I touched on these ideas in a bit in my last blog post, but I’m going to make this blog post a bit more specific to the given prompt. I think as teachers, most of what we ask students to do is write on demand. Whether that be journal prompts, in class essays, or class activities. We are always on a schedule and expect students to (hopefully) meet us there. Though Burke touches on this a bit, he is primarily concerned with assessment. However, I would argue that as teachers we are constantly prepping our students to be able to write at the drop of a hat.
The problem arises when students can’t write under those demands. I know that I personally get frustrated when students won’t write during journal time, but one of the problems could be that they are having trouble developing their thoughts during that time constraint. We know that the best way to become a better writer is to write a lot and write often, but as much as I would love to devote days to only writing, the simple fact is that there is often not time in the schedule to do so.
There is a disconnect between how we expect students to be able to write and the time we are given to help students meet that expectation. Assessments that are based solely on what a student can get on a page in a given time depend on a classroom that is focused that is training students for that skill. While I do think that is a useful skill to have, we have more pressing–and even more practical–things to do with our instructional time.
So where does this leave me? I’m not entirely sure. I understand where Burke is coming from, but I struggle to be enthusiastic about writing on demand for assessment. From a student perspective, what will they get out of it? Maybe writing on demand helped prepare me for college, but what about my students who are not pursuing college or simply won’t have to take classes that require papers? Do I want them to leave my class with that skill or as a reader and writer on their own terms? For my classroom activity, I am thinking about creating a handout for timed writing tips, as it is something that we will encounter regardless of my feelings about it, but I’m not entirely sure yet.
Emily's Blog 
Hey again, Emily!
What you said about assessments judging students for their writing-on-demand skills, rather than their writing skills, reminded me of the reading we did for Dr. Burke’s class this past week. So much of Someone Has to Fail was about how schools more effectively teach students how to play school than school curriculum itself. Writing-on-demand formative assessments are just another example of this, as we try to teach students the skills needed to produce writing in a context that is very different from real-world writing.
Some of these writing-on-demand skills are helpful, but I also don’t see a need to focus intensely on these types of writing assignments. Good luck with the in-my-classroom assignment! I’ll be doing something similar (but I didn’t steal the idea from you, I swear). š
Alexa Schaefer
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Hey Emily,
I enjoyed reading your post this week. I think you brought up good points about how as teachers we are always preparing students to write at the drop of hat, most likely due to our need to keep on schedule. I think this is whats wrong with a lot of issues surrounding teaching. There is simply not enough time, and sometimes we value efficiency over effectiveness. If our students simple cannot write on-demand, does that mean we should label them as not proficient on that standard? Burke argues that timed writing is simply not a representation of who students are as writers, so it does seem unfair that every standardized test will have this writing component added to it. If your plans are to prepare students for the world they are headed, I think it is fair for you to not use them as often if you do not see them as necessary. I also struggle with a balance between reading and writing. As for your In My Classroom activity, I created something similar around testing time last school year. So this is definitely something you can use in your room.
Good luck
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