Schmoker Quotes

We have created a system in which generations of talented, hard-working teachers have engaged in inferior practices without receiving feedback that would alert them to this fact.

Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens and conduct their personal lives. (pg. 51)

Writing, combined with close reading, is among the most valuable, but least understood element of schooling. (pg. 63)

Persuasive – argumentative – writing, which cultivates students’ critical reasoning capacities and prepares students for intellectual demands of college, civic life, and the workplace, is sorely neglected. (pg. 94)

Narrative and descriptive writing are often the cornerstone of a writing workshop. They allow students to write from their own experience in ways that matter to them. Students are encouraged to write with literary elements in mind, and create five paragraph essays that develop plot, characters, etc. Although this type of writing has a place in education, it takes on a less prominent role as we move into the 21st century. It is my contention that real world, expository writing has been neglected because of two factors; 1) Female teachers prefer and are more comfortable with fictional text and therefore understand fictional writing better and 2) Teachers themselves have never been taught how to write non-fiction, informational or analytical text.

On the elementary school level, book rooms are full of fictional leveled books. Teachers stress story writing from kindergarten on, but rarely teach students how to write expository text until the upper intermediate grades. As we move into the 21st century, the ability to read and write expository text will become critical as seen in changes to the NJASK which now ask students to become proficient in explanatory writing.

As Supervisor of Language Arts, I would write a curriculum that is genre based and includes real world genres such as emailing, texting and blogging. Perhaps we could call it Technological Literacy. Students would be required to produce a variety of real world writing pieces, including informational or expository pieces. Using reading strategies to navigate informational text would be one of the first requirements for early in the school year (as opposed to squeezing it in at the end), and students would be expected to respond to text by writing reflective pieces. Students would be proficient at persuasive or “argumentative” writing, and
the book room would have more non-fiction leveled books than fictional ones.

Citizens of the 21st century will need to know how to "gobalize" themselves more than they will need to know how to read "stories".

C