the class when asking students to stop talking and come back together at the end of a turn-and-talk – can be transformational. But for this kind of coaching to work, a school needs a culture that includes a shared language of effective pedagogy and a norm of frequent, low-stakes feedback and practice. “In effective cultures,” says Bambrick-Santoyo, “people use words everyone can understand to describe actions that committed members consistently put into practice.”

            Over a period of years, he and his colleagues have compiled a list of teaching behaviors that are granular, observable, and high-leverage. These are skills each of which can be learned within a week, produce immediate improvements in classroom dynamics and student learning, and accelerate what is often a painfully slow learning curve for novice educators. “Rather than wait for years of trial-and-error experience to perfect their craft,” says Bambrick-Santoyo, “new teachers can actually grow quickly, step by step.” Picking up the pace is a moral imperative, he believes; students can’t afford to wait for incremental improvement in teaching, especially in high-need schools with a large proportion of rookie teachers.

            Below are some of the action steps in Bambrick-Santoyo’s “Get Better Faster” playbook. They parallel the kinds of small, easy-to-learn-and-practice skills that musicians and athletes learn with their coaches as they rapidly improve performance:

-    Use “strong voice.” Square up, stand still, and use a formal tone of voice when getting students’ attention and delivering instructions.

-    “Radar” the room. Scan “hot spots” where students are often off-task, and crane your neck so it looks like you are seeing all parts of the classroom.

-    Have students write first, talk second. Begin each class with an independent writing task (a Do Now), and before starting a discussion, have students respond individually in writing to a prompt.

-    Aggressively monitor independent student work. Walk around to every part of the classroom and look for patterns of student responses, not just compliance.

-    Engage all students. Have students turn and talk when pair interaction will maximize involvement and learning.

-    Check for whole-group understanding. Poll the room and tailor instruction to focus on patterns of error.

-    Narrate the positive. Put into words what students are doing well to encourage those actions and redirect less-productive behaviors; reinforce students’ intellectual progress by praising effort, not just results.

“What You Practice Is What You Value” by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo in Educational Leadership, November 2019 (Vol. 77, #3, pp. 44-49), https://bit.ly/2NCYJ28; the author can be reached at pbambrick@uncommonschools.org.