3 Reasons Your Middle School Student is Failing at Writing

How many times have you had this conversation in your house:

"Do you have any homework?"
"No, mom, I finished it at school."
"How's your english paper coming?"
"Mom, it's not due until Monday!"
"I don't want you leaving it to the last minute, dear."
"I won't.  Can I go now?"

I'm going to take a wild guess here.  This student's paper is probably not started and he's probably going to leave it to Sunday night to do.  He will wait until 10:00 on Sunday night when his mom is telling him to get ready for bed to tell her he has to "finish his paper".  They will argue.  He'll be grounded.  They'll both be upset and the paper still won't be anywhere near finished.  His teacher will call home because the paper is missing and she will report that he had plenty of opportunity to do it in class.  Mom tells his teacher she is fed up and just doesn't know how to get him interested in his education.

This kind of situation happens a lot.  As an 8th grade ELA teacher I used to see it all the time.  It's like a carousel ride that you just can't get away from.  It's exhausting and gets in the way of learning.  I can't tell you how taxing it is to chase down papers from students.  It creates conflict between students and teachers, breaks down relationships with students and parents and perpetuates writers block in students. No one wins, least of all the student.

Here are three common reasons why your middle school student is failing at writing and what you can do to help remediate them.

Reason Number 1:  We've been limiting them

Since the dawn of technology and initiatives to put a laptop in every middle school students hands we have begun to limit the ways in which we write.  Because of the idea "we live in the world of technology and students need to be prepared" we've essentially removed other, more basic, modes of writing without asking students what they feel is best for them.  We've assumed that writing a paper on the computer is automatically more efficient for them and we've stopped offering a piece of paper and a pencil.

Promoting the use of a laptop for writing isn't wrong - it's just a new lesson that we can't forget to teach.  It's assumed that the laptop will be more effective for writing when really it can be cold, unyielding and distracting for some.

One way to combat this problem is to offer additional ways to write to your student and don't settle for a blanket excuse of "it's easier for me to type it".  Encourage them to try other ways.  Provide paper and writing tools, encourage them to talk about what they might want to say and jot down notes for them while they talk.  You could also suggest they speak their ideas into a recording tool and have them listen to their own thoughts as a way to prepare their writing.  Help him figure out how to get his thoughts out efficiently and writing will become easier.

Reason Number 2:  Writing isn't cooperative in the classroom

Your child's teacher has given multiple days for her students to work on their paper yet when the deadline comes more than half of the papers are missing or incomplete.  What happened?

We tend to view writing as an individual event when for the typical middle school student it should be viewed as just the opposite.  Middle school students are very social beings- they crave the interaction of those around them and in writing class we are trying to teach them to write like adults and not the developing students that they are.

Writing in school often isn't viewed as the cooperative action that it truly is.  Furthermore students at this age tend to be insecure and crave the validation from their peers that they are on the right track. Writing is a form of communication that is mistaken to be silent when it isn't.  Some students would benefit greatly from an opportunity to talk about their ideas before writing them down - and then using this process of conversing again and again as the paper is being developed.  When a peer they look up to or a friend they trust gives them that high-five about their idea it's motivating and validating for students who are at this vulnerable age.

The next time your students has a paper due offer an opportunity for them to invite a friend or two over to work on their papers together.  You will be amazed at how much more productive a writer your student can be when they can talk about what they are writing and get encouragement from someone who they trust and "understands" them.

Reason Number 3:  Writing makes your student feel vulnerable

Our students need to write, there is no question about that.  However it is important to keep in mind that writing is a very personal activity that is sensitive even to the most confident of writers. When asking a middle school student to write we need to ensure the environment is safe, judgement-free and encouraging.  It shouldn't be forced in a rigid timeline.

Forcing a student to write when they aren't comfortable exacerbates student anxiety over the action of writing.  You will increase the chances of writers block and worse you run the risk of students developing an ever deeper dislike for the act of writing.

Ask your student to think about what the perfect writing environment would be like for her.  Does she need a quiet space, does she want to stand up?  Does she need to dictate her thoughts for someone else to jot down before writing?  The trick here is to work with her to help foster her participation in the process without forcing it on her.  Requiring a student to write is different from forcing them.  Forcing them is likely to produce hesitance and resistance and perpetuate the carousel mentioned above.

Our schools continue to treat writing like a subject that can be incremented, prescribed and monitored on a rigid timeline.  Here's the rub: Writing is not a subject, it's an action.  Your middle school student is failing at writing because writing is personal.  It requires us to place thoughts that are safely tucked away in our heads out on paper for anyone who sees it to judge and interpret.  Your middle school student is failing at writing because the system isn't set up for him to succeed.

As a parent there are many things you can do to make the action of writing easier and more comfortable for your middle school child.  If you have tried and don't feel like you are getting anywhere see if one of the tips in this article will help to get that ball rolling again.  You can also seek out the help of a private tutor or learning center to support your young writer.  Small group learning facilities whose focus is on the learner rather than the test scores might give your middle school student a better platform to write from.

By:  Andrea Logan, MS Ed