2 Narratives about Teaching Writing - National Council of Teachers ...

46 Chapter 21968), often reflect or enforce hierarchal relationships between studentsand teachers and can lead to a decrease in student confidence aboutwriting if used in a punitive fashion.Controversies in Writing InstructionThe characteristics of best practice in writing are not prescriptive; instead,they constitute an array of choices from which we can select basedon our students’ needs. Within writing pedagogy, however, there arecontroversies that reoccur in discussions among English teachers andcomposition theorists. Not everyone shares the same views or definesbest practice in the same way. Following are descriptions of some of thecontroversies that we have heard the most about in recent years.1. Nonacademic Writing versus Academic Writing. Best practice tellsus that we should help students find “real” reasons to write. But whatare the parameters of this writing? Some theorists tell us that the onlyway to write in the English language arts classroom is by using academicgenres (research essays, literary essays, and so forth), while others takea different perspective, encouraging students to write for what they call“authentic” audiences (research reports to local politicians, book reviewsto be published in local newspapers, or memoirs written for familymembers). Advocates of academic writing seem to believe that secondaryschool writing is primarily a preparation for college-level writing,and students must learn how to write in academic genres in order tosucceed at the next level. Proponents of writing for “real audiences” tendto be those with more of a writing-across-the-curriculum bent who believethat actual writing tasks have a more practical or rhetorical aspect;that is, writers write with a particular audience and purpose in mind,and an academic audience is not the one most students will be writingfor in their adult lives. They argue that writing should prepare studentsfor professional life and the writing tasks they will complete on the jobas adults.2. Evaluation and Response. Some English teachers see the final productas the ultimate goal of writing instruction and grade solely on finaldrafts and other final products. Others, however, put minimal emphasison final work and develop systems of grading such as portfolios andscoring rubrics that emphasize work that leads up to the final product(drafts, prewriting, research activities, peer workshop group participation,and the quality of response to peers). Some see peer responsegroups as a way to polish final products and take care of minor editing