Peg Tyre Summary

The real world’s standards are constantly evolving, growing ever more demanding on the public education system, yet despite this the primary indicator used for the success of the public education system is the high school graduation rate. The high school graduation rate is a deeply flawed statistic conceived many decades ago and hasn’t changed at all, failing to encompass better and broader definitions for public education system success. However, the focus on critical writing skills at New Dorp High School had the effect of dramatically increasing the school’s graduation rate from 63 percent before the “writing revolution” to 80 percent (Tyre). At face value the increase is a tremendous success, but just because a student can graduation high school does not mean they have the technical skills to prepare them for college or the workforce. A list of the fastest growing occupations in the United States provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics mostly includes jobs from the medical field or occupations that require

Ordinarily the catch method required much of the writing for children to be mostly directed towards self-expression and often times lacked any sort of formal writing instruction. Consequently, those students who could not catch the vital information to be a successful writer often seemed to be left in the dust. Tyre’s article as well provides a constructed argument held by those who oppose the full implementation of this new writing method used at New Dorp, where Kelly Gallagher expresses her concern when writing is fully focused on analytical writing, that creative expression of students may be diminished. I believe that the use of this opposing argument, though not too lengthy, helps readers to also consider the backlash of this implementation of writing, but also provides an insight into how the pros compare to the hypothetical cons in this situation.

In Dan Berrett’s article, “Students Come to College Thinking They’ve Mastered Writing,” the idea of freshman thinking they are or must be a refined writer is discussed. Students may think this way coming into college, but their teachers do not. While students might feel satisfied and think that they are prepared with their writing skills, professors found that these students did not necessarily meet the expected level (Berrett 1). Many students reported that they would normally write around 25 hours every week. They said that most of those hours of writing was for more formal purposes like passages to make changes in society (Berrett 1). It was found that one reason the new students might feel this way is that their assumptions about writing differed greatly from those of faculty members and their expectations. One big thing that students will not get for a while, is that good writing is not just listed as a bunch of steps one is to follow that automatically make one’s writing good. Good writing requires one to be in different mental states; it requires the understanding of how to write for different audiences and different reasons (Berrett 2). Berrett includes in the article that writing is not just universal and that in order to do very well, writers must use different forms of writing specifically for their purpose (2). It seems as though students think that, before they even take a class, they are supposed to know everything about writing; in reality, they are supposed to learn new skills and enhance others (Berrett 2). Berrett says that many believe the schools these students previously attended with their test focus might cause these feelings about writing (2). Berrett ends his article by saying that students these days do not think that informal writing actually counts as writing, and that students should practice writing for informal purposes because it can help them (2). Even if they feel like it, students are not fully prepared to write in all contexts when they arrive at college.

I feel like most teachers worry more about grades and getting the writing done as soon as possible and not taking their time in helping students gain better writing skills and improve themselves. Students should be able to choose what they want to write about so that we can feel inspired in our writings thus having a better end product for teachers to read and be satisfied with. If teachers are constantly criticizing our writings and telling us what to write about then they never really know what a student’s potential really is because most likely they will rush to try to satisfy the teachers needs than theirs. I also agree that teachers should worry more about a person’s writing than about the mechanics of a paper, however; I also realize that in today’s society free writing isn’t really “approved” in almost every class. In every English class I have had my teachers focused more about the end result that is timing us on essays, and grading our papers based off grammar/mechanics and not the process writing

Murray is insightful not only to instructors but also to learners. Murray argues that the challenge facing writing is the fact that teachers have treated it as a product rather than a process and the same concept passed on to students. The author holds that the main problem with this view is that students get to receive irrelevant criticisms that are not related to their learning goals. While I tend to agree with the author based on the arguments presented, it is notable that Murray has paid little attention to the idea of education in the contemporary world. In most learning institutions, the outcome of the writing is considered more than the process. As a teacher paying attention to the process of writing but not be consistent with the students, who are mostly driven by

Writing is an essential tool and has been noted as a precursor for great speaking by teachers at all grade levels. However, with writing being an important aspect throughout one’s academic career and beyond, it is one of the most tedious tasks to teach. It sounds like a cliché, but in order to get better at something, one has to keep completing the task and each time, accomplish something different while maintaining prior knowledge. There are various ways that enhance a student’s writing abilities and the focus of these research strategies will prove that encouraging students to write enhances writing.

In 2003, the National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges published a report called The Neglected ‘’R’’: The Need for a Writing Revolution. This report argued that ‘’writing has been forgotten in American schools for the past 20 years and how now it must receive the attention it deserves’’. As the name of the report mentions, there are three Rs in education. This refers to the foundations of a basic skills-oriented education program in schools: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. According to the above mentioned report published in 2003, ‘’Writing, Education’s Second R, has become the neglected element of American school reform. The school improvement journey that began 20 years ago with the publication of A Nation at Risk

Tyre’s The Writing Revolution is mainly centered on a turnaround story for New Dorp High School, a school located in Staten Island that had been underperforming for years. The school had a large population of seemingly extreme low-performing students, which was thought due to the school’s make-up being mostly children from the surrounding area who were from poor and uneducated families. When faced with closure of the school the principal, Deirdre DeAngelis, constructed a plan to find out the school’s problem and ultimately created a revolutionary plan to turn the school around. When investigating into the low-performance at New Dorp, it was discovered that the main weakness many of the students possessed was the inability to write coherent sentences and often had trouble transitioning their thoughts into written word. After knowing this DeAngelis constructed a plan, where she and teachers visited Windward, a private school who had a writing program that could only be described as legendary in its ability to turn students around.

The writing Revolution is written by Peg Tyre, who is the director of strategy at the Edwin Gould Foundation. He describes an education reform the occurred at Dorp High School, a school which otherwise may have been closed due to poor academic performance. The school's leader, Deirdre DeAngelis, drastically reformed the school’s curriculum and teaching methodology. The faculty, using DeAngelis’ methods, achieved significant success in improving their student’s academic achievements. They did so by focusing on the fundamentals: analytical and structured writing. In the article, Tyre describes the case of

Consider how long people have been writing, several thousand years. During this time human civilizations were able to authentically appropriate the act of writing, which still approaches every child learning to write as something inauthentic. There is a place and a meaning and a culture of writing within most cultures today, as we learn to type, and depend on typing more and more, the traditions of writing are becoming displaced. When was the last time you hand wrote a letter? Why bother when we can just e-mail someone immediately? Does not the mediacy of such communication lessen its importance? When you write a letter, you think about what you should say, what you want to say, and what you want to leave unsaid, the timeliness of its delivery

The nature of writing has changed in the past century. While writing still remains a form of visual communication, much of this change has been a result of technological advancements such as, from pen to paper or from a typewriter to a networked computer. The changes and expansion in the ways we are able to write today have brought about changes in writing pedagogy as well. The teaching of writing has been part of formal schooling in the United States for over 200 years (Kean 7). One major pedagogic change in United States’ education has to do with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These standards have led to a change in the instruction of writing in schools. This paper, will focus on instructional changes of writing over time and current expectations for writing abilities as whole.

English is a hard language to learn, for there are numerous elements of effective usage and writing. Many people, including me, struggle in writing because of a lack of knowledge. Since middle school, English was not a strong suit of mine. I struggled with the simplest of tasks often taking a considerably longer time to complete a task than the other students. Unmotivated teachers and a lack of interest resulted in remedial writing skills. To put it simply, I had little confidence in my writing and I dreaded taking the class because of the writing involved. In spite of my fears, I took the course and I was able to perfect and challenge my mediocre writing skills.

The amount of grammer and usage errors today are astounding. Not to mention spelling. If I was a teacher, I’d feel badly that less and less students seem to understand the basic principals of good writing. Neither the oldest high school students or yougest kindergartner know proper english use. A student often thinks they can depend on word processing programs to correct they’re errors. Know way, not happening.

It is a responsibility of college students to speak and write correctly because as students and as adults we are expected to be professional when it comes to writing and speaking. By using proper grammar while speaking and while writing it provides a clear view of one’s intelligence. The majority of us made the decision to pursue a higher education and it is our responsibility to make sure we learn from our studies and utilize what we have learned. Not only is it important to speak properly and write properly throughout our education but it also prepares us for our professional career as well. Working in law enforcement as a training officer, I know how important it is to write and speak correctly to my audience. When I am teaching them an

I am a person who can remember never having read more than two books in a year, and in fact I did not read one book in ninth grade. One of the memories that upsets me most is that in English classes where students were expected to develop or improve their writing skills, teachers would grade my essays “Excellent.” The reason why I am upset is because currently I am having difficulty with fragments, agreement, and other grammar issues that take forever to sort out. Back then, I really had been led to believe that my writing skills were excellent. Needless to say, most teachers in public schools are just trying to survive, and sometimes they can be careless about how they lead students on. This has a lot to do with why the majority of public school students do not attend elite colleges such as Yale, Harvard, or Princeton. We just never had a chance. Those doors were closed on us a long time ago.