As I began further inquiry into these questions, I discovered a few interesting details that are important to acknowledge before we can actually help those whom we may call struggling writers. After coming to understand who struggling writers actually are, we can then delve into the strategies and different ideas in which we, as educators, can actually help them—even while in a classroom of 30 students or more.
Who Are They?
A major key in being able to help struggling writers is first understanding who they are. The problem with asking a question like “how can we help struggling writers?” is that it suggests there is a one-size-fits-all solution. However, this is entirely false. Never will there ever be a one-size-fits-all solution. No student in any classroom is exactly the same, and it would be silly of any educators to think that only one solution is all it takes to solve all their problems with struggling writers, or any kind of struggling student for that matter. In an article by David Cutler, he gives four different types of students that teachers should be aware of:
- the quiet student
- the disengaged student
- the struggling student
- the troublemaking student
By doing this, he is showing the different kinds of students that he (and mostly likely many other teachers) deals with. Showing the different kinds of students that there are in a classroom and giving each type of student a name Cutler is helps teachers like us to see the different kinds of help each student needs. Each student does have different needs. Of course there are basic things we can do that may allow us to help all students on a general level—like teaching different strategies. However, it is important to remember and acknowledge that each struggling writer is and individual, and is having a unique struggle with his or her writing and different strategies will help some more than others.
Just as there is no student who is exactly the same, it is important to be aware of the different signs or types of struggling writers that can be found in a classroom. Belinda McGuire, discusses in an article about her class or struggle writers what it means to be a struggling writer. The term “struggling writer” is a very broad term and is rather all encompassing. To say a student is struggling with his or her writing could suggest a variety of different issues. By address this issue McGuire is not only narrowing down what it means, but is also categorizing it (15). When talking about struggling readers, it is important to narrow down what we mean, there is no way to help a student unless we can pin-point where they are actually struggling. This idea is further emphasized in the book When Kids Can’t Read by Kylene Beers. Beers spends a large chunk in one of her chapters discussing how to identity struggling readers. While her book focuses on struggling readers, the principles she discusses in that chapter can easily be applied to struggling writers as well. It is vital that, as the teacher, we do not stereotype struggling writers. Beers discusses how important it is to avoid only acknowledging the stereotypical struggling readers, and this is the same for struggling writers. Not all struggling writers will look like the stereotypical struggling writers. If we are not doing our best to pay attention, then we will not be able to help the students who really need help. It is part of the teacher’s job to be as aware as possible of all your students and their needs. Do not assume and then only focus on the students who come off as the ones who obviously need help—there are so many more that need guidance. In a study done by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2003, it showed that only one out of every five high school seniors had the necessary writing knowledge and skills which were required (or expected) for their grade level. This statistic is changed one student at a time, and recognizing who those struggling writers are in the classroom is one of the beginning steps to helping students be more equipped in their writing. It is only after understanding who struggling writers are, and being aware of them in the classroom that we, as teachers, can finally begin to help.
Now that we understand who the struggling writers are, let me show you four ways to help them. While there are a variety of different ways in which we can help struggling writers within our classrooms, this list is not a comprehensive list (which would be impossible to create), but it does engage with quite a few difference thoughts and strategies which we can apply to our classrooms. Even with these difference suggestions, we should not expect to see results immediately.
A few different blog posts will be dedicated to the variety of ways we can help struggling readers in our classroom. While each focuses on a different aspect, all of these suggestions do require that the students feel comfortable and safe in the classroom. From experience it appears that safety is needed in order to write freely, and so I would recommend reading my blog post about writer's community before diving into any of the other posts. Here they are for easy access:
Academic Sources (not other blogs/websites):
McGuire, Belinda "Where Does the Teacher Intervene with Underachieving Writers?" The English Journal 79.2 (1990): 14-21. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.
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