Editor’s Note: ERWC is excited to announce a free webinar with Kelly Gallagher on Thursday, September 21st at 4:30 pm. Please visit the ERWC Online Community for details and registration.
By Jennifer Fletcher
In the summer of 2022, the National Council of Teachers of English published a new statement on writing instruction in school. The statement opens with a line I’ve been thinking about ever since I first read it: “How writing is conceptualized has consequences.”
For many teachers, myself included, there can be a disconnect between intention and impact. We want to help and support our students. But sometimes the ways we try to help can harm our students’ self-efficacy. Scaffolds that aren’t designed with student agency in mind can become barriers to growth and independence. Agency is about choice and control–two things adolescent learners are often denied.
Kelly Gallagher has long been one of my favorite mentors for helping me get out of the way of students’ learning. His book Readicide was a revelation. It showed me that the surest paths to a love of reading were through choice and volume, and not through accountability, compliance, and over-teaching. Gallagher’s Write Like This was another gift that helped me check my teacher ego, showing me that the best mentors for my students were other writers.
For over two decades, Kelly has been one of our profession’s strongest advocates for student agency. His most recent book with Penny Kittle, 4 Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency, transforms the principles behind cultivating independent learners into everyday practice. Kelly and Penny describe the harm caused by formulaic writing instruction through examples and research that will resonate with teachers experienced in ERWC’s inquiry-based, rhetorical approach.
The way to get better at making choices as readers, writers, and learners, of course, is lots of practice making choices. That doesn’t happen when students are just handed a template to fill in or outline to follow. As Kelly and Penny note in 4 Essential Studies, “Completing teacher-generated step-by-step work is not learning; it masquerades as it” (xx).
For me, one of the biggest takeways from Kelly Gallagher’s work is how the choices we make as teachers impact the choices our students have as learners.
How writing is conceptualized indeed has consequences. If writing is conceptualized as a straight and narrow road laid out by teachers, students don’t see the full array of options that characterize authentic rhetorical situations. The journey toward expertise is full of obstacles and opportunities–what rhetoricians call constraints and affordances. Having the freedom to choose is ultimately how we find our way as writers.
Jennifer Fletcher is a Professor of English at California State University, Monterey Bay and a former high school teacher. She serves as the Chair of the ERWC Steering Committee. You can follow her on Twitter @JenJFletcher.
Work Cited
Kittle, Penny and Kelly Gallagher. Four Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency. Heinemann, 2021.
ERWC 2023-24 Literacy Webinar Series
All webinars are scheduled for 4:30 pm on a Thursday.
Kelly Gallagher: September 21, 2023 at 4:30 pm
“Kelly Gallagher Presents”
The ERWC 2023-24 webinar series kicks off with a very special guest. In conjunction with the CSU Chancellor’s Office, ERWC is proud to welcome Kelly Gallagher to our webinar community. Gallagher will offer insights into a variety of issues confronting classroom teachers today including some featured in his recent book 180 Days: Two Teachers and their Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents. This is a webinar you do not want to miss!
Felicia Rose-Chavez: October 19, 2023 at 4:30 pm
“The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: Decolonize Your Classroom”
The fall 2023 webinar series continues with an exciting presentation from Felicia Rose-Chavez who will present “a new approach for a new millennium–a blueprint for a twenty-first-century writing workshop that concedes the humanity of people of color so that we may raise our voices in vote for love over hate.” This session will include select readings from Rose-Chavez’s book The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How To Decolonize the Creative Classroom. Can’t wait to see you there!
Troy Hicks: February 15, 2024 at 4:30 pm
“Teaching with Technology”
Interested in using technology more effectively in the classroom? In this webinar, Troy Hicks–an ISTE Certified Educator–will introduce “digital diligence”–an alert, intentional stance that helps both teachers and students use technology productively, ethically, and responsibly. Hear his strategies for minimizing digital distraction, fostering civil conversations, evaluating information on the internet, creating meaningful digital writing, and deeply engaging with multimedia texts.
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