Jago, Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Teaching Informational and Persuasive Writing

Right off the bat, Jago confronts a major problem with student writing: students who don't read enough. Even students who are avid readers of fiction or poetry tend to avoid reading essays. How, then, can we expect students to write good essays without first reading reading good essays? We can't. Good writers read; it's that simple. If we want students to improve the quality of their essay writing, we need to supply them with essays to read - and a lot of them. Jago warns against just giving students examples of good student writing; this seems to have very little positive effect. Students either ignore the examples because "they're just written by another kid," or become depressed at the difference in writing quality.

As Jago mentions, many state standards now require the reading of informational texts, anyway. Michigan is no exception; the newly implemented Michigan standards in language arts includes three or four specific mentions of informational texts.

I really enjoyed Jago's opinion piece assignment where students learn to writing persuasive essays based on real news events. I believe in public writing and encouraging students to write for a real audience. By getting students interested in real world events and connecting with these events, Jago has given them the passion and the tools to write with real purpose. It shouldn't surprise anyone that student writing quality improves with the knowledge that audience has been expanded to include someone other than the instructor.