Through my weblogs, I get to see what searches brought people to this website. Here are some of my favorite searches that showed up on the weblogs. If you look at them, they really tell a story! It would be funny, if it weren’t so… true!

• tools to teach toddlers prewriting skills
• how to teach 1st grader to write an essay
• how to teach my 7 year old son to write fast
• small easy essays for grade 2
• my middle school students don’t write sentences
• my 8th grade son does not know how to write an essay
• how do i teach complete sentences? “middle school”

I consider “Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay” good common sense in elementary, and the only REAL remedial solution in middle school. (Excellent rapport with middle school students is another really helpful solution!) It’s interesting to see the change of tone in the searches for what I would consider remedial middle school writing instruction.

Have You Taught Middle School Writers… Who You Would Consider to be Remedial?

It may be that you need to have taught middle school students who were “remedial writers” to truly understand and feel the full hidden subtext of pain and frustration in the searches related to middle school students.

Have you ever tried to back it up on middle school students? Backing it up in math, they appreciate! Backing it up in writing, whew… they can turn into a fiery hornets’ nest!

With writing, middle school students think they understand it. “We studied this in elementary school. I know this stuff! This stuff is easy.” By middle school they have definitely been TOLD all the rules of correct writing. However…

My feeling is “you don’t understand it, if you don’t use it.” Writing naturally in correct paragraph form, with nice introductions and conclusions should feel… natural. It should be painful to write with poor paragraph form. It should feel unnatural to have no introduction and a poor conclusion. You should be able to feel beginning, middle ending… beginning middle, ending, both within your paragraphs, and within the full context of the essay, report, or story.

You shouldn’t have to think about it. You should feel it within. Rhythm! Fluency! Natural patterns of communication!

The Best Writers and the Remedial Writers

The best writers in middle school start to feel how to toy with all of these. The remedial writers don’t feel or understand any of these. Remedial writers are writing idea by idea, and sometimes even word by word.

Middle school writers who are not remedial should be focused on:

1. Writing with an academic tone and authority (includes all the exciting aspects of citing references and quoting authorities etc.)
2. Playing with voice, and expression.
3. Playing with structure (Think about the movies Memento, The Usual Suspects, and Groundhog Day as an inspiration for playing with structure. Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay should make playing around with structure for middle school students as easy as A, B, C!)
4. Writing with a purpose. This means purpose within paragraphs and purpose within the larger structure of a piece of writing.
5. Being persuasive in their writing! Logic, following a line of thinking through to its conclusion, framing an argument in a way that naturally leads to their stated point of view.

As middle school students work on all of this… there should be no sacrifice to “PARAGRAPH FORM.” If paragraph form continually falls apart, they don’t understand structure at the level they need to. They need to back it up and you need to teach in strictly visual and kinesthetic terms. No more “explanations.” They have heard it all!

Be sure to read “How to Teach Writing in Inner-City Middle Schools”

If you are struggling with remedial middle school or Jr. High writers, be sure to read an upcoming post on teaching writing in “Inner City Middle Schools.” A MAIN, MAIN, MAIN problem in inner city middle schools is that the majority are “remedial writers.” The majority don’t get it.

Get your middle school students writing correctly… lots of your problems go away… and they start to take pride… (I had written “all of your problems go away.” But no… you may still have your hands full!)