Williams' Ch. 9 "Writing Assignments"

In his chapter titled “Writing Assignments”, Williams asserts that while a student’s writing may read as boring and insufficient; the problem may actually lie in the assignment. Poorly constructed assignments may lead to dry, lackluster writing, however, assignments can be improved significantly by following certain guidelines.

Williams’ outlines these guidelines throughout the chapter. Some of these guidelines include preparation, sequencing, and specific features included in assignments. Williams affirms that “All writing assignments have objectives that are linked to broader goals and objectives defined by the course and by the series of courses in which writing instruction occurs” (p279). It is important to set realistic goals and therefore, teachers must outline specific objectives for the assignment. Sadly, many teachers do not recognize that students must be able to “do something that demonstrates what they learned” (p280) in the course. I have observed this in many of my personal classroom experiences. I have had a few teachers at the secondary level who seemed to throw assignments, simply so we could receive a grade. The learning would go no further than the graded assignment and it is that material I cannot retain.

Guidelines included in these poor writing assignments often cause students to repeat the same outcome objectives for every assignment. Williams states “often writing assignments in high school rarely call for the kind of writing students are expected to produce in college” (280). As a result, students produce many personal-experience essays and plot summaries which do not help them to master writing skills necessary at the college level.

While this chapter addresses writing mostly at the secondary level, I find this information to be useful for prospective elementary level teachers as well. Elementary school creates the foundation of learning for students. It is important to expose students to all different forms of writing, even if they are in elementary school because this breaks up the repetition of simply writing about personal experiences. When using the top-down pedagogy, students can move beyond narrative and descriptive writing. Students begin to interact with people at an early age and in doing so, develop more extensive language skills. I agree with Williams in that teachers must allow students to further develop these skills in their writing.

I think more often than not, we underestimate the potential skills children have. Children are capable of doing far more than we think and this chapter demonstrates just that.