“Did they visit your classroom?” I questioned the frazzled, fourth grade teacher as she sped to the other side of the school – through my room. The district superintendent and her minions had come to observe the teaching in our failing, urban school. “Oh they came during the worst time!” she quickly bemoaned, “I was teaching writing. I don’t know how to teach writing at all!”
My heart sank. Here was a truly caring teacher who had not been given the tools to do her job. Untrained in any substantial writing programs, she felt lost and alone. Like a ship without a sail, our school was faltering without the means to navigate out of troubled waters. Once again I was witness to the poor support offered to our well-intentioned and good hearted teachers.
The situation is dire and I do believe, that though I’ve had the fortunate blessing of passion and desire to better my pedagogy outside of the school district requirements, most teachers are simply at the mercy of an unqualified and uninformed administration which forces teachers to use wasteful and ineffective methods. Indeed, unless marketed indescribably well, good writing programs are not considered. The students, especially in urban disadvantaged schools, thus become collateral damage of dysteachia.
Writing Curriculum in America
Hailed as one of the best writing programs on the planet and promoted by Lucy Calkins the Columbia Teacher’s College Writing Workshop (TC) is presently à la mode in almost ALL our elementary school classrooms in these precious United States. I confess, TC does seem attractive to teachers, especially inexperienced teachers. Here’s a peek at the suggested materials for grades K-2, Tools for the TC method . Cute, right? Pens instead of pencils, rugs, folders, little books, just adorable. Notice the suggested vendor: Heinemann. Now let’s go to the Heinemann website – who do we see? Hallmark whole language names; Fountas and Pinnell. This ought to be a red flag for any scrupulous curriculum director.
Alas, it is not!
Notice that Lucy Calkins, a Heinemann author, is profiting substantially from the use of her well-loved, albeit misguided, pedagogy. Personally, I do not fault anyone in the business of making money, in fact I find it commendable and admirable. In the free market, if you have an excellent product, it ought to rise to the top and succeed with all the blessings of financial success. In this case, however, this is a monopoly of the most nefarious kind, for it has taken the wind out of any real, tangible, choice in writing curriculum, this is not a free market and frankly unAmerican. But I digress.
Since, the TC model is accepted as seemingly the only way to teach writing, then let us take a look at what it offers or suggests. Below is an excerpt from The Teacher Tip: See Your Writing offered on the Heinemann website.
“Don’t read to check for spelling or punctuation or to change a small word here or there, but compare the accuracy of your words with what’s in your heart and mind. To be able to read your writing, then to stand back and measure it against your heart’s experience or your mind’s intention – that’s the real point of revision.”
What? What kind of nonsense is this? We do not write the way we speak because those who read our writing cannot see our facial expressions and body language nor can they sense our emotions through pen and paper. Certainly we write from the heart but grammar and structure must be fervently administered if we are to get our point across. We always check our spelling and punctuation not once but twice and even thrice! We change a small word here or there for accuracy, flow and interest. In fact, in a revision we often change the syntax and placement of an entire sentence for clarity. We review and review and then offer our writing to editors to review again, while our writing does come from our heart, the outcome may not be perceived properly if we cannot communicate in a literate and functional manner.
Who is Lucy Calkins?
Lucy Calkins is a charismatic and dynamic speaker, I’ll definitely give her that! In fact, I have seen her speak and I was quite taken by her Writers Workshop when I was a young teacher. Her methods are enticing and her words inspiring. However, Ms.Calkins says everything and nothing. Here’s her advice for Being a Good Writer. Basically her advice is to take the small moments in your life and write about them. That’s not bad. In addition, Lucy charges, we must all embrace our inner writer. How simple, how spiritual, how sublime. Lucy Calkins has NEVER been a classroom teacher, however, she leads her cult onward. Lucy Calkins, founder of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, who is looked upon nationally as a godmother of whole-language learning.* It’s all so easy when one sits in a PD with this writing guru, however, the reality of teaching writing is far from easy especially for inner city teachers.
Most urban school teachers have children who can neither speak properly nor have they the ability to write a complete thought. So where is the excitement for sentence structure? Where is the excitement for word choice? Where are the practical lists that help teachers offer such choices? How do children write an interesting paragraph or as she states, “small moments” if they haven’t even mastered the basics of English grammar and syntax? How do children ameliorate their writing? Do they just see themselves as writers and then magically become writers? Some may, but most won’t; most will just continue to spiral down this abyss of illiteracy given this non-substantive instruction. “Many of the programs and methods now being crammed down the teachers’ throats have no record of success,” wrote Sol Stern, “and are particularly ill-suited for disadvantaged minority children. In fact, a cabal of progressive educators chose them for ideological reasons, in total disregard of what the scientific evidence says about the most effective teaching methods..”2
These ideas, beliefs, however are so alluring that even most of our elite and highly taxed school districts have chosen this curriculum.
Teacher Training in America
So, how did a nation of administrators and teachers come to accept this kind of writing curriculum as fact rather than theory or even fiction? Why don’t they search out the competition and do comparative analyses of writing curriculum? The blame lands squarely upon the education professors in our colleges all across America. The leaders of these seemingly benign, whole language dogmas, are Columbia Teachers College and Bank Street School.
Bank Street is the crème de la crème in education and is held up as an example for “best practices” across the nation. Bank Street Elementary/Middle school (Preschool to grade 8) is a private school tuition $28,000 to $47,000 per year.
“The role of the teacher in a Bank Street Classroom is to guide the students by asking meaningful questions and to plan opportunities for their investigations such as trips or activities.”**
Teachers are thus, facilitators, in the process of learning. Placing teachers in this light is quite compelling to our educational community. Teachers don’t have to actually teach –with the idea of disseminating information, instructing skills, giving guidance– their job is now to draw out the brilliance in each child. By implementing questioning techniques the teacher draws a child to self-enlightenment, self-teaching. Obviously this a highly seductive paradigm considering the psychodynamics of child-rearing in our society.
Bank Street Teacher’s graduate school, cost per credit is about $1,519, that’s $21,660 per semester not including room and board, books and supplies. It was associated with Columbia University. The two have long lasting ties. Columbia Teachers College school is basically the laboratory for Bank Street, a proving ground for their progressive and forward thinking educators.
“The mission of Bank Street College is to improve the education of children and their teachers by applying to the education process all available knowledge about learning and growth, and by connecting teaching and learning meaningfully to the outside world. In so doing, we seek to strengthen not only individuals, but the community as well, including family, school, and the larger society in which adults and children, in all their diversity, interact and learn. We see in education the opportunity to build a better society.”*
This, is an ideal marriage and by example, Bank Street shows the world and teachers that their work is important and proven. Our education schools are pushing pedagogy which makes our teachers and administrators easy prey for these poorly designed instructional methods. TC says everything right and rings true to the teachers’ sole desire to let children be children, no guidance necessary! Just let children write on and on and the learning will come. Of course I exaggerate here for emphasis but my point remains.
Where Can We Find Good Writing Curriculum?
There are plenty of places to find good writing curriculum. Here are some great writing programs I have encountered.
- Teaching Basic Writing Skills by Dr. Judith Hochman (Get a used copy!) https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Basic-Writing-Skills-Instruction/dp/1602185018
- The Writing Revolution – The Hochman Method https://www.thewritingrevolution.org/method/hochman-method/
- Excellence In Writing By Andrew Pudewa https://iew.com
- Shurley English https://www.shurley.com
- Whole Brain Writing – Go to the writing curriculum http://wholebrainteaching.com – Examples of classroom use abound: Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Air Punctuation
If you have come across any other writing curriculum that has produced excellent writers please do leave a comment below.
Sources:
*https://www.bankstreet.edu/discover-bankstreet/what-we-do/mission-credo/
