I’ve always wondered why my uncle and my dad, both products of the New York City public school system, turned out to be fine writers. They knew how to write well, and they understood the mechanics of writing.
Turns out they had been taught. A 2012 article in The Atlantic perfectly outlines the problem: recent writing teaching focuses more on engaging students with fun assignments in fiction and memoir rather than instructing them in the nuts and bolts of sentence structure and grammar. Now the backlash has begun.
My argument is that you can do both: embed the spelling and grammar in the fiction assignment and you can show students that they can have fun while writing and learn how it all comes together.
Next week, I’ll be starting a new job as a middle school writing support instructor. I am so excited about learning with my students about writing at this level.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-writing-revolution/309090/