While a high school student can write an essay in just 90 minutes for the Common Writing Assessment (CWA), it could take a third grader days to write a few short paragraphs. Between those years lies middle school, where student’s writing skills are developed in order to prepare them. But when education varies, so do writing techniques.
There are many factors that can influence writing techniques and skill. Since the pandemic, the shift in technology use, which has had an effect on students’ writing, said PMS seventh grade core teacher Ted Scherman.
“Due to a reliance on technology and AI tools, many students are weak in their writing skills. I see a great decline in student reading. Personal devices have taken over, and the number of students who are willing to sit and read for an extended period of time has declined dramatically,” Scherman said. “Strong readers tend to become strong writers, and the number of strong readers has declined precipitously.”
Scherman said that in addition to the added distraction of new personal devices, another broader issue affecting students today was the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Students lost a lot of instruction and missed out on a lot during the years from 2020 to 2022,” he said. “This was especially damaging for younger students.”
Another factor that can contribute to a student’s writing techniques and skills is teaching styles.
“We’re all human beings. There is no one teacher style that works for all students,” said PHS English Department Chair Mercedes Foster. “Different people are like, ‘I love and I really understand everything the teacher says, and I’m so glad I got this teacher.’ And there’s someone else in that class that’s like, ‘I don’t know what’s happening. This person can’t clearly express themselves to me.’”
Foster, who has been teaching at PHS for 22 years, said she has not noticed a worsening in scores on the CWA; instead, there is a shift in which writing skills students have.
“We’re seeing that every time there’s any change in the way something is taught, whether it’s the curriculum, the teachers themselves, or it’s the student experience, there are [skills] that fall off sometimes, and [skills] that are added,” Foster said. “I’ll be like, ‘Whoa, these kids are really acknowledging this really interesting aspect of characterization’. And then we’ll find out that a seventh grade teacher really focused on that.”
The CWA is an all-school writing assessment that is divided into two scores, analysis and composition, graded by the English Department. The best score is a six for analysis and a six for composition. Foster said the English Department uses the CWA to see what’s happening in all the English classes and patterns throughout the school.
“The prompt is, ‘After carefully reading the story, write a well organized essay in which you analyze how the author uses one or two literary techniques to convey a central idea,’” Foster said. “Your teacher didn’t read yours, and the person who did read yours didn’t see your name.”
According to data from the English Department, out of 497 freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, the most common total combination of the analytical and composition scores was a six, with 222 of those students receiving that score. The average combined score was 6.5.
“Something I saw improve all across grade was very few block responses. The composition, the structure, and the paragraphing was much stronger than I’ve seen in previous years,” Foster said. “I noticed that a significant number of students are rephrasing the prompt back to us. They are identifying a literary technique, but not making an argument. So that was something that people need to be careful of.”
Another issue the English department noticed was a lack of close reading and a restating of the thesis for a conclusion, Foster said. The instructions called for a conclusion that “wraps up your discussion and gives the response a sense of completion,” but Foster said that many students restated their thesis statement instead.
“Some [teachers] care more about how you analyze versus how you write. My teacher last year is very different from my teacher this year and they have different teaching styles,” freshman Willow Thomas said. “I think it’s good because you get different skills from every teacher.”
