Teaching writing – whose job is it?

Tuesday, 19 August 2008 at 2:16 pm

As new literacies evolve and students embrace new technologies, often developing expertise before their teachers, it is interesting that the old debate around (print based) reading and writing, and whose responsibility it is to teach these, continues.

At a recent workshop, the following question arose.
“I am a teacher of mathematics. Should I be expected to teach literacy?”

If we ask education bodies, there is a resounding, “Yes! Regardless of the subject we teach, we are all teachers of literacy.”  Why? Because the more literate and independent a student is, the better they can expect to perform across their subject area.

There is much dialogue around this topic. Many high school teachers feel that their responsibility is to deliver the content within their respective subject. Many feel that students should come to them with the literacy skills required to negotiate the reading and writing required for learning and assessment.

Primary school teachers endeavour to provide instruction to the whole class, small groups and individuals, with the aim of meeting the needs of individuals whilst supporting students to develop the independence they need for high school.

So what happens when the mathematics teacher assigns an assessment task which involves writing a report around the analysis of data? Who is responsible for teaching the generic structure of the report particular to this subject area?

As this question is pondered, it is important to consider the following  . . .

  • prior knowledge and life experience that the student takes to the task
  • features of the generic structure, eg. (what) grammatical structures,  vocabulary,  layout, etc, are required
  • level of cognizance of a primary school student to develop this knowledge prior to high school

As I ponder this question, I think of a critique of research data that I received as an assignment whilst at university. The length of the task was very short, the generic structure very specific to the topic and the criterion for critiquing broad but distinct. Having never written a critique in this subject and on this topic before, I contacted the lecturers and asked to read some critiques before beginning my draft. Once familiar with the specific generic structure, I was more confident to begin and also had a benchmark to reflect about my writing. As I was in my thirties with many more writing experiences to draw upon, I wonder how difficult it must be for a less experienced writer to tackle writing tasks specific to a subject area, while still building knowledge of the content.

So, whose responsibility is it to teach students how to craft the writing required for high school assessment tasks? Should students arrive at high school knowing how to structure a variety of literary and non literary texts? Or is it the responsibility of the teacher assigning the assessment task to teach for the writing features to be assessed?  Your thoughts?

by Angela Ehmer

4 comments on: “Teaching writing – whose job is it?”

  1. i think it is teachers, responsibility to inform the students of desired format and practice before assigning any writing task

  2. Literacy is everyone’s business.
    Whether one is an English, Maths or Science teacher. Each subject has particular genres/structures that require subject specific jargon to be used, therefore the teacher of a particular subject is responsible for teaching that literacy.

  3. Don’t you mean ‘Whose’ job is it? oops!

  4. Thanks, Anne!