The Kind of Writing That the Common Core Demands

In this Kappan article, Michael Smith (Temple University) and Jeffrey Wilhelm and James Fredricksen (Boise State University) explain why they are enthusiastic about the Common Core ELA standards: “They emphasize writing convincing arguments about issues that matter, clear and comprehensive informational texts that can do meaningful work in the world, and compelling narratives that foster an understanding of oneself, others, and the world…” But, say Smith, Wilhelm, and Fredricksen, traditional, formulaic writing instruction won’t prepare students for the new standards because it doesn’t develop “the robust conceptual and strategic knowledge that transfers to new composing situations.” 

The solution: students must engage in five kinds of composing so they develop five kinds of knowledge about writing:

• Practicing – Rather than writing to a cold prompt, Smith, Wilhelm, and Fredricksen believe students should be allowed to practice extensively “in miniature” so they can develop the procedural knowledge they need to become expert writers. “The trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated,” they say. Expert performers in any field get that way through lots of practice. If students are going to learn how to write arguments to support claims, teachers need to get them practicing developing claims that are both defensible and controversial. They’ll also need practice at finding evidence that their audience will accept, connecting the evidence to the claim, and anticipating the audience’s possible objections.

• Gathering material – Brainstorming is not enough to gather information for a piece of writing, say Smith, Wilhelm, and Fredricksen. That assumes the information students need to write is already in their heads – not true in many cases! Students have to read, interview, survey, and design experiments to get the stuff they need to write well.

• First-draft composing – This is necessary “to help students overcome the fear of the blank page, a problem that plagues even professional writers,” they say. “Many students are stymied by composing their first words. So we have to give them lots and lots of opportunities to get started, many more than the characteristic one or two a quarter. We also have to help them be alert for how their drafting can help them refine their thinking and clarify their purposes.” 

• Final-draft composing – This is the revising, polishing, and publishing phase. “We need to teach them how to read their work with the eyes of their intended audience and to make the changes necessary to address that audience’s assumptions, knowledge, and needs,” say Smith, Wilhelm, and Fredricksen. 

• Transfer – This is the most serious issue for teachers, they say, because knowledge and skills don’t automatically transfer to other settings. “Teachers need always to think about how what they do today prepares students for their next class, their other subjects, their composing outside school, their future education, and their lives outside school… [I]f we want students to apply what they learn in new contexts, we must give them conscious control over what they have learned…If you can name it, then you can move it.”

Smith, Wilhelm, and Fredricksen don’t see these five steps as a rigid sequence. “Students must be regularly engaged in all five kinds of composing in service of crafting the convincing arguments, clear and comprehensive information texts, and compelling narratives called for by the Common Core.”

“The Common Core: New Standards, New Teaching” by Michael Smith, Jeffrey Wilhelm, and James Fredricksen in Phi Delta Kappan, May 2013 (Vol. 94, #8, p. 45-48), www.kappanmagazine.org; Smith can be reached at mwsmith@temple.edu. 

From the Marshall Memo #486