ABSTRACT
By the intermediate grades, and certainly in middle school, so much school-based writing is expected to be “academic” in nature that teachers may have little opportunity to learn about students’ individual writing preferences. Even when students are given the opportunity to write personal narratives, fiction, or poetry, curriculum mandates often lead teachers to create assignments that are substantially prescribed in terms of topic, purpose for writing, form and information sources (e.g. “use information from the article, ‘Storms,’ and what you know to write a poem about the weather” or “write about a time when you faced a challenge”). Despite a quarter century of experience with process-oriented writing instruction, a majority of students’ writing is still intended for one audience only—the teacher who will evaluate the writing and assign a grade. Small wonder, then, that many boys and girls come to dread writing, and their work, voiceless and formulaic, reflects their lack of engagement.
