Most teens felt that they could benefit from improved instruction in writing. When teens were asked about their suggestions for improvement, researchers discovered that, “Overall, 82% of teens feel that additional in-class writing time would improve their writing abilities and 78% feel the same way about their teachers using computer-based writing tools.”

Focus group teens offered this helpful advice to educators:
“…they are motivated to write when they can select topics that are relevant to their lives and interests, and report greater enjoyment of school writing when they have the opportunity to write creatively. Having teachers or other adults who challenge them, present them with interesting curricula and give them detailed feedback also serves as a motivator for teens. Teens also report writing for an audience motivates them to write and write well.”

Asking students to share their views about their own learning can be so illuminating. Students, in their infinite wisdom, have identified what makes Web 2.0 communication media so powerful: they genuinely put the act of communication back into writing. They offer a platform for students to use writing to develop their ideas and communicate those ideas to real audiences with real purpose. Isn’t that what we’re trying to prepare them to do? If we want students to learn to communicate in writing, then we should give them opportunities to do so authentically in the course of instruction.

Artificial writing exercises that ask students to tell teachers and test-makers what they already know, or prove command of rhetoric divorced of meaningful substance, do not qualify as authentic communication. Students are eager to use blogs, wikis, and threaded discussions for academic writing because they offer opportunities to interact in writing with other people around ideas. As teachers, we must find ways to engage students in writing about things that matter to them and to society and facilitate the sorts of interactions that help them sharpen the expression of their thoughts. And we are fortunate to now have such helpful tools available to help us meet those goals.

In my experience, most children in the primary grades are encouraged to view themselves as authors and artists, but by the later grades, kids typically have internalized a belief that imagination and authorship are the province of only a “creative” few. This phenomenon has been exacerbated by the recent obsession with high-stakes standardized tests, which now drive so much of what happens in classrooms on a day-to-day basis. Such tests go far beyond merely measuring what students know to very narrowly defining what is considered worth knowing.

In her book, “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” and Other Essays on Teaching and Learning, Eleanor Duckworth argues that “Standardized tests can never, even at their best, tell us anything other than whether a given fact, notion, or ability is already within a child’s repertoire. As a result, teachers are encouraged to go for right answers, as soon and as often as possible, and whatever happens along the way is treated as incidental.” When the culture of schooling is overwhelmingly focused on demonstrating what one already knows rather than exploring what one doesn’t, children repeatedly receive the message that knowing is more important than learning. And, as Duckworth points out, “The virtues involved in not knowing are the ones that really count in the long run. What you do about what you don’t know is, in the final analysis, what determines what you will ultimately know.” This is not to say that knowledge is unimportant, but rather that banking inert knowledge should not take priority over building active knowledge; knowledge should be something we expect students to use and expand, not just to have.

We as educators must not acquiesce to the pressures bearing down upon us, as strong as they may be, to act against the best interests of our students. The stakes are too high – far higher than those imposed by any test. We must push back and reclaim the culture of education, and renew our commitment to cultivating creativity in students of all ages in all disciplines. The good news is that many kids are exercising their creativity all over cyberspace…outside of school. Imagine what they could do with our guidance and support…