Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities

by John Warner

An important challenge to what currently masquerades as conventional wisdom regarding the teaching of writing. There seems to be widespread agreement that―when it comes to the writing skills of college students―we are in the midst of a crisis. In Why They Can't Write , John Warner, who taught writing at the college level for two decades, argues that the problem isn't caused by a lack of rigor, or smartphones, or some generational character defect. Instead, he asserts, we're teaching writing wrong. Warner blames this on decades of educational reform rooted in standardization, assessments, and accountability. We have done no more, Warner argues, than conditioned students to perform "writing-related simulations," which pass temporary muster but do little to help students develop their writing abilities. This style of teaching has made students passive and disengaged. Worse yet, it hasn't prepared them for writing in the college classroom. Rather than making choices and thinking critically, as writers must, undergraduates simply follow the rules―such as the five-paragraph essay―designed to help them pass these high-stakes assessments. In Why They Can't Write , Warner has crafted both a diagnosis for what ails us and a blueprint for fixing a broken system. Combining current knowledge of what works in teaching and learning with the most enduring philosophies of classical education, this book challenges readers to develop the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and habits of mind of strong writers.

Genres: Education, Writing, Nonfiction, Teaching, Professional Development, Academic, Read For School

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 2018

Reviews

[Ken]

Well, at least Warner did it the right way. He learned by doing. He worked in the trenches as an adjunct at different colleges, committed the sins of the fathers, saw that his students didn't become better writers.

Then he asked himself, Why? And instead of indulging in America's favorite pastime (especially these dark days), pointing fingers at others (in this case, the usual suspects -- students) he looked in the mirror and said, "What about me? How am I an accomplice in all of this?"

The ways are many and this book is his "forgive me, father, for I have sinned," in the form of the same canned writing assignments and the same canned five paragraphs with topic sentences and the big, bad research paper and the worshiping at the altar of MLA citation and pop quizzes and grammar grind gotchas (to name a few). It all looked familiar, too. I think most every teacher goes in and leans heavily on what he considers teaching to be. Something like HE underwent in 12 years of schooling followed by undergraduate and graduate school.

Best of all, it's not just abstract chat here. Warner shares actual assignments he's tried and tinkered with in college writing courses, assignments designed to fire up the intrinsic desire to learn that reputedly exists in every human being (including those of us reading this book!). The emphasis moves from product to process, from completing one big paper to performing many smaller iterations along the way, from writing to a single sage called the teacher to writing for an audience much bigger than that.

Warner doesn't pretend his answers are THE answers or that they are appropriate for every writing course out there. It's more complicated than that, of course. Still, it's food for thought -- food of a different order and greater variety -- and it's welcome. Meaning: every English teacher who's been disillusioned by frustrating stints in the trenches should consider reading this and some of Warner's other books (I'll be there... apparently he has a new one about teaching writing in the age of AI, where grade-centric students are led into temptation by two siren-like letters of doom).

So no, this book isn't all that. But it's SOME of that, and every teacher should shop the market of ideas, not only for their students' sakes, but for the sake of their own sanity.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because of the title, I went into the book expecting Warner to dig into the 5-paragraph essay and to provide a series of recommendations for other ways to teach writing. He does, but his interests and his critique are much broader than the title suggests.

Instead, Warner tackles the educational system and identifies numerous systemic problems, of which the 5-paragraph essay is just one of many symptoms. Standardized testing, standardized instruction and an over-reliance on technology, an over-emphasis on product and grading (vs. process and cultivating curiosity), undercompensation for teachers and adjunct faculty, and the precarious position (financial insecurity, food insecurity, lack of time and sleep) of students and teachers alike, result in a culture of schooling that breeds anxiety and a fear of risk-taking.

This, of course, isn't good for developing students writers. His recommendations, which weave their way throughout the text, are useful and challenging, but not particularly new: teach the writer, cultivate authentic writing experiences, focus on process rather than product, align pedagogy with personal beliefs and values, resist teaching and tools that standardize feedback, emphasize growth not grades, recognize that learning to write isn't a linear process because writing is fundamentally about thinking and expressing ideas clearly, and provide teachers with the resources they need to do this work well.

Ultimately this book reaffirmed much of what I already believe, but it was nice to hear it again -- all in one place.

[Gregg · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Warner takes the whole "Why can't kids write these days" and answers it thoroughly and convincingly. We're teaching them to write badly, he argues, and we need to stop doing that.

"We" is, of course, more than just that mean sophomore English teacher you had who hated you and made you feel bad about Prom. It's more than one school, even. It's a system that crushes individuality and thought in the name of conformity and nice-sounding phrases like "college and career ready," among other things. It's a system loaded with folklore about grading, assignments and the way kids learn that has absolutely nothing to do with the way kids learn. It's gobbling students alive, and it's destroying teacher autonomy as well. It's a handy scapegoat for politicians and wonks in "think tanks" tasked with dreaming up explanations of "kids these days" when really what they want the system to do is to produce drones for future employment, all while they bilk the country dry.

Warner walks through the paradigms of school and today's writing courses that do considerable damage. His prose is readable and engaging, but also sourced and informational; many of his observations will strike veteran educators and citizens who have been following all this as old news, but he still manages to make it urgent and timely. The book closes with several observations about how he's managed to move past the onerous conditions of a college with a predictably ill-funded first year composition program, and concludes with a measured plea for further thought and study. "Teaching and learning is complicated, context-dependent, and incredibly variable from one situation to another," he reminds/tells us. "We have misplaced our faith in fads that promise solutions, because to contemplate a world without solutions is too difficult to confront. We have attempted to systematize things (like learning) that are not systematic. We have neglected the human capital--the people who engage in the actual work of teaching. The evidence is overwhelming that we have been wrong in the way we teach students to write and think, but we shouldn't fall prey to thinking a simple course correction will lead to a solution. That mentality is what got us into this situation in the first place."

So as usual, the first step towards fixing the problem is understanding the problem. That means making this book widely available, not just to teachers (who will be understandably cheered and vexed at the airing of views they'll see as strikingly obvious) but to administrators, politicians, members of the community, journalists and anyone else with skin in the game (meaning "everyone"). Warner joins a chorus of voices like Mike Rose, Mark Edmundson, Paulo Freire and Martha Nussbaum, calling for a process-based approach to education that celebrates thought and achievement over standardization and arbitrary top-down yardsticks. The real work, as usual, will be in the dissemination of these views and the slow, agonizing march towards improvement. Let's get to it.

[Adrian Nester · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could award fractions of stars...I would give this 3 1/2 or even 3 3/4, but I cannot give it a 4.

While I agreed with the vast majority of the text (minus the PB & J assignment and telling education majors you feel sorry for them), this book was not as solutions oriented as advertised.

I know there is a problem with standardized testing driving writing instruction. So now what do I do about it? About 10% of the book offered solutions, and I did take a few things directly back to my classroom.

The bottom line: no matter how poorly they are compensated, teaching in a public high school and teaching freshman comp are two very different beasts.

I will gladly read the sequel that really answers the Now What? question I am still left asking.

[Gary Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Why They Can’t Write, veteran college writing instructor John Warner thoughtfully explains how the educational trend toward an accountability culture in high schools narrows students’ thinking abilities and affects their fluency in developing depth and voice in writing. With humor and insight, Warner examines current writing pedagogy and then ranges beyond English classrooms to discuss other ways students are cheated by short-sighted educational policies. Thankfully, this book also offers specific common-sense solutions and approaches to right the ship of high school writing instruction.

Of course, there are a lot of excellent writing teachers plying their trades in high schools across America. Unfortunately, these classroom masters are doing important, effective work while frequently finding themselves at odds with administrators, colleagues, parents, and even students who only value meaning from test scores and standardized grades. Why They Can’t Write will provide great writing teachers with validation, vindication and rationales that support student-centered composition instruction.

Although I agree with every syllable in Warner's book, there is one very large and very pink elephant in the room still waiting to be acknowledged in Why They Can’t Write: The five-paragraph essay and other formulaic writing approaches are thriving on a surprising number of college campuses. (See “What Is College Writing For?” by Ellen Andrews Knodt.) Some college instructors in first-year writing classes require students to write paragraphs with a specific number of sentences with a specific purpose for each of those sentences. I have seen college instructors mandate that students choose from a selection of sentence-starters to begin each paragraph of a … you guessed it … five-paragraph essay. These practices are at least as debilitating in college as they are in high school. So, the college level is not blameless in all of this. If every college writing instructor taught like Professor Warner, expectations of what “college-ready” high school writing looks like would be clear, attainable, and dynamic. Until then, Why They Can’t Write suggests much for teachers to think about, discuss, and implement as we move toward solving the disconnect between high school and college writing instruction and instructors.

This review is also posted on my What's Not Wrong? blog.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I digested most of this book on a cross-country flight, moving from chapter to chapter nodding my head in agreement. John Warner has written a book that will resonate with many veteran teachers, whether of college or secondary composition, especially those of National Writing Project experience. There isn't much that is revolutionary here; most of his thinking has been arrived at by other thinkers. But that is also part of his argument: we already know how to teach writing, but educational institutions insist on pursuing shortcuts that serve efficiency, not students (or teachers).

Part of his diagnosis that I found helpful is entitled "The Problem of Precarity." Teaching writing is a time-intensive, labor-intensive apprenticeship. As I look around at colleagues who are divorcing, in treatment for mental health issues, and struggling with second jobs, I appreciated Warner's framing of Susan Schorn's ideas around "Teaching in Thin Air." Professionals throw ourselves onto the Sisyphean challenges of our work, often at great psychic and personal cost, without the power to change the circumstances under which this labor takes place. We can not do our best work while so obviously over-burdened and under-compensated.

For a general audience, or for teachers new to the profession, this is a single volume that is reasonably well sourced and eminently quotable. Use this to build or shore-up your writing-instruction philosophy. For practical "how-to-do" ideas, there are many other sources (see Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing and 180 Days: Two Teachers and the Quest to Engage and Empower Adolescents to start with).

[Jean-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yep. I was nodding in agreement with each turn of the page. I think Warner and I only deviate in opinion in one area: school. 8 years ago when my daughter's kindergarten principal said to me, "If you think you can do better," I decided I could and have been homeschooling ever since. Warner's philosophy on school is more of a Sheryl Sandberg "Lean In" approach. I get it. Many of us must lean into this broken system, so this is the best we can do. However, one bad teacher or one bad year, especially in K-12, can do so much damage to the confidence and competence of a student. I'd like someone with Warner's passion and expertise to offer advice to parents on how to navigate the broken system. That aside, there are some great writing exercises and reflections in the book that can be used for all ages. I see myself trying them with both my 6th and 9th grader. I would definitely recommend "Why They Can't Write" to my homeschooling community, which often falls prey to the ease and promise of ineffective cookie cutter curriculum. When given the freedom to educate children, too many parents and teachers alike fall back on what they know rather than what's proven to be effective, or "folklore" as Warner puts it. I always felt that if teachers were given the mission to teach only one or two kids with their current class plans and curriculum, everything they do would change. They would realize how much time is wasted on nonsense and busywork instead of core reading and writing. More than anything else, students need the freedom and opportunity to read and write as much as possible with mentors to guide them.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to like this book more because this veteran college writing instructor has many astute observations, valid criticisms, and thoughtful ideas about teaching, but I cannot get past how he completely overlooks reading as a fundamental factor in determining a student's ability to write competently, and his or her likelihood of having the competency to tackle the demands of college-level writing. In my experience as a writing instructor, a student's past and present reading history is THE determining factor of his/her success or failure.

[Beth Honeycutt]

It isn't often that you read a professional book that makes you laugh out loud and has you shaking your head in agreement so often that it's awkward. I wish my middle school and high school teachers had read this book...I wish I had read this book 24 years ago...I wish we would have conversations in public education about this book. (I'm trying to be diplomatic here!)

I'm glad that this is an option for our 6-12 teachers for PD.

[Elizabeth Jorgensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a teacher of writing and this book is SPOT ON. And best: it's backed by pages and pages of references and citations. If you teach writing, this is worth a read. I noticed many of the reviews state the book isn't solution-focused enough. If you're looking for the solution, I think you can find it in Hacking Student Learning Habits 9 Ways to Foster Resilient Learners and Assess the Process Not the Outcome (Hack Learning Series).

[Andy Schoenborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up John Warner’s book, Why They Can’t Write, curious to see the shape of writing on the collegiate level. Truth be told, as a high school English teacher, I was also seeking affirmation in lieu of naysayers. The five-paragraph formula was jettisoned from my classroom many years ago because I began feeling a tension between what student writers need to learn and why they need to learn it.

Those in favor of the five-paragraph essay argue that students need structural support to learn what an essay looks like. Warner gives a nod to this notion in his analogy about “training wheels.” Sure, student writers, like children learning to ride a bike, might benefit from rigid training wheels, but eventually, those training wheels start to wobble need ratcheting off.

When that happens we can expect falls, bumps, and bruises - all natural parts of what it means to be a writer. A writer gains their bearings when they experiment, play, and enter into a process of writing rather than a formula of writing. If all student writers experience are formulas, they come to believe that is writing. Then they fail to see the work of a writer and understand their role in a process of writing.

As I read Warner’s words, I found myself nodding along as my beliefs about writing were strengthened. He argues that if teachers are interested in helping students grow as writers, it “means requiring students to take charge of their learning through being empowered to write about subjects of interest and expertise, while also practicing self-reflection and self-regulation. This is the work of writers in the ‘real world’” (p. 183). Indeed. Warner lays out a philosophical framework that works to smooth out the transition from high school writing to freshman composition to writing across the disciplines. It is a philosophy that focuses the attention on the work of a writer by helping students run their own brains as they stake claim to the identity of “writer.”

[Jeff Larsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you teach writing - any kind of writing - you should read this book.

Let me know when you've finished so we can talk about it.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tackles a lot more than teaching writing, but at its heart is the call for teachers to do what research has taught us about guiding student writers. I cannot wait to discuss it with teachers.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gets added to my favorite texts about writing and about teaching the craft, along with Stephen King’s On Writing, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, and the works of Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle (who introduced me to John Warner on a video blog post). A *must read* for anyone who teaches writing.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, a must read for anyone invested in education and writing advocacy.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thought-provoking read. Warner teaches first-year writing at the college level. His main argument is that schools, for a variety of complex reasons, have taught essentially formulaic writing that serves the purpose of standardized tests and gate-keeping for post secondary institutions, but they do not teach students how to BE writers. What I appreciated is that he does not lay blame on any one factor (teachers, curriculum, testing, etc). Also interesting was the chapter on "educational folklore" which refers to long-held beliefs that are pervasive in education despite having been proven wrong. One prominent example is the belief that teaching grammar in isolation will improve student writing. Despite having been exhaustively researched and having overwhelming evidence against it, some educators / parents still cling to this belief as it is how they were taught. Interestingly, evidence to the contrary dates back to the 1940's and the NCTE took a position on this decades ago! Who knew?!

[Mr. Caudillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saddening, yet humorous. Frustrating, yet inspiring. Problematic, yet practical. Writing professor John Warner echoes what I imagine just about every teacher agrees is wrong with the American education system. In short, the line, “We have attempted to systematize things (like learning) that are not systematic,” summarizes his position. I agree with most of his claims and complaints. Overwhelming standardized assessments. Overemphasis on competitive grading. Underwhelming distrust in educators’ intuition when it comes to teaching (seriously?). The list goes on. Warner does offer some practical methods and approaches to try to do our best within the system (mainly helpful to writing teachers as that’s the focus of his book). Still, the chimera of a beast our society calls education reform, which is mutated every several years with promises of better solutions only to fail again, proves to be a stone-proof Goliath against this well-intentioned fellow educator. In the end, Warner encourages readers to “let the conversation begin.” Surely teachers and even students have been shouting their discontent long enough. The true problem - no one is listening.

[BookChampions · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as a library book so I ended up taking notes on every single chapter since I couldn't write in it. It is one of the most timely books about teaching English that I've ever read—certainly for 2019. If you are interested in education reform, I would strongly recommend reading this book. Warner knocks down mythology and "folklore" that keeps us falling into educational fads, looking to "data artifacts" rather than relationships, and clinging to the traditional methodology that rewards students into compliance rather than real learning (or for those not willing to play the game, into apathy).

Warner's book burns with urgency, and you can tell how the book covers a lifetime of growth as an educator. I would love to write a book like this someday.

Warner writes, "We're supposed to believe that education is empowering, a journey during which students develop their emotional and intellectual abilities. But research shows that school has the opposite effect. From the student perspective, school is a grind, which each year a little less stimulating than the last." It's a bleak premise, perhaps, but it's also a call to action to resist standardization and truly see kids for what they bring to the table.

As writing teachers, we either reinforce the rote, one-way-to-think, hoop-jumping pedagogy, or we find ways to be true listeners of young people who have learned that they have something worth saying. We can say to students with our approach, 'I am going to be there the whole way through the writing process because it is hard and individual but so worth it.'

He'll have you questioning lots of things we do as teachers that undermine what education is supposed to be about—grades, ranking kids, grammar instruction, templating our students to death, and even overdoing the concept of "the essay." I'm not articulating well everything this book offers, but it won't be the last time I write about it. I have pages and pages and pages of notes, and I am absolutely sure this book will transform my teaching. It brought home so many ideas that have been brewing in my head this year, and now I feel like I can execute them. Warner's book dares me to innovate, and I love that faith he has in his reader. Thank you, John!

[Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I aspire to be as articulate and caring and principled when I teach as Warner is here in this book.

I did a ton of head-nodding / underlining / highlighting / dog-earing throughout.

[Justin Barbaree · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a young adult, my main interests for study were Grateful Dead setlists, road atlases that fueled dreams for Kerouacian adventure, and diving into books. My head was nowhere near school in my teenage years, and my first shot at college was... a fiasco (academically speaking). Because I "blew it", I was cut off from parental funding for a time, and had to pick up the tab for my misadventures by washing dishes, doing hotel laundry, and a variety of other tasks that would float me from paycheck to paycheck. Ramen noodles were a staple.
I was fortunate enough, by the time I was 21, to really want to go to school. It seemed, naturally, like a part of the adventure. I was further blessed to land at a small liberal arts school in Colorado that felt like an adventure. The "academic" life I had there was a challenge, but one that was inspiring and diverse. College, to me, felt like a time of personal and spiritual and social growth. It is only natural, then, that I hold onto a humanistic view of education: one that emphasizes personal growth and learning.

Warner's book here is a reminder to me of that idea of growth and learning. In my own academic career, I have, at times, nearly forgotten that. I've been overly concerned with formulas and MLA and trying to force my students' writing into a package that just might pass muster as "academic", while neglecting the very ingredients that are necessary for "good" writing: experience, meaning, motivation, wonder, curiosity... to name several. This book serves as a nudge for me to put back in those values that I held as a college student into my approach to teaching my students.
I appreciate Warner's courage to speak out against the current trends toward testing and measurements and all of the hoop jumping that follows; but I admire much more that he goes beyond this and offers some practical guidelines for application. He doesn't just leave the reader in the dreamy world of academic theory, but includes pedagogy, lessons, and even prompts for writing "experiences" that he has used in his own classroom, some that I will certainly borrow and make my own.

[Katie Rieger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to firstly share that I agree with Warner’s claim that standardized testing and educational reform in K-12 and beyond has changed students writing (in many ways adversely — as seen with the five paragraph essay to prepare for those tests). However, while I agreed with this and some of his other claims, I struggled with this book for two reasons.

Firstly, the text read as a series of the author’s thoughts/critiques to educational studies, educational trends, and outdated pedagogy. I found that he would share a 1-2 sentence overview of a research study, and then he would provide his own thoughts as a type of critique/counterargument. I found that he often times omitted helpful findings/data from these studies (such as with KIPP schools, what funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation goes to regarding education, etc.). Instead, he shares surface level issues, many of these that fairly well known in the field. For example, he shares that instructors should not teach grammar out of context. Great. However, I think by sharing why grammar is better taught through context, he could have added more depth that could have benefited his readers.

This point of sharing mostly his thoughts rather than other current literature (popular and scholarly) gets to my second issue. For folks who have been teaching writing, this book doesn’t offer too much in the way of new information. For example, giving students choice/agency in their writing is another fairly standard practice, but this concept is presented as novel in this book. Further, many of the examples he provides are fairly routine exercises and assignments folks in FYC and other writing classes are familiar with — for example the “is a hotdog a sandwich” prompt or “how to make a PBJ” process prompt. It may be that I am not the intended audience member for this book. This book may be for folks who are new to teaching writing classes or who just believe “students can’t write.” While I appreciate the author sharing these thoughts in a more public arena, I would most likely not recommend this text to my colleagues.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

A polished rant on the flaws of the American education system and how it punishes students, overworks teachers, takes the fun out of learning... oh, and the five-paragraph essay is bad and here are some other musings on writing. I am very salty about the clickbait-y title, but I enjoyed reading the chapters that I had signed up for.


Quotes & Reflections:
Two inner conflicts: wanting to promote growth mindset & help students see learning as a progress vs wanting to give them the shortcuts and run-down of everything so they avoid making my mistakes
Some of these ideas can be applied to math. Figure out when students find math most meaningful?

- Students find writing most meaningful when they have control over what they're writing about, when they view it as a social act or part of an environment larger than the assignment, when they understand how the writing fits inside the larger picture of their lives and experiences.
- No resilience: tracking and punishing students too much and too often make students risk averse. And tracking and intervening too often don't allow students to solve their own problems.
- "We have to make sure they're running over as many potholes as possible." Providing comments on work--shortening their learning curve.
- Less emphasis on grammar and sentence-crafting. More on producing the idea. "The sentence is not the basic skill or fundmental unit of writing. The idea is."
- More emphasis on audience (PB&J communication assignment)
- Allow more opportunities for students to write on a subject they're already knowledgeable of
- More reflection: 1) "Under what conditions do you do your best work?" (interestingly, the conditions might fall under the 3 main categories: resources, time, motivation); 2) "What do you know now that you didn't know before?" "What can you do now that you couldn't do before?" "How did you learn these things?"

[reading serval · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is, above all, a BITING critique of the American education system. Warner identifies a writing "crisis" then meticulously maps out how that crisis was manufactured, the conditions by which it is perpetuated, and a series of values and frameworks that can help us fix it. It is thorough, it is organized, and it does not hold back. The author is not coy about the stakes here, in ways that are necessarily shocking. Like are we causing a youth suicide crisis? Are we inadvertently reinforcing white supremacist thinking in young people? Are we really all going to just sit here and watch while the entire capitalist machine "public charters," and privatizes, and exploits the people in education until Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates can finally "tech-innovate" it into oblivion?

I personally gleaned some useful insights into my own teaching practices, especially with the ideas that students should "read like writers" and that the foundation of writing is ideas. If I take these ideas along with my core beliefs surrounding education, what would my classroom look like? It certainly would not look like a standardized testing score ATM. It would likely include much more instructional time spent on "SEL"-style activities to push students to exercise their individual autonomy and draw stronger connections between their lives, their academic pursuits, and their writing. It would likely be less structured and more free-flowing.

I really enjoyed this book, and of course that makes sense as I'm a public school English teacher. But this book has immense value for anyone who has a connection to the American education system whatsoever. Highly recommend.

[Vance J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deceptive title - in a good way!

Through his lens as a college-level writing instructor, Warner clearly identifies how it is that first-year college students tend to be poor writers and how to help them develop their skills.

Alas! Much of the issue is generated through students’ K12 experience, where the focus has become proficiency vs expertise. (Hello 5-paragraph essay format, AP-style rubrics and associated formulaic writing to get a “good score”, SAT reading prompts, etc.).

I’m a HS physics instructor and I’m very glad that I read this book, as it crystallized much of what I’ve been thinking in regards to HS education and the debilitating focus on “grades” vs actual learning.

From p. 227 (from AP US Gov instructor): “I would like to believe that I prepared them [his students] to think more critically and present cogent arguments, but I could not simultaneously prepare them to do well on that portion of the test and teach hem in a fashion that would properly serve them at higher levels of education.”

Isn’t it time we question what the AP curriculum is doing to our students? In this regard, I HIGHLY recommend Anne Abrams’ _Shortchanged_ on exactly this: https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title...

Peace!

[Daniel Barkan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many teachers will recognize and agree with the obstacles that the author points out as being in the way of students learning to write effectively—everything from hunger and poverty to inauthentic writing tasks driven by our cultural obsession with standardized testing. He even gets a well-deserved shot in at businesses who see students as “meat widgets,” and not as human beings deserving of education for the sake of flourishing personally. For many teachers, this aspect of the book will feel validating.

In terms of solutions, though, the book doesn’t have much to offer. The are some assignment ideas (which the author calls “experiences”) that seem both fun and beneficial. Beyond that, after the mountain of problems documented throughout the book, it mostly feels like there is little that any one teacher can do. Instead, we are waiting for a cultural upheaval that feels like it will never come. That’s probably an accurate portrayal of the situation, but it’s also disheartening.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was perfect for me to read as I developed (and continue to develop) my Creative Writing course this year, driven not only by my own passion for writing but also by my belief that we're really failing students in the way we go about teaching writing. I think plenty of teachers might agree with me, too, but we're bound by so many constraints -- mandated curriculum, testing, administrative oversight coupled with a lack of understanding or curiosity, fatigue and general disillusionment...I could go on. I'm lucky in that I have more creative freedom than many teachers in this country, and planning a course administrators aren't paying attention to has given me some ideas for shaking up my lit courses as well. This isn't a "how to" book and it doesn't provide neat answers, but it did help me generate ideas, and perhaps more importantly, it reminded me that while my sphere of influence may be small, I can start with the students I have and try something new.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book is deceiving - Warner takes on much more than prescriptive writing here. He tackles everything from the pitfalls of technology fads (and the shockingly little data that shows they work), to the ways in which schools have embraced “grit” as a goal for students even as its primary researchers have begged them not to, to the anxiety crisis students face, to the travesty that adjuncts are paid a totally unlivable wage. The title works in the sense that the overarching theme of the book is the difference between “being educated and being trained,” and the five-paragraph essay is one ubiquitous way that schools settle for training at the expense of educating students (driven, of course, by standardized measures of assessment). Such a great book to read and discuss with other educators because there is just so much to talk about.

[Justin Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please get past the curmudgeonly title probably slapped on by an editor and read this. If you've ever had the sneaking suspicion that school barely teaches how to write well, much less why, and that we've sold out a millennia-long history of what we know about words so that children can instead impress a Craiglist hire grading their standardized test in three minutes, if you've ever felt that high school prepared you not one whit for college, this book will turn those timpanis of doubt into war-drums of a revolution. Built around the sadly-radical idea that good writing is good thinking, and good thinking in the outside world is done in far more than five paragraphs for an audience of far greater than one teacher for reasons far more concrete than a letter grade, this bent, broke, and rebuilt the way I teach writing.

[Travis Timmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved the parts of this book about writing pedagogy. Although I was trained in "process pedagogy" during my MA at Florida State, Warner made me rethink so many things about how I applied this way of teaching in my classrooms. I came to this book after some of Warner's writing about Chat GPT and the role of writing in college classrooms, and his book was perfect reading in this context, it's exactly what I was hoping for, especially his emphasis on teaching writing experiences and concepts like audience awareness to students. However, I could have done with the book's chapter critiquing our larger education system, since they came off as a screed offering me little insight about how to navigate and work within the current system as it's set up, and as it is likely to remain. Regardless, the sections on pedagogy more than compensated for the screed chapters!

[Stephan Benzkofer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why They Can't Write is a comprehensive examination of the problems inherent in the entire educational system not just writing. I don't have any experience in education or in teaching writing, but I do see what the education system has done to my son. He was an avid reader and frequent writer when he was younger. Now, after just finishing his junior year, he "hates writing" and despised his English composition AP class. What did he learn? The teacher didn't care, bullshit worked as well, if not better, than thinking, and the five-paragraph essay was the shortest route to an A. Like other reviewers of this book, I found myself nodding in agreement and recognition throughout as he dissected the problems and offered up some solutions.