Priority: Literacy

Student ownership and responsibility by:

• Helping students choose their own topics & goals

• Using brief teacher-student conferences

• Teaching students to review their own progress

Teacher control of decision-making by:

• Teacher deciding on all writing topics

• Suggestions for improvement dictated by teacher

• Learning objectives determined by teacher alone

• instruction given as whole-class activity

Class time spent on writing whole, original pieces, through:

• Establishing real purposes for writing, and students' involvement in the task

• Instruction in, and support for, all stages of writing process

• Pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing

Time spent on isolated drills on "subskills" of grammar, vocabulary, spelling, paragraphing, penmanship, etc.

Teacher modeling writing -- drafting, revising, sharing--as a fellow author, and as demonstrator of processes

Teacher talks about writing but never writes or shares own work

Learning of grammar and mechanics in context, at the editing stage, and as items are needed

Isolated grammar lessons, given in order determined by textbook, before writing is begun

Writing, for real audiences, publishing for the class and for wider communities

Assignments read only by teacher

Making the classroom a supportive setting for shared learning, using:

• Active exchange and valuing of students' ideas

• Collaborative small group work

• Conferences and peer critiquing that give responsibility for improvement to authors

Devaluation of students' ideas through:

• Students viewed as lacking knowledge and language abilities

• Sense of class as competing individuals

• Work with fellow students viewed as cheating, disruptive

Writing across the curriculum as a tool for learning

Writing taught only during "language arts" period, i.e., infrequently

Constructive and efficient evaluation that involves:

• Brief informal oral responses as students work

• Thorough grading of just a few student-selected, polished pieces

• Focus on a few errors at a time

• Cumulative view of growth and self-evaluation

• Encouragement of risk-taking and honest expression

Evaluation as negative burden for teacher and student by:

• Marking all papers heavily for all errors, making teacher a bottleneck

• Teacher editing paper, and only after completed, rather than student making improvements

• Grading seen as punitive, focused on errors, not growth