Authentic Writing in the Classroom

ECI 430 Dr. Falter

Samantha Linnell

10 October 2017
 In education today there is an emphasis on students being able to write cohesive,

organized papers. Because of this, many teachers regularly give students writing assignments in

their effort to build students writing skills. However, many students have learned that there is a

disconnect between what they write for school purposes and what they write outside of school.

Most young adolescent students are engaged in writing outside of school through social media

posts, blogs or other personal reasons. However, these same students struggle to see the reason

for why they write so much in school when there is not an explicit connection between their

school writing and the real world. Realizing the students desire for real, authentic purposes for

writing assignments, educators began researching the best ways to make writing in the classroom

an authentic experience. The research, conducted in the effort to make school writing more

applicable to real life, has suggested many strategies that can be beneficial to helping students

understand the connection between what they learn in school and how it will help them in

out-of-school situations. These suggested strategies range in complexity from having students

write a book (Rodesiler & Kelley, 2017) to giving students an opportunity to research topics that

interest them and will help them post-school (Kixmiller, 2004), but each one has a real

application for teachers to implement in the classroom in their effort to make writing in school

more authentic.

Before creating a solution for a problem, that problem must first be identified. In this

case, educators have identified a disconnect between writing in school and writing outside of

school. Anne Whitney (2017) argues that school should prepare students for the life they will

have beyond school, so the writing assignments teachers assign should align with the forms of

writing students will do even after they leave the education system. Whitney (2017) writes, We
draw too sharp a line between the world of school and the real world (Whitney, 2017, p16).

However, bridging this gap between real world writing and school writing poses the issue of

how to combine the two. Many educators have turned to authentic writing assignments as a way

to improve students writing skills while also showing students that writing is necessary in all

areas of life, both in and out of school. In her article, Nadia Behizadeh (2014) states that

authenticity can mean a variety of things to a variety of people. Because of this it is important to

define what teachers are saying when they talk about authentic writing. For some teachers this

means giving writing assignments that students will encounter after school, while for other

teachers this means allowing students opportunities to practice building writing skills that can be

applicable in a variety of situations. From her research, Behizadeh (2014) concluded that

authenticity is best viewed as a continuum on which assignments fall closer or further away from

true authenticity.

There is a multitude of scholarly suggestions for teachers on how to incorporate authentic

writing in the classroom. One such suggestion from Samantha Caponera (2016) is that allowing

students to have choice in their writing assignments brings in an element of authenticity. When

teachers allow students to write freely, without constraints, the students have an opportunity to

write on topics they choose and explore their interests or research unfamiliar subjects which

improves their inquiry skills. Also, unstructured writing allows students to create their own

purpose for writing and audience for the piece, which are both factors of authentic writing

(Caponera, 2016). Nadia Behizadeh (2014) studied how students respond to writing both

authentic and unauthentic. In her study, Behizadeh focused on one student, Xavier, and his

particular view on writing. Xavier saw writing as either being school writing or home writing,
and there are very distinct differences between them. For example, Xavier saw school writing as

being more about improving writing skills, while home writing is about expressing your personal

thoughts and ideas. This distinction had lead Xavier (and many students like him) to learn that

school writing is unauthentic and largely invaluable other than to improve skills (Behizadeh,

2014). However, during the process of her research, Behizadeh (2014) asked Xavier what he

thought would increase the authenticity of writing assignments, and he agreed with Caponera

(2016) that allowing for students choice in their writing assignments will bring in elements of

realness.

Anne Whitney (2017) also agrees with Caponera (2016) in that she identifies both

purpose and audience as a part of her four necessary elements for authentic writing -- authentic

genre, authentic process, authentic audience and authentic teachers and students. These elements

work in combination to create authenticity within an assignment. When the assignment has a

genuine purpose (other than the teacher grading it) with an audience who will be reading it and

when students are allowed to go through the writing process, then the result will be a very

authentic piece of writing (Whitney, 2017).

An example of how to implement Whitneys (2017) four elements of authentic writing

can be seen in Erika Daniels (2007) article on her Literacy Caf. Literacy Caf is an experience

that students have after they have finished a major writing assignment. To make Literacy Caf

special, Daniels brings in snacks and decorations, but she also invites parents, school

administrators and other teachers to attend to see students writing. In her article, Daniels (2007)

writes that after they prepare for it, students are really engaged in discussing their work, the

writing process and analyzing their final product. Because the students know that their writing
will be on display for their parents and other educators to read, they often work harder on their

final product because they want it to be a good representation of who they are as a writer. Having

the opportunity to share and discuss their writing makes the students feel like real, respected

writers, which enhances the authenticity of the assignment as well as the work the students

produce (Daniels, 2007). This activity fulfills Whitneys (2017) elements of authentic writing

because students are genuinely going through the writing process to write for a specific purpose

and to an audience who will be interested in reading their work.

In her paper, Lori Kixmiller (2004), also argues the value of students knowing they are

writing for a real audience. A writing classroom should challenge students to think in new

ways, conceive of audiences and identify issues that matter to them. (Kixmiller, 2004, 33). In

this, Kixmiller is stating that students should be writing for real reasons that are of interest to

them. In her paper, Kixmiller explains that East Peoria Community High School in Illinois uses a

senior project to make writing authentic for its students. For this project students find a topic that

interests them and is related to a career in which they are interested. Next, students find a

community member who will mentor them for the project. From there, students conduct

research, gain experiences and create a product. Students also write a paper compiling all that

they learned through the experience and present it to a panel of community members. This is a

truly authentic project and writing assignment because students choose their topic, conduct their

own research and write to an audience of panel members who will be reviewing their work.

When students know that there is a purpose to the assignment that is larger than school, there is a

heightened level of realness which contributes to the authenticity (Kixmiller, 2004).

 In agreement with Kixmiller (2004), Anne Whitney (2011) writes that it is necessary to

tell students how the writing assignment applies to their lives before they begin writing.

However, for teachers this means that there must be a true connection between the assignment

and real life experiences that students can understand and find relevant. Whitney (2011) argues

that students should be made aware of the school context of the assignment as well as the real

world applications. Brian Kelley (Rodesiler & Kelley, 2017) also strived to find ways to make

his writing assignments more authentic. Eventually, Kelley created the idea to have his students

write a book. Although he acknowledged this was a huge task, Kelley believed that the benefits

to his students would far outweigh any possible difficulties. After seeing a production of Don

Carlo, Kelley had his students write a remake of Don Carlo. After completing the writing

process within the class, Kelley sent the classes draft to a book editor. The editor wrote back to

the students as the authors of the book, which Kelley noted made the students feel like real,

respected writers. The students made revisions, created the final draft and eventually published,

printed and sold the book. Kelley states that this experience gave students the opportunity to use

their own voices to create a book that would eventually be read by other people while also

working on building writing skills and fulfilling writing standards that needed to be addressed

(Rodesiler & Kelley, 2017). Although it is a very large task to take on, this experience was very

authentic for the students, and it helped build their interest, as well as skill, in writing.

Elizabeth Kahn (2009) expands on the idea that authentic writing assignments are

effective for students because they are engaging as well as have real world applications. Kahn

explains that having students write about real debatable events is authentic writing because

students are writing about real people, places and events that they see in the world outside of
school. When students have the opportunity to write about shocking and debatable events, it

allows them to practice sharing their voice. It also gives them the opportunity to practice writing

in an argumentative style, which they will be using long after they leave school (Kahn, 2009).

Some real world argumentative writing include letters to political leaders, letters to employers or

co-workers and letters to companies or businesses to affect change. Cathy King (2017) agrees

with this. When interviewed, King stated that, for her, teaching authentic writing is about

teaching students to use their own voice in their writing, especially in argumentative writing,

when they are trying to convince the audience of something. When teaching writing King wants

her students to be able to communicate effectively but also personably, which is greatly affected

by the authors voice. For this reason, King focuses on teaching her students how to use their

voice which is a skill that is transferable to many other forms of writing (King 2017).

Angela Kohnen and Cathie English (2016) also discuss the importance of teaching

students effective argumentative skills. For them, students being able to write an argumentative

paper directly correlates with students critical thinking skills. For this reason, Kohen and

English (2016) focus on learning the craft of argumentation and being able to teach students how

to create their own argument. Also in agreement with Kahn (2009), Beverly Keiser (1991),

writes about giving students opportunities to write in formats that they will continue using after

school. Keiser assigns her second grade students to write letters to characters from a fairy tale

they have read. In the letters the students talk to the characters and ask them questions. After

they have written their letters, a class of fifth graders reads and responds to their letters as if they

were the character from the story. Keiser argues that having students write letters teaches them
skills that will help them throughout their lives because adults write emails, letters and other

notes that use a similar format on a daily basis (Keiser, 1991).

While the idea of teaching students the art of authentic writing is logical, it is much

harder to integrate into the daily class schedule. Kohen and English (2016) state that there is a

very serious conflict for teachers between addressing the state standards and ensuring that they

are teaching their students skills that will help them throughout their lives. Combining teaching

the conventions of writing while using real world formats requires finding a balance; but once it

is found it can be a very effective way for students to learn how to better themselves as writers.

Caponera (2016) also discusses this in her paper by acknowledging that writing instruction

involves many elements such as grammar, spelling, organization and clarity. These elements are

more likely to be tested so they take priority, while the goal of teaching authentic writing falls

lower on the priority list. Because of these factors, teachers must create assignments that work to

accomplish multiple goals. Another concern is that authentic writing should be student

generated. However, because teachers have to plan lessons weeks in advance, there is limited

flexibility to let students create assignments that are of interest to them (Kahn, 2009).

Even if all of these concerns were addressed, Rodesiler and Kelly (2017) argue that

teachers still have to consider how to include the element of audience. Wanting students to share

their writing with the community and public is a great way to have them take pride in their work.

But teachers have to find ways to do this while not violating students privacy with publication

and protecting students identities when their work is shared (Rodesiler and Kelley, 2017). All of

these concerns are legitimate for teachers because there are so many elements that must be
combined to create an effective writing assignment that will teach students skills that will apply

both in school and out of school.

From the process of compiling the research for this paper, it was evident that there are a

variety of ways to think about authentic writing and what it includes. Each source has its own

definition of what authentic writing means and how it can be applied in a classroom. From of all

of these articles and papers, it can be concluded that authentic writing assignments must give

students opportunities to write about something that interests them, and the assignment must

have a purpose, including the possibility of sharing it with other people who will be impacted by

the writing. When this is true, students are writing authentic pieces that have a real purpose

outside of the school setting. As teachers prepare to teach students writing skills, they must also

consider how students will engage with the assignment and what impact it will have on their life.

This will determine how students feel about the assignment and how they will react while

writing. Authentic writing is about much more than responding to a prompt that students may

encounter outside of school. Authentic writing is about allowing students to create purpose for

their writing and giving them the chance to find value in their writing.
 References

Behizadeh, N. (2014). Xavier's take on authentic writing: Structuring choices for

Expression and Impact. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(4), 289298.

Caponera, S. (2016). Nurturing writers: Making room for authentic writing. The Reading

Teacher, 69(5), 569-570

Daniels, E. (2007). Literacy Caf: Making writing authentic. Voices from the Middle, 14(3), 12-

19.

Kahn, E. (2009). From the secondary section: Making writing instruction authentic. The English

Journal, 98(5), 15-17.

Keiser, B. (1991). Creating authentic conditions for writing. The Reading Teacher, 45(3), 249-

250.

King, C. (2017, September 27). [Personal interview].

Kixmiller, L. (2004). Standards without sacrifice: The case for authentic writing. The

English Journal, 94(1), 29-33.

Kohnen, A. M., & English, C. (2016). In search of authentic argument. English Journal, 105(6),

59-65.

Rodesiler, L., & Kelley, B. (2017). Toward a readership of Real people: A case for authentic

writing opportunities. English Journal, 106(6), 22.

Whitney, A. (2011). In search of the authentic english classroom: Facing the schoolishness of

School. English Education, 44(1), 51-62.

Whitney, A. E. (2017). Keeping it real: Valuing authenticity in the writing classroom. English

Journal, 106(6), 16-21.

 Authentic Writing in the Classroom Annotated Bibliography

Behizadeh Nadia (2014). Xavier's take on authentic writing: Structuring choices for

expression and impact. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(4), 289298.

Nadia Behizadeh, an assistant professor at Georgia State University, writes on a young

adolescent, Xavier, who likes writing but sees a distinction between writing for school and

writing for fun. In a study Behizadeh interviewed and surveyed middle school students about

their perceptions of writing. In this paper Behizadeh specifically focuses on Xavier as a case

study in which she strives to understand how students perceive writing in school versus writing

for other reasons. Xavier explains that he likes writing when he feel like he is able to express his

thoughts and opinions, which, for him, is what writing is all about. Based on her findings,

Behizadeh argues that writing assignments in schools need to have some level of realness which

students know and understand so that they can see how their writing has value. This article will

benefit my own research on authentic writing because it has a students point of view about

writing and what makes writing real. Also, Behizadeh offers great insights both from Xavier as

well as other student participants, about what is important in teaching authentic writing.

Caponera, S. (2016). Nurturing writers: Making room for authentic writing. The Reading

Teacher, 69(5), 569-570

In her article, Samantha Caponera, a teacher at Central School in Larchmont New York,

explains the importance of allowing choice in student writing. Caponera argues the necessity of

allowing time for unstructured, freewriting along with structured assignment. According to

Caponera, unstructured writing assignments allow students to generate their own purpose for

writing which can be very engaging for student writers. Also, by allowing students to choose the
topics they want to write on, students are taking responsibility and control over the assignment

and explore new topics that may interest them. When students feel like they have some control

over the assignment they will likely produce better examples of authentic writing. In the effort to

teach students to be better writers, allowing them flexibly in certain situations can give them the

opportunity to experiment with their writing style. This suggestion seems very logical in the fact

that when given the opportunity students will feel comfortable to try new things in their attempt

to improve their writing. This perspective will benefit my paper on ways to implement authentic

writing because Caponera suggests a specific strategy, using unstructured, free writes, to help

students understand their writing potential.

Daniels, E. (2007). Literacy caf: Making writing authentic. Voices from the Middle, 14(3), 12-

19.

Erika Daniels has found a very intriguing way to engage her students in writing and show

them that writing is about more than just getting a grade from the teacher. Daniels is a middle

school teacher at Jefferson Middle School in Oceanside California and she is also an adjunct

professor at California state university at San Marcos. In her middle school classroom Daniels

has started using what she calls a Literacy Caf where students and community members gather

together after the students complete a major writing assignment. During a Literacy Caf day the

students, their parents, other teacher and even administrators come to Daniels classroom to talk

about the students writing. Having this event after the students write an assignment gives them a

chance to show off their work but they also see the value of their writing. During this time

students practice discussing their writing, they can showcase their work and they can get

feedback for the attendees. Daniels argues that this activity teaches students that their writing is
valuable and that it is worth sharing. This is as strategy that I can include in my research paper as

an example of allowing students the opportunity to write authentically and share their work.

Kahn, E. (2009). From the secondary section: Making writing instruction authentic. The English

Journal, 98(5), 15-17.

Elizabeth Kahn, a High school English teacher at James B. Conant High School in

Hoffman Estates Illinois and coauthor of Talking in Class: Using Discussion to Enhance

Teaching and Learning, writes this article about how a genuine issue students had quickly

because a writing project in her class. Kahn explains how students were bothered by a school

policy so she suggested that they research the issue, find evidence to back up their arguments and

then write a letter to the appropriate audience explaining their argument. Following this example,

Kahn gives suggestions for how to implement authentic writing in the classroom. One thing

Kahn notes is that allowing students to write on real events and issues is helpful because they can

conduct research on real people, places and events to develop their writing. Kahn also advised

that teachers prompt students to write on shocking events because students are more likely to

take a side which will help them build and defend their argument. Using these recommendations

from Kahn in my paper will allow me to have more strategies for creating authentic writing

situations which will support my claim that authentic writing is worth creating.

Keiser, B. (1991). Creating authentic conditions for writing. The Reading Teacher, 45(3), 249-

250.

In the effort to incorporate authentic writing in the classroom Beverly Keiser used a

project with her second grade students where they wrote letters to characters in fairy tales. Keiser

is a reading specialist at Casa De Oro Elementary School in Spring Valley, California. After
reading the fairy tale with her second grade students Keiser instructed them to consider one of

the characters in the story and their circumstances. Once they had a chance to reflect on the

characters, the students wrote letters to the characters in which they asked questions they still had

after reading the story. Because the students were writing to the character they had a different

audience rather than always writing to the teacher. After the second graders wrote their letters

their teacher took them to a fifth grade teacher who distributed them to her students. The fifth

grade students then assumed the role of the character and wrote letters back to the second grade

students as if the character were answering their questions. Through this project both the second

grade students and the fifth grade students had the task of adjusting their writing to write for a

different reason other than writing for the teacher which helps answer my question of how to

incorporate authentic writing in the classroom. There is no quantitative data on the effectiveness

of this strategy, but the skills of writing a letter are easily transferable into real life situations.

King, C. (2017, September 27). [Personal interview].

Cathy King is an 8th grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher. During the

interview King defined authentic writing as being assignments which allow students to practice

using their voice as well as writing assignments that are based on writing students will do after

school. King explains that authentic writing has not been a major focus for her and her school

recently, but she does still want the writing assignments to be beneficial and real for her students.

King focuses heavily on teaching students to use their voice in their writing because that skill

will apply in a variety of formats of writing. This interview informed me of the everyday

practices of an in-service teacher in the area. This information will benefit my paper because it

gives a different perspective of how authentic writing should be incorporated in the classroom.
Kixmiller, Lori A. S. (2004). Standards without sacrifice: The case for authentic writing. The

English Journal, 94(1), 29-33.

One major struggles teachers face today is engaging students in class who are otherwise

disinterested. Lori Kixmiller, who teaches composition both at the high school and college level

and serves as a teacher consultant for Illinois State Writing Project, makes suggests that allowing

students to choose a topic that interests them allows them to buy into the assignment. Kixmiller

gives an example student who did not complete the assigned paper until she heard her

classmates topics and got inspired by what they had written about. This introduces another

element of the importance of students sharing their ideas with their peers because it can spur

excitement or inspire new ideas. Kixmiller explains a senior project used in central Illinois high

school in which students choose an interesting topic, research it build a project around the topic

and then present their experience to a panel of community members. Kixmiller argues that this is

a prime example of authentic writing because the students have the opportunity to dive deeper

into a topic that interested them and research and write a paper on it. This article contributes to

my paper on authentic writing in the classroom because it gives strategies for how to implement

authentic writing and it provides an example of how authentic writing is used in a large project.

Kohnen, A. M., & English, C. (2016). In search of authentic argument. English Journal, 105(6),

59-65.

Angela Kohnen, an assistant professor in literacy at the University of Florida, and Cathie

English, an assistant professor of English at Missouri State University, write about how writing

teachers feel the need to teach students to write well but they have to balance this with fulfilling

the state standards. In their paper, the authors state that teaching students to write arguments also
teaches them critical thinking skills which will help them throughout their life. Teaching

argumentation is skill that benefits students but it also fulfills standards for writing. In this paper

the authors discuss how argumentation is crafted, combined and communicated in their effort to

better understand how to teach students to write arguments. Using this article I can connect how

argumentation and critical thinking are skills that students need all throughout their lives but it

also works with the standards that need to be addressed in class.

Rodesiler, L., & Kelley, B. (2017). Toward a readership of Real people: A case for authentic

writing opportunities. English Journal, 106(6), 22.

One major aspect of authentic writing is sharing the writing with others. Authors Luke

Rodesiler and Brian Kelley acknowledge that there are many obstacles with sharing student

writing that may impede a teachers ability to fully publish students work. However, Rodesiler

and Kelley argue that the benefits of publishing student writing far outweigh the possible

consequences. Some of the benefits include higher student engagement while writing for a public

audience, building students confidence in their writing abilities and it creates a record of the

students work which they can reference. Rodesiler was struggling with finding ways to publish

student work in an effort to make the assignments more authentic until he came up with the idea

to have his students write a book. His class went through the whole process of brainstorming,

planning, drafting, editing, rereading and eventually publishing their book and selling it on

Amazon.com. This is an exceptional example of publishing student work but Rodeslier and

Kelly give other examples of how teachers can have their writing students publish their work to

display it for a new audience in ways that are attainable and possible. This article benefits my

research on including authentic writing in the classroom because if gives an incredible example
of how it can be done as well as the authors provide advice for how to accomplish the same goal

in other ways. Luke Rodesiler is a former high school English teacher is currently an assistant

professor of secondary education at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. Brian

Kelley is a co-director of the Pennsylvania Writing and literature Project and teachers at Charles

F. Patton Middle School in Kennet Square Pennsylvania.

Whitney, A. (2011). In search of the authentic english classroom: Facing the schoolishness of

school. English Education, 44(1), 51-62.

Anne Whitney is an assistant professor in the department of curriculum and instruction at

Pennsylvania State University where her research topics include writing, professional

development and the voices of teachers. In this article Whitney discusses how much of the

writing that occurs in schools is fabricated using rigid scenarios. Whitney argues that teachers

should open up their classrooms to the real world and assign students projects and assignments

that will benefit them both presently as a student but also later in life. Another point that Whitney

makes is that when assigning an assignment the teacher should ensure that there is a connection

between the assignment and the applicability to a real world circumstance. If this is true then the

students should be made aware of how the assignment connects to a real world application.

Whitneys argument in the article will benefit my paper by providing support for why authentic

writing assignments are necessary and how they benefit students.

Whitney, A. E. (2017). Keeping it real: Valuing authenticity in the writing classroom. English

Journal, 106(6), 16-21.

Anne Elrod Whitney argues that there is too large of a distinction between the writing

that students do in school verses what they will be writing outside of school. In her article,
Whitney states that school should be preparing students for life after school, but teaching

students to write a five paragraph essay will not help them beyond their schooling. To help

generate authentic writing Whitney outlined four necessary elements which are 1) authentic

genre, 2) authentic process, 3) authentic audience and 4) authentic teachers and students. When

these four factors are combined in the classroom there is a much higher chance of helping

students understand the importance and value of writing. Whitney began her career teaching high

school English but is currently on the faculty at Pennsylvania State University. This article will

benefit my paper on how to teach authentic writing because Whitney outlines a strategic

approach to teaching writing using four components.

 Authentic Writing Assignments
By: Sam Linnell

Inquiry Question: What is authentic writing and how can teachers incorporate it in the
classroom?

Answer: Students often recognize the disconnect between the writing they do in school
and the writing they do outside of school. Because of this teachers want to make writing
in school more applicable to the writing students do other than for academic
purposes.From my research I have concluded that authentic writing assignments have
elements of realness which can come from the prompt, the audience, the writing
setting or the purpose for writing (Whitney, 2017). These elements make the writing
assignments more applicable to real-life situations in which students may really write in
their future.

Tips:
Show students that their writing matters outside of the classroom setting.
Allow s tudents to write for audiences other than you as a teacher and grader.
Give students flexibility to write on topics that interest and concern them. This will
build engagement in their writing.
Teach students to use their voice in their writing and build their confidence that
their thoughts and opinions matter.

Best Sources:
Behizadeh N. (2014). Xavier's Take on Authentic Writing: Structuring Choices for Expression
and Impact. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(4), 289298.
Kixmiller L. (2004). Standards without sacrifice: The case for authentic writing. The English
Journal, 94(1), 29-33.
Rodesiler, L., & Kelley, B. (2017). Toward a readership of Real people: A case for authentic
writing opportunities. English Journal, 106( 6), 22.
Whitney, A. E. (2017). Keeping it real: Valuing authenticity in the writing classroom. English
Journal, 106(6), 16-21.

Sources used on this sheet:

Whitney, A. E. (2017). Keeping it real: Valuing authenticity in the writing classroom. English
Journal, 106(6), 16-21.