This gets at the problem exactly. Students hate writing because we obsess over the product, the structure, the details of what the writing should turn into, instead of the process of writing itself. We fixate on the outcome of student writing as if 8th graders are going to be able to produce something valuable if they could only figure o…
This gets at the problem exactly. Students hate writing because we obsess over the product, the structure, the details of what the writing should turn into, instead of the process of writing itself. We fixate on the outcome of student writing as if 8th graders are going to be able to produce something valuable if they could only figure out how to get those sentence transitions right. And we then lose out on all of the value that comes from encouraging a regular practice of writing as a way of expression, rather than a system for producing an output.
But of courze the output is easier to grade on an AP test, and since the whole point of school is to get good marks on standardized tests I suppose it all makes sense.
Students arrived in my college first-year writing class not as bad writers, but as people who both disliked (or worse) and feared writing, which was the worst part from my perspective. I'd experienced writing as liberating, a way to help me understand the world, and they'd just never been given the chance because of things like - as you say - the AP test. These are students who are among the most "prepared" for college around, and yet they had almost no experience with the way of writing I was asking them to do in our FYW course. It baffled me at the time, which is why I went investigating. And now, here we are...I honestly wonder if things will change or we'll just get a doubling down on what hasn't been working for a long time.
I hope it prompts a better system in public schools, but there's also the worry that we could have something even worse. I know anecdotally (lots of grade school English teachers in my life) that they see the problem as clearly as you seem to in university. One teacher friend does scheduled free-writing, with the grade coming solely from participation. Another teaches International Baccalaureate students, where the focus is on much longer form writing, with written projects having a more mentorship-focused evaluation approach.
But the vast majority of US students are taught to 'the test', and it makes sense when you consider that (woefully underpaid) teachers get bonuses based on their school grades or even on the number of students that individually pass the AP exams.
This gets at the problem exactly. Students hate writing because we obsess over the product, the structure, the details of what the writing should turn into, instead of the process of writing itself. We fixate on the outcome of student writing as if 8th graders are going to be able to produce something valuable if they could only figure out how to get those sentence transitions right. And we then lose out on all of the value that comes from encouraging a regular practice of writing as a way of expression, rather than a system for producing an output.
But of courze the output is easier to grade on an AP test, and since the whole point of school is to get good marks on standardized tests I suppose it all makes sense.
Students arrived in my college first-year writing class not as bad writers, but as people who both disliked (or worse) and feared writing, which was the worst part from my perspective. I'd experienced writing as liberating, a way to help me understand the world, and they'd just never been given the chance because of things like - as you say - the AP test. These are students who are among the most "prepared" for college around, and yet they had almost no experience with the way of writing I was asking them to do in our FYW course. It baffled me at the time, which is why I went investigating. And now, here we are...I honestly wonder if things will change or we'll just get a doubling down on what hasn't been working for a long time.
I hope it prompts a better system in public schools, but there's also the worry that we could have something even worse. I know anecdotally (lots of grade school English teachers in my life) that they see the problem as clearly as you seem to in university. One teacher friend does scheduled free-writing, with the grade coming solely from participation. Another teaches International Baccalaureate students, where the focus is on much longer form writing, with written projects having a more mentorship-focused evaluation approach.
But the vast majority of US students are taught to 'the test', and it makes sense when you consider that (woefully underpaid) teachers get bonuses based on their school grades or even on the number of students that individually pass the AP exams.
There's some cool stuff happening outside of the school systems. David Perell runs a program called 'Liftoff' which exclusively focuses on teaching high-schoolers to be writers: https://writeofpassage.school/2022/09/12/our-vision-for-write-of-passage/
But things like that are obviously small scale and early days.