Quality Writing instruction is tricky even for our most experienced and accomplished teachers. All students in a secondary Language Arts classroom and within a Literacy classroom should receive a comparable amount of a combination of the following teaching approaches: direct instruction, modeling, small group, guided and supported practice. It is critical that they also receive feedback from their independent writing practice. Unfortunately, predictable consistent time for extended instruction is increasingly challenging for an educator to find during a busy school year. Instructional time for Writing is regularly less than adequate, especially when classrooms are overly full, and contain students with academic skill deficits. Literacy classes are an answer to accomplishing more direct concentrated Reading Fluency, Reading Comprehension, and Writing instruction. Within most classroom settings where writing instruction is taking place, there simply isn’t near enough planning, assessment, or grading time given for instruction to be effective. Quality writing instruction is tricky and time-consuming.
I must agree that using technology to isolate specific skills has a benefit. But I won’t feed a narrative that instructional methods are improving. In the case of writing instruction, an increase in the use of technology has not resulted in improved instruction. Educators seem to be blindly proceeding forward, discontinuing proven teaching methodologies, and implementing the digital curriculum. There is an attitude that “you can’t stand in the way of progress”. I write this article to question how technology is impacting the learning results, in terms of Writing instruction.
Writing instruction is important because its nature is personal. Thoughtful writing comes from the essence of an individual. Educators realize that, through extended writing instruction, social/emotional skills are teachable. Mature writing and maturing as a young adult are two learning processes that unfold together. They support each other and happen at about the same time in a young person’s development. The writing process can feel like a challenging task with little immediate reward. These two learning processes require years of feedback and support, with much independent learning and patience.
Today’s student is less practiced in handwriting or “word-smithing” sentences and paragraphs from scratch. Instead, writing requirements are accomplished at a more rapid pace using assistive technologies. Voice to text, word prediction, and sentence prediction applications are the specific technologies I’d like to bring attention to with this article. Many educators subscribe to the idea that students are developing their writing when using these assistive technologies. I must agree, of course, at some level. But it is naive to not exhibit caution when implementing technology into classroom writing instruction and methods.
To use technology is an attractive image. Schools and Teachers appear to be on the cutting edge of education, and parents and students get a warm feeling inside, feeling fortunate and being of “privilege”. Technology is not questioned in our culture. Sure, I’ve seen these software applications lead to a student composing more complex language, better sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, etc. When these utilities are used in support of quality writing instructional approaches, instruction is enhanced. But if these utilities are continually used to demonstrate knowledge and learning and to communicate, when are independent skills developed? What happens when these technologies are not present? When does a student develop the ability to articulate mature language on their own?
Let’s reconsider and question technology within classroom practices. How are our students with writing deficits best supported in a classroom setting? How can we better assure the integrity of instruction as technology “takes over”? When a student’s independent writing skills become significantly below grade level, I recognize concerning levels of complacency regarding writing. Voice to text, word, and sentence prediction cover or mask this inability. Teachers’ time becomes less focused on learning standards. Teachers are more focused on a student’s inability, and whether students have access to their technologies, or that students are using their assistive technology properly.
A learning result is that today’s student is doing less independent critical thinking. Behavioral learning is being impacted negatively due to this change. We are losing the trans-personal connection between a student’s writing ability and their social, emotional, and behavioral development. A common negative behavior a student may exhibit is acting and communicating in a way that has shock value. Other times, “shock value” or messy language replaces complex and careful language. Shock value language somehow avoids criticism of spelling, grammar, and meaning.
Developing writing or critical thinking within our most challenging students develop their social and behavioral skills. Written work, journal writing, letter writing, and storytelling confirms important learning is happening. As students develop their narratives, they are refining their social understandings, they are confirming their values and their knowledge of their culture and community. Very regularly, students are more willing to express deep emotions and make thoughtful statements within their writing then they will verbally. Writing instructional time presents a safe opportunity to use an adult voice while identifying with the world.
Developing our ability to think carefully, to use language carefully, takes time and practice. As a teacher, I’ve grown concerned that assistive technologies are taking time away from slow, methodical skill-building. And this seems to be enabling students to not look closely into themselves. There is a decrease in written expression and an increase in negative behaviors. This is a shadow result of the celebrated technologies. How can our schools and our teachers adjust and work with this unpredicted and subtle result?
Writing development helps an educator “reach” or communicate with their students on a more personal level. When classroom management is difficult, Language Arts, Literacy, general education, and special education teachers alike often resolve to focus on reading instruction, usually from a digital curriculum. The digital curriculum protects a school and allows teachers to efficiently manage a large student population. This is a reaction to an increase in student numbers within classrooms. Digital curriculum is widely justified because they collect progress monitor data, which administrators appreciate. You may notice that education professionals will claim to develop instruction from the assessments. They are “required” to develop lessons based on data coming from the digital curriculums. Statements like these have become poppycock, or at best wishful thinking. Digital curriculums are replacing quality instruction with potentially destructive side effects not found on the administrative reports.
Writing instruction teaches our students to use mature language as they identify with their community, politics, religion, and the natural world. This is a language-rich time of individualization. The personal nature of writing instruction leads to other instructional opportunities such as social-emotional, behavioral, and communication instruction. Educators get a sense of how a student is relating to having academic skill deficits in school, on a social level, and at a professional level. This type of facilitation of instruction takes extended time much greater than our traditional school model is currently providing. Instead, writing is a skill that is becoming very assisted. Don’t be fooled. The use of such technologies is endlessly justified with statements like “we must even the playing field”. But, in my experience and observation, the digital curriculum lacks tactile and motor skill development, which is an important element of maturity and learning to write. I don’t pretend to have this all figured out, but there is something magical that happens when careful words come through the fingers. Besides, valuable knowledge of a student, information about their interests and possible career paths is being lost.