Moving writing and proper English to the front burner

I have been a very introversive person most of my life and never believed in saying much.  I thought a lot before I talked, acted upon or responded to things.  However, when given the assignment to write something I was more than able to structure my paper with appropriate, well-structured sentences, that expressed to the reader my point of view.  But that assignment came far and few in between.  As life passed on I would allow my audible conversation to become more frequent but tainted by the corrupt language used by others and yet still be able to write correctly.  I believe that this lack of the correct audible conversations limited my vocabulary whereas now the more common words are hard for me to recall during conversations. Eventually that ability to write correctly became just as tainted as I allowed my audible conversation to become.  I know what I mean but it became hard for me to relay to others because I hadn’t used those words in so long.  That is why I will not allow my daughters to use slang or improper English when I hear them talk when I know they know better.  I know all of you educated, smart, great students could not relate to such a limiting issue.  So when I read Write Like This-Teaching Real World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts (Gallagher 2011), Chapter 1- Moving Writing to the Front Burner, I felt like I was reading a self-help book.  Although he had a lot of concepts discussed that I agreed upon, there were some things that concerned me.

Gallagher began the chapter with some of the questions on the California Highway Patrol exam and related it to the current importance being placed on writing in many job applications.  He later references “Writing Next” claim that 70% of adolescents’ graduate designated as low achieving writers.  (I wonder am I included in that 70%) He believes that teachers that are focused on teaching towards the Common Core Writing Standards are limiting their students.  He presses on to state that writing well begins with being taught why to write instead of how to write.  That knowing the real-world purposes behind writing enable students to see writing as more than just a school activity.  I couldn’t help to think that the why can change from year to year.  This isn’t a bad thing but I know that when I was a student in high school a blog was not even part of our vocabulary.  As computers and the internet became more prominent and readily available, many people began to rely a lot on them for some of the learned skills of writing.  Even now I am counting on my laptop to catch my grammatical and spelling errors.  Just being honest.  So to me the how is way more important than the why.  What do you think?

He stated two premises for building real-world writes; introducing students to additional real-world discourses beyond Common Core Standards and providing authentic modeling that comes from both the teacher and from real-world texts.  (This is where I started to feel like I was reading a self-help book.)  He gave us the 6 real-world writing purposes of (1. Express and reflect, 2. Inform and Explain, 3. Evaluate and Judge, 4. Inquire and Explore, 5. Analyze and Interpret and 6. Take a stand/propose a solution.) to assist in writing a paper. Although these methods are good practices to use when writing a paper, there are other methods that one can use as well.  He also goes on to encourage a demonstrate then monitor format. While demonstrating we shouldn’t be afraid to draft and think aloud in front of students. This is beneficial to them because they get to realize that the words don’t “just magically spill from my brain to the paper or screen.” They need to see you struggle as well to see that struggling at times is a normal part of the process and good writing often starts with lousy first drafts.  He sales this format just good enough to intrigue the reader to want to read the remainder of the book to see just how effective this method is.  Because like he says, he is the best writer in his classroom.

Initially that too resonated badly in my mind when I read it but as I removed it from the topic that I grew to dread and applied it to my discipline of choice it made all the sense.  I was offended by hearing he considered himself a better writer than me if I was in his classroom (even though it would most likely be true) but as I put pride aside it had a grander meaning.   I do not think that he is saying that he is perfect nor do I think that he is saying that he is better than every other student.  I do believe that he is saying that as the subject matter expert in his classroom, he must approach his discipline with confidence, preparation and learned knowledge.  What do you think?