Instructional methods and learning activities in teaching writing

Helping students learn to write requires activities that shift their perspectives between those of speaker and listener, writer and reader, creator and critic, skeptic and persuader, to name a few. Student writers, like experienced writers, must learn to do such role shifting because writing is at once thought and communication, cognitive and social, content and process. Effective writing teachers address these complexities by offering informative coaching on challenging writing tasks and extensive opportunities to practice multiple types of writing. They organize instruction in ways that promote language-specific processes and attitudes, as well as adhere to the basic assumptions and generic learning principles described by Brophy in Chapter 1 of this volume. After a brief review of major assumptions about writing development that influence instruction, we present three principles that underlie the creation of effective instructional methods and learning activities in writing classrooms. The principles are derived from research literature on the teaching and learning of writing as well as the work and writings of expert practitioners. As we discuss each principle, we provide examples of instructional methods and learning activities that follow from it.