Balance the Basics: Let Them Write (Graves)

Donald H. Graves (February 1978)

Abstract:

This report is one of a series of papers presented to a continuing in-house seminar on learning sponsored by the Ford Foundation. The paper reports on several schools where writing and individual expression are valued, identifies one approach to the teaching of writing, and addresses two central questions underlying the crisis of writing in the United States:

Is it important to write? And, if so, why don't we write?

The first question is answered affirmatively in the first section of the paper with the reasons that writing contributes to intelligence, develops initiative, and is often the means to a personal breakthrough in learning. ("Why Writing is Important")

The second section of the paper discusses the second question and offers such reasons for our failure to write as inadequate preparation of teachers to teach writing and too little concern for the individual development of the learners themselves. ("Why Don't We Write?")

The third section proposes the process-conference approach to teaching writing as a proven, workable way to reverse the decline of school writing. This method is described as one in which teachers help students by initiating brief, individual conferences during the process of writing, rather than by assigning topics in advance of writing and making extensive corrections after the writing is finished. ("How Can Writing Be Taught?")

(ERIC link)