Focus on the Unskilled Writer

60% of students nationwide enter college underprepared for college level writing. Students who successfully complete a remedial course in the first term of enrollment are significantly more likely to persist than those who did not need a remedial course. The ability to compose an extended text is the single best predictor of success in coursework during the freshman year.

The inability to produce acceptable academic writing serves as one of the major stumbling blocks for academic success among Native Americans. The typical 3-semester English sequence is inadequate for most Native American students to produce the expertise needed to comfortably handle academic writing. Unskilled writers do not plan before they begin to write pause so often to correct that the ideas are lost main concern is with sentence mechanics need explicit instruction with the emphasis on ideas, not mechanics

College level writers must be trained rather than merely instructed. Direct instruction and scaffolding of skills and strategies are needed to successfully write at the college level. Scaffolding minimizes students’ feeling of failure. Daily writing or journaling increases students writing skills. In order to increase writing abilities, instructors must remain focused on the specific learning needs of each student. Promote a cooperative approach to learning and teaching Use a team approach

Provide in-class writing support Assist with scaffolding for student success Assist with developing writing assignments Assist with developing written guidelines for writing assignments Provide a computer lab/classroom Etc…

Serve as a facilitator of learning rather than an editor of writing assignments Ask questions to overcome writer’s block Help generate ideas for writing assignments Provide tips for organizing papers Assist with editing writing assignments Can you think of anything else????

Determine the current writing abilities of the individual student Determine the writing abilities the student needs for future success Build the necessary steps to move from current to future Gradually remove support as the student increases writing abilities Provide models of good writing Teach whole first, then individual components

Teach students that learning grammar, spelling, format or research methods as individual skills are only the means to an end. Provide deliberate practice to guide and train student writers.

Think Organize Write Edit Rewrite with teacher assisted EDITS Embellish Delete errors Insert corrections Tally progress Submit for grading