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Beginning the Writing Process: A Ninth Graders Nightmare

Ellie Siwicki

Manhattan College: Education 360

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Abstract

This essay examines the difficulties that students in Mr. Ts class at Mount Saint

Michael Academy face while beginning the writing process. This issue is not unique to

the Mount; however, it is an issue that must be dealt with. Much research has been done

regarding high school students and writing, yet students still find writing to be a very

difficult task. After observing Mr. Ts 9th grade Global History class at the Mount, I

realized that I needed to develop a plan in order to assist these students. Using Deans

(2005) Inquiry Strategy, I helped students make personal connections in order to begin

the writing process and make deeper meaning.

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Introduction

Think back to the end of your ninth grade year. You just about finished your first

year of high school, and you feel pretty good about it. You did a pretty good job on your

first semester, and feel like you have got this high school thing down. But, there is only

one thing stopping you from going on summer vacation: end of the year standardized

tests. Your teacher has been warning you about the New York State Regents Exams all

year long, but you have never taken a Regents Exam before. You have no idea what to

expect.

So your teacher starts prepping you. You have learned all of the material

throughout the year, so you should be pretty prepared, right? Wrong. You walk in one

day, and your teacher tells you to write a thematic essay. You blank, because no one has

ever prepared you on how to write a thematic essay. You read the prompt, and have no

idea how to begin. You panic, and give up.

This exact situation is what I witnessed in Mr. Ts class at Mount Saint Michael

Academy. Although much of the class periods I observed were dedicated to lecture, some

of them began preparing students for the Global Regents Exam. Many of the students did

well answering the multiple-choice section of the test; however, when it came to the

writing portion, they simply blanked or gave up.

Although a high school student may not value the ability to write well, it is an

important skill for these young men to develop during their high school careers, in order

to succeed in the future. These students will need the necessary skills to write well on

future assignments, and exams including the Regents, ACT and SAT. While some

students may not take the Regents Exam seriously, it is an important test that can
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determine whether or not a student in New York State graduates. Additionally, doing well

on the ACT and SAT will help these students get accepted into college, and pursue their

futures.

Strong writing skills are especially essential throughout a students post-

secondary education. As a college student myself, I related to these students in their

struggles to begin the writing process. I find myself struggling sometimes as well.

Because of this shared struggle, and my knowledge on the importance of writing, I chose

to help these students in regards to writing.

In order to address this problem, I began to research. Research studies suggest

that multi-paragraph writing does not occur enough in the classroom, and that students

need more opportunities to write (K., G. and Hawken, 2009). Other studies suggest that

students lack an interest in writing. In order to combat this, Dean (2005) suggests using

an inquiry strategy in which students use information that they are familiar with in their

writing. Some research even suggests that the problem does not lie with the student, and

instead lies with the teacher, claiming that teachers do not receive enough training during

college to prepare students to write (Hawken, et al., 2009).

Mr. Ts students led me to believe that they needed to make real world

connections, in order to begin the writing process. In my time with these ninth grade

students, I began to implement Deans (2005) inquiry strategy by asking students about

their personal experiences that could relate to the given prompt. I found that these

students were talkative, and had things to say; however, they had difficulty putting what

they said down to the paper in concrete sentences.

The Research
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Once I established the problem that these students were facing, I began to do

some research. Upon my initial searches, I found that much research had been done on

high school students and writing. For me, this indicated that this problem was an issue

that not only affected students at Mount Saint Michael Academy. Instead, it was an issue

that schools, students and teachers are facing.

In Deborah Deans (2005) study, she suggests that a strategic approach to writing

is necessary for high school students. These strategies should be adaptable, so students

can use them in any situation they may come across. Additionally, the teacher must

present multiple different strategies in order to cover all writing assignments that these

students may face, because some strategies may be more efficient and effect than others.

Dean also suggests that each writing assignment should be looked at like a writing

workshop. At these workshops, the assignment would be presented, as well as the

effective strategies that correspond. Here, students would get direct teacher instruction, as

well as time to work individually on the assignment. Clear instruction would be given,

and the student would know exactly what was expected of them.

In another study by Townsend, the researchers looked at the student perspective

on writing, and developed strategies that could be used in the classroom. After

conducting research in 260 classrooms, from 20 middle and high schools, in social

studies, math, science and English, researchers found little writing, and what they did

find was often simple one-right answer kinds of responses or formulaic writing to prepare

for standardized tests. (Townsend, 2013, pp. 74-75). However, when the researchers

interviewed the students, they found that students were uninterested in writing, found the
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topics uninteresting, and explained that the directions were too difficult to understand

most of the time (Townsend, 2013, pp. 74).

Additionally, when these students were asked what they knew regarding writing,

all they could give were answers pertaining to grammar. These students knew nothing

about writing strategies or structure; they could only recognize surface features.

However, the researchers explained that this response is not that surprising, as many

teachers focus only on the grammatical errors found in writing assignments during

revision. Instead, the researchers suggest that teachers should look at the students as

readers, and not as editors. The teacher should make suggestions that can benefit the

student while revising his or her work (Townsend, 2013, pp. 74-76).

The final study surveyed high school teachers from four content areas. During

their survey, the researchers spoke to teachers, asking them what kind of writing activities

occurred in the classroom. The survey found that lengthy writing occurred very

infrequently, and that most assignments did not go past a page in length. Additionally, the

assignments did not require interpretation, analysis, or evidence based practices. When

asked, many of the teachers in the survey explained that they were not taught the proper

skills in college to teach writing at the high school level (Kiuhara, 2009).

Developing the Plan

These three studies assisted me in establishing a plan for the students at Mount

Saint Michael Academy. While at the Mount, I observed a group of four students working

on a Regents thematic essay. The prompt below is the question the students were working

on.
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The four students immediately began to panic, not knowing how to begin the

essay. I did not interject at first, in order to see whether or not the students could figure

out to begin the essay; however, they could not. This is when I knew a plan was

necessary to develop. I quickly realized that I needed to figure out a way in which these

four students could quickly think of two belief systems, a key belief for each, and a major

effect that the belief system had on politics, society and/ or economy of a nation. While

doing research, I came upon Deans (2005) Inquiry Strategy approach, in which she

suggests that students use their own experiences in writing. I felt that this strategy was

appropriate, because students could draw on their own religious experiences in order to

begin the given prompt.

Implementing the Plan

Because the students only worked on writing on Fridays, the students were still

working on the same prompt as the previous week. As I returned to my group of four

students, I realized that they were still struggling. Although they had begun their essays, I

believed that I could implement my plan in order to develop the students writing skills.

To begin, I told the four students to read the given theme and task. I then told the

students to think of a broad topic sentence to begin the essay, based on the given theme.
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The students were told by Mr. T to have at least three sentences in the opening paragraph,

so I instructed the students to write another sentence based on the given theme. The

students then had to choose what two religions they wanted to discuss.

Using Deans (2005) strategy, I asked the four students if they were religious, and

if so, what religion they practiced. The majority of the students responded with

Christianity, so I suggested that Christianity should be the first religion they discussed.

Dean has her own students visualize something that they have experienced, and then

write about that experience. So I had the students tell me things about Christianitywho

the main figures are, what the key dates and holidays were, etc.

I then asked the four students if they practiced any other religions. The specific

group I worked with did not, so I asked them what other religions they knew about, and

to what extent. Most of the students knew the most about Islam and Judaism, because of

their similarities to Christianity. As a group, we then held the same discussion as we did

with Christianity, establishing the main figures and other main features of the religions.

The Results

I found this exercise to be very useful and successful. Most of the students had no

difficulties participating in our discussion, because it was something they had

experienced, as Dean (2005) noted in her study. However, I noticed that the four students

found it difficult to transform the discussion into writing. I believe this relates back to

Townsends (2013) study. Although many of these students had personal experience with

a religion, those personal experiences did not transform directly into what the prompt was

asking. These students were uninterested in the political, societal or economic influence

that a religion had on a nation.

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Additionally, I found that the plan I developed only worked when I spoke to the

students one on one. Rather, these students could not be spoken to in a group. For most of

them, I had to help them develop each individual sentence. I found this to be a pretty

difficult task, because it was almost as if I was writing the students essays. It also

worried me that these students would struggle significantly on the rest of the essay, and

especially during the Regents exam when no on was there to assist.

After working with these students, it made me question how they had gotten to

this point, to where they could not summarize a prompt into an introduction paragraph.

Was it because the teacher was ill prepared while in college to teach writing as Kiuhara

(2009) suggests? Or was it because these students had not had enough practice writing

multi-paragraph assignments?

The Future

This experience also made me question what I will do as a future teacher. How

will I teach writing? I believe that Deans (2005) inquiry approach could be very effective

if done as a class-wide discussion, rather than in small groups. Students are such unique

individuals, that in the small group level, one may not experience what others have to say.

Additionally, I believe that starting the writing process earlier in the year is a must.

Possibly, if these students had been given more practice writing lengthier work, they may

have been more comfortable beginning the writing process (Kiuhara, 2009).
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References

Dean, D. (2005). Strategic Writing: Moving beyond the Classroom Assignment. The

English Journal, 95(2), 82-88. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/30046550

Kiuhara, S. A., Graham, S., & Hawken, L. S. (2009). Teaching writing to high school

students: A national survey. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101 (1), 136-160.

doi: 10.1037/a0013097

Townsend, J., Nail, A., Cheveallier, J., & Browning, A. (2013). An Online Writing

Partnership: Transforming Classroom Writing Instruction. The English

Journal, 102(4), 74-81. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23365353

(2009). Global History and Geography. The University of the State of New York.

Retrieved from http://www.nysedregents.org/globalhistory

geography/Archive/20090812scoringkeyIandII.pdf