Creating a Culture of Writing

Promising practices that can help nurture confident, capable student writers.  

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DR. CRISTINA COMPTON
Director of Program Development
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The beginning of the school year is a powerful time for setting intentions and establishing expectations. As a former classroom teacher and professional development coach, I understand the importance of making sure students feel safe in their writing environment, so that they feel empowered to put pen to paper. Using the beginning of the year to create a culture of writing can help cultivate a sense of community, boost students’ confidence, dispel some of the myths that exist about writing, and strengthen students’ skills and strategies. 

How then, can we create this culture and community? 

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Creating the environment

As Dan Kirby writes in Inside Out: Strategies for Teaching Writing, “…there should be some obvious indications that you believe that the physical environment is important, and these touches need to be present even in a rather sterile classroom setting…the fact that you’ve done something to your room is a signal to students that you care about the writing environment.” 

Teachers should create a space where they want to be, as chances are that the students will feel comfortable, too.

Teachers can use questions such as: 

• Where do I typically write? 
• Where do I do my best writing? 
• What do I have with me or near me? 
• What distracts me? 

By asking and answering these questions, it can inform and inspire the ways in which you design your classroom, as well as what materials or resources you might need or want. Perhaps you want to have a writing corner, or a gallery space for finished pieces. Think about all the spaces in the room — whether it’s a specific bulletin board, the walls, the ceiling, outside the classroom — where and how will writing be honored and celebrated? 

When it came to my environment, I recognized the importance of a quiet, comfortable space for students to write. I wanted to have inviting spaces around the room where students could choose to sit, whether it was on the carpet, with a pillow, a large bean bag, or in a comfortable chair near a window. In addition, I would turn off the lights when we wrote and play soft, classical music. This routine, over time, helped signal to students that it was time to write. It set the expectations that when we write, it's quiet and calm. You might be thinking that this can or should only happen in an elementary classroom; however, I have seen it used in middle and high school classrooms, and it was very well received by the students. 

I also had a writing center in my room, where students could go to gather paper, pencils, highlighters, and post-its to use for their writing. There was a basket for them to drop writing that they wanted or needed me to read. This empowered students to take ownership of their writing and build their independence as writers by providing them with common resources and tools they could access on their own, as needed. 

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Establishing rituals & routines

The second promising practice for creating a writing culture is to consider meaningful rituals and routines that value and encourage writing. Rituals and routines involve necessary actions that create purpose and organization, and when done frequently, they become innate. Below are some of my favorite rituals and routines. 
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Writer reflections

These reflections prompt students to reflect on questions such as:

• Who are you as a writer? 
• What kind of writing do you enjoy most? 
• When/where do you do your best writing? 
• What are your fears and frustrations around writing? What holds you back? 
• What makes you feel empowered and confident when you write? 

I established this ritual at the beginning of the year to get to know my students as writers, and then repeated an iteration of it at the end of every writing unit to monitor progress and assess any changes in students’ attitudes or experiences as they engaged in different writing tasks. It was meaningful and informative both for me and for my students, and helped inspire methods of support that were responsive to individual needs. 
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Write with your students

In my early experiences as a writing teacher, the process of teaching writing was presented as rather smooth and linear. However, we know that writing is often messy and complicated. There are times when ideas are free flowing, other times when we feel incredibly stuck, and everything in between. By sharing your writing experiences and your writing processes with your students, you can help dispel some of the myths about what writing should look like and how it should be done.

Furthermore, by writing with your students, you can help create a sense of community and understanding. I enjoyed sitting down with my own notebook and writing alongside my students, whether it was journaling or drafting something I could use as a model. Students often wanted to sit next to or near me, and I could tell, based on their behaviors and the volume of writing, that it was having a positive influence. 
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Flash drafting

This is a term I came across in Ralph Fletcher’s book, What a Writer Needs. The idea is to provide students with extended time for writing that is uncensored and on their own terms. It is intended to be a generative exercise, where students can jot anything and everything that comes to their mind about a topic, without worrying about structure or organization — aspects that can often be stifling to students. Furthermore, it helps build their stamina for writing.

In my classroom, I would set a timer with my students, and tell them: I’ve started the timer, and we are going to write for 10 minutes! Ready…GO! Little by little, we would extend the time as we built our stamina. By the end of the year, students were able to write for the full period, or 30 minutes. 
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All voices in

This is something I adapted from Erick Gordon, founder of the Student Press Initiative, CPET’s project-based writing initiative. Whereas celebrating writing is often done at the end of a unit, when students have finalized and published their pieces, All Voices In is about celebrating the writing along the way, helping students recognize all the ways in which they are growing and progressing as writers, and boosting their confidence. This supports students in engaging in the process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing as part of every writing experience, so that ideally, it becomes intrinsic. 

A typical example of this in my classroom involved teaching students a strategy or a skill around writing, i.e. using prompts to elaborate our writing. My students would then practice this on their own, with their own writing. Before the end of the lesson, students were prompted to read over their writing (silently or aloud), use a checklist, or even read it with a partner to support revision and editing. Then we’d gather together to hear from several voices as students shared a favorite line or a specific revision they made. Sometimes we had time for all voices to share, and other times, I created a schedule that identified when specific voices would share. 

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I encourage you to start the process of creating a culture or writing by identifying what you are most passionate about, what you are most excited about, and use that information to inspire the ways in which you create your space and establish your rituals and routines. If you have a passion for writing, like me, and/or you are a writing/ELA teacher, then I invite you to use the promising practices shared above, as they were very helpful for me and for the advancement of my students as writers! 

REFLECTIVE WRITING

CELEBRATING STUDENT VOICE

RITUALS & ROUTINES: NEW TEACHERS