It was around twenty years ago when I first did some training and consulting for three public school districts, one in California, one in Washington, and a smaller one in Alaska. I was and still am grateful to the fine teachers and administrators in these schools who helped me learn to navigate the challenges of working with a whole district.
All three of these states had recently adopted new standards along with corresponding assessments that included actual student writing—to be scored by humans using rubrics and inspired in great part by what was then called “Six Traits Writing Assessment Model,” now known as 6+1 Trait® Writing. All three of these districts had similar frustrations: mainly teachers who with a modicum of training generally understood the six traits but had little in the way of resources—curriculum or methodology—to help students do well when assessed on those traits. To refresh your memory, the Six Traits are these: Ideas and Content, Organization, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Voice, and Conventions. (“Presentation” is the “+1” more recently added.)
All three districts found me in the same way: a connection between a teacher in the district and an outside friend who knew of and shared with them the IEW Structure and Style approach. In each case, that one teacher squeezed in some key word outlines and dress-up techniques, finding results better than ever before. This success was shared with other teachers and administrators, eventually making its way up to a district curriculum office. IEW adoption has usually begun with a grass-roots introduction rather than a top-down mandate.
The two districts in Washington and California were intentionally hoping for rapid improvement in the elementary grades three to five, or three to six, so that is where we started in both cases. All three schools were focused on the state assessments but were somewhat unsure as to how to effectively prepare students. Some teachers would just start giving the students assessment-typical prompts at the beginning of the school year and would keep doing that until the tests in the spring. But that wasn’t working so well …
My first experience presenting to a room full of elementary teachers from the same district was both a bit scary and exhilarating. Knowing the power of the Structure and Style program—especially when applied consistently across subjects and for several years—I was excited about the possibilities for broad and significant improvement, but I did feel a need to gain the confidence of the teachers, most of whom had sat through dozens (or maybe hundreds!) of Professional Development (PD) days. As with any group, there were some quick converts who realized the potential and got excited right away, the wary—perhaps a bit jaded by too many “new” methods, programs, and curriculum adoptions, and of course the few who already knew what they were doing and had little or no interest in a new approach.
After the first two-day seminar, I wondered if the time spent would bear fruit in terms of teacher engagement and improved student skills. I couldn’t know. But something must have caught, since all three districts invited me back to do even more PD, adding in-class demonstration lessons at every elementary school, along with evening talks for parents. My service to these school districts continued for many years, and the results were gratifying, even remarkable. All three districts saw significantly improved test scores over the following years, and the best documented record of this can be seen with the Rocklin, California, school district “before and after” study. Details are here.
This was, of course, during the early years of IEW, and perhaps the biggest challenge was that we did not have a line of products to support the classroom teachers after training them in the system. All were left to scrounge from the source texts in the TWSS Seminar Workbook at that time, while some managed to find one of our theme-based books or a Student Writing Intensive video course and use the stories and articles provided. Thus, we probably lost a few teachers who might have done very well with the Classroom Supplement [discontinued] packages we began to publish a decade later. But still the results were excellent, even with the meagre collection of materials available at the time.
The success of these three districts almost two decades ago laid a foundation for many more to come. As I think about how we can better help schools and teachers today, I reflect on the commonalities. These were present in all three cases:
1. a high priority because of a clear need
2. a core group of teachers who caught the vision
3. an actively supportive district-level administrator or curriculum coordinator
4. a multi-year commitment to continued professional development and support for the teachers
5. building-level support from school administrators, who had also participated in the initial IEW Professional Development
(At one school I visited, the principal himself made time to teach one writing class per grade level each month, clearly communicating to the teachers that IEW writing instruction was a priority.) Since then, the IEW Schools Department has grown considerably. And today, there is even greater awareness of the importance of cultivating the language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in our young people. But standards and test scores should not remain the primary motivation to teach writing well. Those in schools that have adopted the Structure and Style approach across several grade levels have been able to see first-hand the remarkable results. But perhaps the most gratifying feedback comes from the students themselves, who often have shared with their “old” teachers how useful the outlines and style checklists have been as they moved on into middle or high school or college.
My favorite quote is still the one from a sixth grade teacher in Spokane, Washington, who shared with me a student comment at the end of the year: “Mrs. Eide, I learned more from you this year than from any other teacher ever—you taught me how to think!” For indeed, while we do appreciate improved assessments, we know that more than anything, helping students learn how to find, organize, and present ideas in writing is indeed an essential life skill that goes beyond just academics.
So, if you or your school or your district are on the fence about IEW, or are even just looking for something that really works, get in touch with us. Given our record of success, you have nothing to lose and so much to gain!
