5 Beliefs on the Teaching of Writing
Adapted from R. Joseph Rodrígez’s Youth Scribes.
In the article “Freedom for Literacy,” Kimberly N. Parker makes an important declaration about the literacy lives of Black youth that complement a scribal life: “We can no longer choose to ignore the multiliteracies Black youth bring with them into our classrooms” (2020, 61). Parker reminds us that our students will show us their abilities and strengths if we offer them opportunities for a literacy-rich life.
Additionally, in the statement “Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing,” NCTE identifies some beliefs and principles for our profession (2016). Of the ten beliefs outlined by NCTE, I’ve adapted five here. I’ve also provided some prompts to get teachers and students thinking about the beliefs in action.
1. “Everyone has the capacity to write; writing can be taught; and teachers can help students become better writers.”
To gain the capacity to write, a student needs to receive an invitation, observe modeling, and demonstrate persistence. When teachers use deliberate planning and instruction that includes accommodations, each student can develop strong writing skills and strategies. A teacher’s understanding of writing theories, concepts, and practices also influences how they design what they teach.
Our students represent a diversity of identities and interests, and to engage them all, we need to welcome a variety of genres, formats, purposes, tasks, and topics for writing. Becoming a better writer calls for writing daily—sometimes with constraints—and for many different audiences.
2. “Writing is a process and tool for thinking.”
In our daily lives, we consider many different ways to accomplish a responsibility or task. Similarly, a writer must make many choices throughout the process of brainstorming, creating, editing, revising, and visualizing a variety of texts. The thinking skills required for writing have important applications in everyday life. These include asking questions, changing minds, entertaining others, figuring out or rethinking an idea, identifying issues, solving problems, and showing wonder.
When exposed to varied writing assessments (feedback), audiences, communities, and technologies, students continue to adjust and refine their writing skills. Through writing, students can discover, invent, and question ideas. This work can happen individually and collaboratively, allowing students to practice these skills in different settings, guided by a teacher who is a scribe.
3. “Writing is embedded in complex social relationships and their appropriate languages.”
Writing both unfolds within the environments of the writer and influences the writing situation. In our interactions with others, we rehearse our doubts, ideas, positions, and questions about our lives and our writing with others before, during, and after composing a text. Rather than writing in isolation, we can confer with peers and other teachers about what we are planning to write. We speak in the languages that permit us to share with one another for understanding.
Our conversations may or may not be directly connected to how we write, but they can inform the complexity of our writing. Moreover, our cultures influence our approaches to writing and the literacies we enact—inside and outside of school—as students and teachers. Thus, as teachers, we have to stay open to the cultural knowledge students bring to learning, understanding, and writing.
4. “Composing occurs in different modes, modalities, and technologies.”
Writing is not limited to just one modality; it is made up of various elements of literacy. Students have access to a range of tools for composing, from low-tech pencil or pen to high-tech digital machines and tools. No matter the method, what stays the same is that human thinking drives the use of the tools. The scribe still needs to think about the language, layout, and visual characteristics of their text. Instead of shying away from new tools, teachers can welcome the way they enable more opportunities to compose.
The variety of modalities offers an access point for students of diverse abilities, backgrounds, and languages. This allows for more accessibility, agency, collaboration, inclusion, and independence to compose. As a result, composing is no longer limited to a certain form, a certain group of people, or a social status. Instead, it engages scribes in a global society driven by humane, inclusive practices.
Students who compose in a variety of modalities and technologies gain understanding of practices associated with new literacies. Their understanding supports the uses of writing in the world as they consider how world languages and visual images can complement the written word. Student knowledge of modalities and theories to consider in assignments and genres can provide high-quality opportunities to compose across varied forums, networks, platforms, and situations.
5. “Writing and reading are related.”
Writing and reading are interconnected. Readers attest that their writing is influenced by the texts they read. For example, students are most likely to write in a mode that they enjoy reading. The text sequence and structure of the ideas presented by an author can appeal to a reader. Students can gain more ideas from the texts they read that inspire them to challenge their own ideas and identities. The questions they pose can lead to a greater awareness of their interests and points of view. Moreover, the texts students read can serve as mentor texts for their own writing. Paying attention to style and tone of language can inform how they themselves compose. Writing and reading contribute to the metacognitive dialogue of composing for a larger audience and can extend to problem solving. As Jennifer Fletcher explains, “Metacognitive awareness helps readers break free from an overreliance on rules or teacher directions” (2021, xxi).
As teachers, we must maintain an awareness of the relationships between reading and writing and how A Scribe’s Elements of Literacy influence a reader or scribe’s life. Kimberly N. Parker explains, “Working toward representation and inclusion is an everyday, ongoing practice. However, it’s malpractice if I—an educator whom young people are entrusting with their reading lives—don’t first model the life of a reader authentically, and don’t then foreground my own biases and blind spots” (2020, 58). We are responsible for modeling the relationship among writing, reading, and A Scribe’s Elements of Literacy to our students.
