Real Writing Requires --from The Editor

By Author: FIRELEAVES
Total Articles: 49
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Providing yet another rant against standardized tests isn't going to help anyone, with the possible exception of this renter (who may find it lowers his blood pressure). My point is that if English teachers do only what they are held most accountable for--helping students achieve on tests--they do a tremendous disservice to their students. Students need more than passing scores on low-skill exams. They need to learn to research and Omega Speedmaster Replica compose for real purposes, real audiences, and in real contexts. They need to learn to generate questions that engage them intellectually; they must experience the desire and accomplishment of creating text that genuinely achieves their purposes; and they need to learn the intricacies of persuading, entertaining, informing, or otherwise affecting a real audience in a real way.

Real writing requires that teachers find ways to generate personal investment from their students in their writing, to encourage students to write to real audiences outside the classroom and to get feedback from those ...
... audiences. When students are truly invested in their writing, when they care to move an audience in some specific way, their writing takes flight: their attention to the little details of writing and research increases, their efforts to get useful feedback from peers and teachers increase, and the satisfaction they feel in the accomplishment of their task is immeasurable. This issue's colorful cover photo is a close-up of a parrot's wing, and it's a reminder of all the fine and complex detail--all the research, refinement, and reflection--that can make real writing soar.

One of my favorite teachers once said that good teachers make themselves unnecessary. If our students finish school without the ability to achieve communicative purposes without teachers, we have done them a disservice. For students' benefit, we must prepare them for the real world, and we should use the real world as an ally in that task by encouraging our students to write to audiences outside our classrooms.

This issue of English Journal includes a great many ideas for engaging students in writing, reading, speaking, and listening that will help them develop real-world skills.
We are fortunate to present an "EJ in Focus" written by one of the best-known authors of authentic instructional practices, "Grant Wiggins Also, this issue includes articles on reading websites critically, helping students see connections between English language arts and community organization, unique assignments to encourage inter-school collaboration, dealing with the perhaps "too real" prominence of texting language in students' lives, and several essays aimed at helping students develop richer conversations about their writing.

The next time anyone accuses any of us of not working in "the real world," don't argue with them. Put them to work as a real audience for your students' writing!

In closing, I ask readers to permit me a personal note that might also explain my attention to real-world skills. Some of our best teachers are not in the classroom at all, and since this is May--the season of Mother's Day--I'd like to thank one of them publicly. I owe a great deal of my success to my mother, Anne Russell, who inspired healthy professional ambition in her children as we watched her rise from part-time teller to Omega Replica Watches vice president of a bank. Her influence on my professional development was obvious even when I was young: In the third grade I was invited to serve as the youngest-ever master of ceremonies for our school's annual talent show. I accepted the invitation, to my teacher's amusement, explaining that the role "would look good on my resume." For inspiring my earliest drive for professional success and so much else, thanks, Mom! (J)