Allow Agency and Gain Perspective

by Melissa Morrison

“I feel like before, we were trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.” This is what one teacher shared about her experience with writing prior to implementing a more student-centered approach.

Teachers want the best for their students and are doing all they know to do for writing, but many feel ill-equipped and frustrated with the lack of progress their students show. I have come to find that this predicament is caused by teachers unknowingly trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Writing instruction is often a formulaic, one-size-fits-all approach that not only neglects the individuality of writers and their abilities, but ignores the many aspects of writing beyond sentence structure and mechanics. In many cases, teachers have more control over students’ writing than the students themselves by doing things such as choosing the method of planning, walking students step-by-step through the writing process and correcting students’ work for them. In most cases, teachers hold the same expectation for each writer, regardless of their current stage of development as a writer and often without identifying the stage they are in or the writing abilities they hold.

While these teachers have the best intentions, their actions are unfortunately causing more harm than good.

As teachers of writing, it is very easy to be persuaded by the expectation before us of how well we think our students SHOULD be writing and then base our instruction on that expectation.

Quite often, we jump in head first with a picture in mind of what our students will produce, and have ready-made plans as to how we will get them to produce it. But this often leaves our writers left feeling bored and stifled or frustrated and dejected because the writing they are doing and the instruction they are receiving are not matched to their abilities.

When we allow writers to have agency over their writing, wonderful things happen for them, and for teachers!

Classroom Success Stories

Ms. G., a teacher of a sixth grade ELA class had previously taught an opinion piece to her students, but when they were assigned a similar writing a second time, she was frustrated with their difficulty to complete the writing, even with the structured planner she had provided. She felt as though she was pulling teeth for students to complete the planner and that it was quite difficult for them to translate the planner into an essay. We decided to have students write an opinion piece completely independently, without a provided planner. When looking over the students’ writing, we observed that the students were not showing the ability to state their opinion strongly and struggled to include more than one reason to support their opinion, when previously the expectation was two to three reasons. 

The independent work of these writers told us that they were not yet writing at the level of the teacher’s expectations. This also provides evidence that the planner being provided was not supporting writers with knowing how to write this essay. These students had been pushed beyond their ability, wasting valuable time and causing unnecessary frustration. Now that the teacher is aware of what these students can do as writers, she is able to make a plan for instruction that will support their needs.

A first grade teacher, Ms. M., had solely been using prompts for writing. She found or generated prompts she felt were engaging to her students. At the time of year we began working together, she had been asking for two full sentences from her writers for each prompt that she would then check over for sentence structure, spelling and mechanics before they were able to draw a picture to go with it.

One of her wonderful students, T., struggled to complete this journal response. He took a long time to get anything written and was very uninterested in doing so. However, when she implemented independent writing time with complete choice: choice of topic, genre, drawing or writing first and when to begin a new piece, on the VERY FIRST DAY, T. wrote three pages, each with an illustration and 3 lines of writing! His teacher excitedly said, “I am so surprised at how much he is writing and how engaged he is!”

She now understood that T. was previously not writing to his ability, most likely due to lack of interest in the prompt or to the lack of ability to write or draw in the way he wanted to. She has also learned, based on several sessions of independent writing time, that T. writes mostly “I like” pieces, that each piece is usually two sentences, that he chooses to draw first, and that he enjoys sharing his writing. None of these aspects of T. as a writer were ever made apparent when writing time consisted of answering prompts.

It is vital that we see what students are capable of with complete independence prior to making plans for instruction and expected products. We must also provide the opportunity for students to explore the writing process, making decisions and figuring out what works and what doesn’t work for their writing.

When students are given the time to truly be writers, they will show you everything you need to know to support them, and your instruction will have the guidance it needs to meet them where they are and move them forward. Furthermore, you will become aware of so many wonderful things that your young writers can do that you may never have imagined, and you will learn more about the individuality of writers and their process. When your writers have agency to make decisions, write at their level of ability and move at their own pace, they show you what they can do, and what they have not yet learned to do, as writers.

In the words of the sixth grade teacher, Ms. G., “Let go and step back.” Allow agency and gain perspective that will propel your instruction, and your writers, forward.

Melissa Morrison is an enthusiastic educator with 20 years' experience in education.  Her passion and expertise is transforming writing programs so that teachers are confident in writing instruction and student writers thrive! She strongly believes teachers are the key to effective instruction, not one-size-fits-all boxed programs. Melissa has a mission to bring writing into the forefront of education, providing teachers with the knowledge and support necessary to implement effective and engaging writing instruction.  

After teaching for several years, Melissa grew in proficiency for literacy instruction with professional development provided by the Children’s Literacy Initiative, which is also when her desire to coach teachers began! She created her consulting business, Teaching to Transform, LLC in 2018 and has continued to grow in expertise in writing instruction through additional training as well as years of experience working alongside teachers in their classrooms to enhance their practice and improve student success. 

In addition to consulting and coaching, Melissa is the host of the podcast; Getting Students to Write: Helping K-8 teachers transform writing instruction and grow writers who thrive! The podcast guides teachers with bite-sized steps for implementing student-centered writing instruction that is engaging and successful.