Writing Essentials- Chapter 4: Raise Your Expectations

As we read the cumulative folders of kids that will be starting their school year with us, we expect from them what their former teachers noted they can obtain. With the summer lag and maybe a little bit of off-set from the lax sleeping schedule, most teachers don’t have high expectations during the first few weeks of school. However, even more teachers continue to hold onto those low expectations, either consciously or unconsciously. The expectations we set for our students are ultimately where they will rise to meet the goals, or at least if they are motivated to rise to such expectations.



When we start teaching writing by giving students praise, celebrations for risk-taking, focusing on simplifying the writing process and modeling that we are growing readers too, we set the stakes to raise our expectations for those students. Sadly, our public does judge educators by how their students write. Writing is so closely correlated with reading and both are tested standards eventually. Personally, I like to read the “Dear Santa” letters published each Christmas Eve in our local newspaper. While we have many schools in our district and area, I can certainly tell the teachers traits and expectations based on these simple letters mid-year through. I can tell which teachers let kids be risk-takers and try to write phonetically as a kindergartener or whose kindergartners all copy the same letter except for their names. Whether we like it or not, the public will judge teachers by the quality of reading and writing our students do. I know that when we have family gatherings, sometimes I look at kids that are in grade levels that I teach and I wonder about the expectations their teachers have for them versus what my teachers have for our students. Another factor in this is the fact that handwriting matters! If the audience is valued than the students will write legibly enough to get their message across. So, with all the debate about teaching handwriting- especially cursive- I wonder about the effects of NOT teaching it.


In this particular chapter, one of the headings was “Expect Excellence.” I penciled in beside that how great that would be to have as a mantra or even a class motto. Teachers aren’t the only ones that need to have high and realistic expectations. Administrators, coworkers, entire schools need to be on the same playing field that we will ALL set high expectations for our learners and do what we need to do to make sure they obtain those goals. When we expect excellence, we need to let our students know that their published pieces of work need to be as perfect as they can get them- that is respectful to their audience, but also helps the reader from being distracted from good writing because of bad conventions.


High expectations go hand in hand with bonding and trust, however. We can’t just expect some students to “squeak by” or understand that some students are “on grade level” so don’t need any further advancement in their writing. We MUST ensure that all our students understand that excellence is expected of good writers- but that does not always mean perfection. Some ways to encourage the bonding and nurturing would be to share texts each day that have a “golden line”, write poetry with the students, be and have good models, focus on the audience, model explicitly and intentionally, and make sure ALL students are held to the high expectations. As Routman states, “Students achieve faster, more easily, and on a higher level when they find the lessons and materials interesting, relevant, and challenging.”


Favorite Quotes from this Chapter: (and very thought-provoking quotes as well)


• Pg. 53- “I never worked in a school or classroom where the expectations for students were too high.”


• Pg. 54- “Competence leads to confidence, which leads to wanting to write more.”


• Pg. 57- “Worksheets foster mediocrity. Mediocrity is not an option. Why do we persist in thinking that just squeaking by is all right for some students?”


• Pg. 65- “If you’re reading everything your students write, they’re not writing enough.”


• Pg. 66- “Handwriting matters.”


• Pg. 67- “Sloppy handwriting is disrespectful to the reader.” (Hmmm . . . . can we copy and paste this into emails to doctors?)


• Pg. 78- “without the learner’s trust, it’s impossible to teach.”


• Pg. 80- “I am firmly convinced that until the student thinks of himself as a writer, no real improvement is possible. Try to focus more on what the child is trying to do and less on what we are trying to teach.”


• Pg. 81- “Our decisions must be guided by “what might help this writer?” rather than “what might help this writing?” (Teaching the writer vs. the writing)


Some questions to ponder about this chapter:


• Routman questions (pg. 53): “Why are our expectations for what students can achieve almost always so low?”


• What does our student handwriting say about our expectations?


• If I brainstormed a chart with students of “What Makes our Writing Interesting?” or “What Does it mean to Show more/ Tell More?” what would those charts entail?


• Do I clearly explain my thinking as a writer?


• Do I encourage my primary students especially to revisit and continue on stories that they have started?


• Pg. 72: “How is what you are doing helping kids become more proficient and independent- and joyful- writers?”


• Pg. 73- “What support (demonstrations, practice, guidance, resources) do students need to succeed with minimal guidance, and how can I best provide it?”


• Pg. 82- “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?