If you teach in the inner-city, you have probably seen a classroom or two without a permanent teacher. The position was unfilled, or perhaps, the teacher went on some type of extended leave. Maybe the administration could not fill the position at the beginning of the year, or maybe the teacher left mid-year for a medical reason. Quite often, the position is unfilled because of some bureaucratic mishap.
There are many year-round schools in the inner city of Los Angeles. As such, school is always in session somewhere. Teaching at a year-round school, I get two vacations per year. On a number of my vacations, I have taken over one of these abandoned classrooms.
It’s always a case of the have-nots getting the short end of the stick once again. In other words, the class is always a class that would be a challenge under the best of circumstances. These are classrooms where others did not stay. Quite often, they are classrooms where others would not stay. They are challenging. They contain MANY reluctant and remedial writers.
If you want a thrill or wish to test your teaching chops, go to the neediest neighborhood in the inner-city, find the neediest school in that neighborhood, and ask them to let you take over an unfilled position mid-year. Ask for the class where the substitute teachers will stay for just one day and then will not return under any circumstance. I have experienced these extreme teaching situations in both inner-city elementary schools and inner-city middle schools. Some are more challenging than others. Some enter the realm of the surreal.
Getting the Students Working
A journey of a thousand miles began with a single step.
Lao Tzu (c. 604-c. 531 BC)
In these situations, a key component of classroom management is getting the class working. If you wish to pull the class together, perhaps even make the class a normal class, you must get the kids writing.
In one middle school situation, I had students who were reluctant to pick up their pencils, let alone write a whole composition. Here is one example of a reluctant middle school writer: The assignment was to draw a rather complicated multi-step illustration. The illustration starts simple enough: “Draw a large circle.” The student wouldn’t: “It’s too hard.”
Now, I assumed the circle was not “too hard” to draw. However, when looking ahead at all the steps the student needed to complete to complete the whole assignment, I could see why a struggling student might be reluctant to begin. I decided I would get him some help in getting started. I had a student come over from another classroom and help him draw circles. Strangely and surprisingly, the student accepted the help. Happily, that was the last time this student would not begin. So part of the solution in teaching struggling, reluctant writers to write is you need to motivate them to begin. Students cannot give up before they even begin.
Writing Success: It Begins with a Specific, Concrete Step
When I’ve taken over these classrooms, I always seem to focus on writing. In fact, they almost become writing intensives. There are many reasons why, but in short, writing gets the students calm and communicates that we are here to work. Initially, the writing in these classrooms is unreadable. One experienced teacher looked at a classroom set of compositions and sighed, “I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
Here is what does not work: giving esoteric writing lectures. This crowd responds to learning specific, concrete skills and strategies. These reluctant and remedial writers all but say, “Stop with the words. Just tell me what to do and how to do it.”
When you tell these reluctant writers how to do something in clear, specific, and simple terms, they will do it. No one likes to fail. Kids and adults alike will not even begin something if they know they are going to fail at it. When faced with esoteric writing instruction, these struggling student writers think, “No. I’m not going to do that because I don’t understand how to do that. And I’m not going to do something that I know I am going to fail at.” This may remind many people of how they feel about singing, public speaking, dancing, or sports. This is how these very reluctant student writers feel about writing.
“Just Do This One Thing”
Please note that I do teach both grammar and mechanics. Fortunately, in these classrooms, there are usually plenty of workbooks that are near empty—almost brand new, except that they look as if they have been on a journey of a thousand miles.
However, teaching grammar and mechanics is not the same as teaching writing. Plenty of research quoted elsewhere on this website makes that point quite clear. Teaching writing is teaching students how to write. Teaching writing is getting students to write while holding them accountable for all those rules of grammar and mechanics while they write.
So, how do you teach these reluctant and remedial writers to write? I will quote that experienced teacher mentioned above once again: “I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” Well, I begin by saying, “Just do this one thing.”
As I mention elsewhere on this website, I developed Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay in one of these abandoned classrooms. It was a 3rd-grade class; it was the last eight weeks of their school year; there had been over 50 teachers in that classroom before me; it was total mayhem! When I arrived in that classroom, it was hard for me to speak, and it was hard for them to listen. Workbooks were fine; I could talk quickly and concisely and put them to work. However, I like to teach writing, and I can’t just do workbook pages all day long. A normal classroom writes. Furthermore, in a normal classroom, the students write thoughtfully and take pride in their writing.
In this classroom, however, the problem was how to get all that going. I needed to get creative. And I did. That being said, I put forth my new creative ideas one idea at a time, and they came in this form: “Just do this one thing.” And at each step, I told the students to do that one thing they did last time and also do this new thing.
How-To
What I’ve learned in these unruly classrooms is that students are interested in writing “how-to,” not theory or information. With many activities, people become interested in the information once they are actively participating in the activity. A person will become interested in drawing when they are drawing; a person will become interested in basketball when they are playing basketball; a person will become interested in cooking when they are cooking for others.
The solution for these remedial and reluctant writers is to break down the writing process into manageable steps, while also maintaining student interest. With these struggling writers, if you do not tie all the steps together, they will lose interest or give up. These students do not want information; they want how-to. Furthermore, if the steps do not connect, the students perceive it only as information. They don’t want that. Another thought: it’s likely that the students have already heard that same information many times before. How-to means that each step connects to a result, and step-by-step, students learn an active skill that develops a real ability.
Please note, even in the most unruly classrooms, I have students read their writing to at least one other student. We do this at least once a day (if I have the students all day), and if students are writing a lot, twice a day. It helps writing take on a life of its own, and soon students are improving, and once they are improving, they begin to take REAL pride in their writing.
The Process: 1) Stop Talking, 2) Go Step-By-Step, 3) Stop Explaining, 4) Have Students Write, 5) Have Students Read Their Writing to One other Person, 6) Repeat, 7) and Get Results!
As I mentioned, that 3rd-grade class was the beginning of a brand new writing program. I stopped talking and simply had students do “just one thing,” then do “one more thing,” and add “one more thing” to all of those things. In just eight weeks, this class went from writing unreadable gibberish to being able to write the best complete essays of any elementary school class I had ever taught. I insisted the principal take home the students’ before-and-after timed writings and look them over. When she came to return them, her eyes welled up as she asked, “You mean these are first drafts?!”
I replied, “Yes. That’s a TIMED WRITING—25 minutes from start to finish.” Many nice words followed, but the principal’s eyes had said it all.
Remedial Writers and Reluctant Writers in Middle School and High School
I once took over an unfilled position at a large inner-city middle school. In short, nothing an inner-city teacher could say would shock me. I know how bad it can get. These classrooms are unfilled for a good reason. No one will stay!
With these students, if you start by saying what they have already heard a thousand times before, they will be uninterested and possibly hostile. “We know that already!” The truth is they do know it. They just don’t understand it.
I’ve been getting more and more letters from middle school and high school teachers (and parents) asking me if the Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay writing program will work with their remedial and reluctant writers. The answer is this: YES.
Is it going to be too easy? It may or may not be. Sometimes this program is the missing piece of the puzzle for everyone involved. However, with some stubborn teens, you just have to keep saying, “No, that’s not it. We’ll try again tomorrow.” I’ve seen students literally change their writing in a single day when they finally give in and follow the steps.
Them: “You mean like this?”
Me: “Yes, like that.”
Them: “You really like this better?”
Me: “Yes. I can’t even read your other writing.”
Them: “Oh. Well, I can do this. This is easy!”
Admittedly, I was slightly surprised when I realized that a few high school teachers were buying the program. On the other hand, I have a pretty good idea of their situation, and yes, I believe they can get better results faster by using my methodology. High school teachers can create competent writers fast! Once you have competent writers and students say, “Ohh, I get it!” you have something that you can build on.
Questions and Problems Regarding Remedial Writing and Reluctant Writers in Middle School and High School
Here are a few questions for teachers of older students to ask themselves:
- Are your students reluctant or remedial writers?
- Have other methods failed them?
- Are you planning on repeating the same exact strategies that have already not worked with these students?
- Are you planning on repeating the same writing language these kids find boring and tired?
- Do your kids say, “We already know that,” but don’t show you that they know it when they write?
- Do your students write in correct and complete sentences? Not even correct and complete simple sentences?
- Do your students say the writing prompt is stupid, and they won’t write about that subject? Then when you let them choose what to write about, they can’t think of anything to write about?
- Do your students refuse to write in paragraph form and can’t see the errors of their ways?
Put simply, I have had great success with this program in the most extreme middle school classrooms that one can imagine. The program has been transformational for these struggling writers. I have not taught high school, but I have seen high school writing that I knew Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay could greatly improve. Don’t be worried that the pictures on the homepage show some students who may be younger than your own. I offer a 100% no-questions-asked money-back guarantee, so check out the writing program on the home page!
Solve the Problem before there is a Problem: Get Started in Elementary School
We would not have reluctant or remedial writers in middle or high school in a perfect world. My honest (and maybe biased) opinion is that Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay is the beginning of a real solution. I label the writing curriculum as a remedial writing program for middle and high school students because if teachers use the program in elementary school, their students will be fantastic writers by the time they get to middle and high school.
