Why do many children not write well?
By James Olsen, Ph.D.

The Scholastic Aptitude Test, which most universities require for admission, is newly revised to include a 45-minute segment that requires a well-written essay on an assigned topic. The reason for this shift from multiple-choice answers is that colleges have been complaining that their freshman students don’t write well enough to do term papers, research projects and essays. (Maybe this is a reason why colleges have a 50% dropout rate.)

Why? When I taught in elementary and high schools, I generally had 35 to 40 kids in a class. (The only exception was when I worked with delinquent youngsters who were in trouble with the law. Then I had eight to 12 children in a class.) I didn’t give many writing assignments to those larger classes, not because I was lazy, but because of the time requirement. If I took five minutes to read the student’s paper, comment on it, correct the grammar, spelling and punctuation and multiplied that time by 40 kids, I had to spend about three and one-half additional hours at my desk. If I did that twice a week, I added seven unpaid hours to my teaching load. (At the time I was working two to three jobs to pay private school tuitions.)

When you include correcting homework, quizzes and formal monthly tests (all multiple choice of course), to see how well your students are doing, that adds another three or four hours and you’re close to two full teaching days. Our pupils don’t write well because that’s not a normal school requirement. What to do?

Here are some ideas taken from actual school practices. Use volunteer readers who— after a three-hour training session where correction guidelines are established and explained— can take 10 or so student papers and spend the necessary hour correcting them. Second, let students keep a daily journal, which can be quickly reviewed by the teacher. But instead of making formal corrections, pick one type of mistake the student makes and focus on that until it’s no longer made. Then go on to the next type of mistake. Third, encourage students to use the spelling and grammar software on the computer. Some software systems also explain automatically why a certain choice is correct. Fourth, assign class time for students to write while the teacher and perhaps one or two parent volunteers or older high school or college students help individual students right there in class. 

Writing literacy is a fundamental part of overall literacy and should not be neglected. We think with words. Therefore, writing is much more than just grammar, vocabulary, syntax and spelling. Writing is a key form of cognition, a fundamental part of reasoning and logic. By denying youngsters writing practice, we are negating the opportunity for them to think consistently, systematically and critically. Writing needs to be a teaching priority and we do our students a disservice not to demand it of them…and of ourselves as teachers.

The Olsens have worked in the field of education for 95 collective years. They can be contacted at 154-4374 or email sml 154-4374@prodigy.net.mx.