Sharing Research About Writing

My "cup of tea" reading this morning was a link from the national Writing Project Daily  about a study of writing on the University of Pittsburgh campus. http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/articles/bartholomae_matway2010/index.cfm

This research study suggests:

Students value:

Opportunities to write about something that matters to them

Opportunities for new thinking and learning

Opportunities to dig deeply and make connections

Explicit understanding of the assignment's relation to the course material

Specific guidelines

Feedback (comments, what works as well as what could be improved)

Time

Models

Teachers (professors) value:

• Making writing a predictable classroom exercise
• Using writing to promote thinking
• Using shorter, not graded papers (often written in class) to engage students but also to assess what they know.
• Breaking larger projects into smaller components

I think I've heard this before, but it is important to realize that what "makes writing" instruction worthwhile is similar at every stage of the journey.