{"id":32727,"date":"2012-09-24T10:49:25","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T15:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=32727"},"modified":"2012-09-22T05:56:54","modified_gmt":"2012-09-22T10:56:54","slug":"teach-them-to-write","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/09\/24\/teach-them-to-write\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach them to write"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>By Peg Tyre<\/strong><\/a>, a story about reviving learning through the lost art of essay writing:<\/p>\n

Good writing is learned two ways: by reading good writers and by writing under the supervision of someone who cares about good writing.<\/p>\n

And so the school\u2019s principal, Deirdre DeAngelis, began a detailed investigation into why, ultimately, New Dorp\u2019s students were failing. By 2008, she and her faculty had come to a singular answer: bad writing. Students\u2019 inability to translate thoughts into coherent, well-argued sentences, paragraphs, and essays was severely impeding intellectual growth in many subjects. Consistently, one of the largest differences between failing and successful students was that only the latter could express their thoughts on the page. If nothing else, DeAngelis and her teachers decided, beginning in the fall of 2009, New Dorp students would learn to write well. \u201cWhen they told me about the writing program,\u201d Monica says, \u201cwell, I was skeptical.\u201d With disarming candor, sharp-edged humor, and a shy smile, Monica occupies the middle ground between child and adult\u2014she can be both naive and knowing. \u201cOn the other hand, it wasn\u2019t like I had a choice. I go to high school. I figured I\u2019d give it a try.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Dorp\u2019s Writing Revolution, which placed an intense focus, across nearly every academic subject, on teaching the skills that underlie good analytical writing, was a dramatic departure from what most American students\u2014especially low performers\u2014are taught in high school. The program challenged long-held assumptions about the students and bitterly divided the staff. It also yielded extraordinary results. By the time they were sophomores, the students who had begun receiving the writing instruction as freshmen were already scoring higher on exams than any previous New Dorp class. Pass rates for the English Regents, for example, bounced from 67\u00a0percent in June\u00a02009 to 89\u00a0percent in 2011; for the global-\u00adhistory exam, pass rates rose from 64 to 75\u00a0percent. The school reduced its Regents-repeater classes\u2014cram courses designed to help struggling students collect a graduation requirement\u2014from five classes of 35 students to two classes of 20 students.<\/p>\n

The number of kids enrolling in a program that allows them to take college-level classes shot up from 148 students in 2006 to 412 students last year. Most important, although the makeup of the school has remained about the same\u2014\u00adroughly 40\u00a0percent of students are poor, a third are Hispanic, and 12\u00a0percent are black\u2014a greater proportion of students who enter as freshmen leave wearing a cap and gown. This spring, the graduation rate is expected to hit 80\u00a0percent, a staggering improvement over the 63\u00a0percent figure that prevailed before the Writing Revolution began. New Dorp, once the black sheep of the borough, is being held up as a model of successful school turnaround. \u201cTo be able to think critically and express that thinking, it\u2019s where we are going,\u201d says Dennis Walcott, New York City\u2019s schools chancellor. \u201cWe are thrilled with what has happened there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the coming months, the conversation about the importance of formal writing instruction and its place in a public-school curriculum\u2014\u00adthe conversation that was central to changing the culture at New Dorp\u2014will spread throughout the nation. Over the next two school years, 46 states will align themselves with the Common Core State Standards. For the first time, elementary-\u00adschool students\u2014\u00adwho today mostly learn writing by constructing personal narratives, memoirs, and small works of fiction\u2014will be required to write informative and persuasive essays. By high school, students will be expected to produce mature and thoughtful essays, not just in English class but in history and science classes as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Peg Tyre, a story about reviving learning through the lost art of essay writing: Good writing is learned two ways: by reading good writers and by writing under the supervision of someone who cares about good writing. And so the school\u2019s principal, Deirdre DeAngelis, began a detailed investigation into why, ultimately, New Dorp\u2019s students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1741],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-blogging"],"yoast_head":"\nTeach them to write<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Peg Tyre, a story about reviving learning through the lost art of essay writing: Good writing is learned two ways: by reading good writers and by\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/09\/24\/teach-them-to-write\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teach them to write\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Peg Tyre, a story about reviving learning through the lost art of essay writing: Good writing is learned two ways: by reading good writers and by\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/09\/24\/teach-them-to-write\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-24T15:49:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-09-22T10:56:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/files\/2012\/09\/FountainPen-300x195.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/09\/24\/teach-them-to-write\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/09\/24\/teach-them-to-write\/\",\"name\":\"Teach them to write\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-24T15:49:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-22T10:56:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"By Peg Tyre, a story about reviving learning through the lost art of essay writing: Good writing is learned two ways: by reading good writers and by\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/09\/24\/teach-them-to-write\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/09\/24\/teach-them-to-write\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2012\/09\/24\/teach-them-to-write\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Teach them to write\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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