Excerpt from How to do how-to books: Real-life writing in the classroom

Lu Huntley-Johnston
Sherri Phillips Merritt
Lois E. Huffman

The questions high school students ask about writing in the classroom often reveal what they think is important. When teachers assign writing, for example, it is not unusual for some students to ask, "How much does this count?" "How long does this have to be?" "Does this have to be typed?" Questions like these reduce the process of writing to concerns about grading or format. If students complete the work and ask the teacher, "Do you want this?" it suggests that they mayv have invested very little of themselves in the process or the final product and implies that they have a narrow view of literacy as something disconnected from their lives. Perpetuating the idea that writing is something students produce for teachers removes students from positions of responsibility for their written literacy development, thus missing the point "that there are real, human reasons to write" (Calkins, 1994).

The complexities in understanding writing require knowledge of how writing is inextricably connected to thinking; for teachers this demands examination of and knowledge about different writing forms and attendant thinking involved in the production of these forms ( Langer & Applebee, 1987).  The dilemma for teachers is how to design instruction that attains desired curricular objectives while also engaging students in writing that they perceive as relevant. Significant changes in the teaching of writing over the last 20 years have centered on the shift from traditional views to the "process paradigm" (Zemelman & Daniels, 1988); yet adopting a process approach does not, in itself, guarantee that students will see authentic purposes for the writing they produce in school.