“Explicit teaching of writing makes kids better writers” and
readers. Does writing improve thinking? Dan Willingham looks at
the evidence in The Atlantic. Not all writing instruction is
helpful, Willingham writes. Students learn to write well if
they’re taught “the nuts and bolts,” such as “text structure,
how to use specific strategies for planning, revising, or
editing text, and so on. . . . if a teacher does not show
students how to construct a paragraph or a well-written
argument, some will figure out it anyway, but many will not.”
Writing instruction improves reading comprehension, but again
the details matter. When students write about what they’ve read
— analyzing, interpreting, summarizing and answering questions —
they build comprehension, Willingham writes. Explicit teaching
of writing conventions helps students understand how authors use
conventions. It’s worth noting that these two advantages —
better writing and better reading — will probably not accrue if
most writing assignments consist of answ