Survey

Power, B. & Ohanian, S. (1999). �Sacred Cows: Questioning Assumptions in Elementary Writing Programs.� Language Arts, Volume 76, No. 3. pg. 249-257.

Because I�ve taught language arts classes for almost 4 years, I am confident that I have read many journal articles and know many opinions about the importance of writing in the classroom. I know that writing and reading go hand in hand. I believe that it is important for parents to encourage their children to experiment with writing at an early age. I believe that research supports the belief that writing should be done in every content area in middle and high schools. I also believe that writing improves through the formal teaching of grammar. I was curious to know what my colleagues at my school think about these things. I took some time to ask a few of them.
The first teacher I chose is finishing her teaching degree this semester. She teaches 8th grade English on our campus. I will call her �Linda�. The second teacher I chose has a master�s degree in reading, but has only been teaching for 4 years. He teaches 7th grade reading on our campus and is interested in gifted and talented students. I will call him �Keith�. The third teacher I asked to be a part of this article was an elementary teacher for 8 years. She is currently the librarian on our campus but is active in all the content area discussions. I will call her �Denise�. The final teacher I chose for this project is a 7th grade science teacher. She has taught on our campus for 14 years. I will call her �Claire�.
I took the time to talk with each of these teachers and told them that I was doing some research for a school project. All four of them were eager to give me the information that I needed. I gave them the prompt, �What are your assumptions about writing in the classroom?� I asked them to try and list at least four things. Most teachers listed four, but one teacher could only thing of two things on which they wished to focus.
All four of the teachers I questioned agreed that writing is an important thing in the classroom. They all agreed that it is something that should be carried over into every curriculum area on our campus. Denise stated, �Only when writing in emphasized in every classroom will students realize the importance of being a good writer.� All four of the teachers mentioned that they try to incorporate some type of writing activity in their classroom at least once a week.
Keith and Denise stated that reading and writing should go hand in hand. Keith talked a little about how in his gifted and talented training he�s been exposed to many different writing activities that allow students to express themselves in creative ways. Keith went on to mention that he�s seen several of his students blossom with the opportunity to do extensive projects centered around writing.
Linda is still going through her classes working on her teaching degree. It seemed to me that she knew all the right answers when it comes to writing. She mentioned over and over how important it is for students to begin writing at a very young age. As a middle school teacher, she sees the struggle that students have when they are unable to write clear papers that express what they are trying to say. She believes that the majority of students on our campus were not exposed to writing until grade school. She believes that this has caused them to be behind the �norm� for students their ages. Linda stated that this has been a frustrating year for her trying to teach writing to students who don�t even know how to identify a complete sentence.
Claire is not only a teacher with a passion for science, but she is the science department chair on our campus. She encourages students to do some type of a writing activity at least once a week. She works well with the other teachers on her team to develop appropriate writing activities. She mandates that all of her students will do some type of science fair project every year. With this project, the students have to write a major paper. She expresses some frustration with the students little knowledge of writing. She holds some animosity toward writing teachers because she is disappointed in the final projects that she receives from her students.
All in all, I was impressed by the responses I received from the teachers on my campus. They all knew the basics of writing. I was a bit disappointed that none of the teachers mentioned grammar as a basis for effective writing instruction. I believe when students do not have a wide literacy background, grammar is an important and effective way to teach writing. The numbers of middle school students who can�t even find the subject of a sentence or identify the action verb surprises me. I believe that if these skills were once again taught on elementary school and middle school campuses, students would know what the necessary things needed to make a complete sentence, paragraph, paper, etc.
I would have to say through my research, I was not changed in my beliefs. I still believe that writing should begin at an early age. I believe that writing is a natural extension for reading in every content area. I am encouraged that the teachers that I surveyed on my campus have these same convictions. I am glad that our librarian takes an interest in encouraging every department to adopt some type of literacy project that encourages writing.