Quotes from Kelly Gallagher

What does it matter if teachers sprint through all the standards if at the end of the year their students still cannot write well?

ELA teachers to cut back on the reading of literature and poetry. This trend of moving students away from literary reading is antithetical to good ELA instruction. Kids need more literary reading, not less.

That is to say, the process of working through an argument is the process of inquiry" (2011, xxii; emphasis in original). The approach Hillocks suggests is the opposite of the traditional approach to teaching the argument paper, where a student starts with a claim and then begins to find evidence that supports the claim. Instead, Hillocks says that students should start with inquiry. They should "swim" in issues until interesting arguments begin to emerge.

The key point here bears repeating: I have decided on an argument ("Technology has weakened parenting skills"), but I didn't start with that argument in mind. Instead, I started by reading lots of data under the umbrella of the unit of study, and it was through the reading of this data that my research question emerged.

If I want my students to work toward becoming real-world writers, I need to shift the focus of my writing instruction toward real-world writing purposes.

When a writer has chosen a topic, he or she has really chosen numerous topics.

When students are taught to approach argument through inquiry, good things happen: they choose topics worthy of arguing, they gain ownership (through choice) of their writing, and their teacher is not stuck in Groundhog Day reading the same argument paper over and over. Key

In the real world, writing is not artificially separated into specific discourses. It is blended for effect.

the teacher should model by writing—and think out loud while writing—in front of the class.

I don't tell them how to draft their papers; I show them how I draft my papers.

As much as possible, I am trying to create agency in my young writers. Students who have acquired agency don't need the teacher to assign them a prompt; they are young writers who are able to independently generate writing from self-initiated ideas. They revel in choice—the very choice I am afraid will disappear in classrooms operating under the testing pressures generated by the Common Core writing standards. One

Teach your students real-world writing purposes, add a teacher who models his or her struggles with the writing process, throw in lots of real-world mentor texts for students to emulate, and give our kids the time necessary to enable them to stretch as writers.

writing can be used as a vehicle to express ourselves as we negotiate the journey through our lives.

Writing has become foundational to finding meaningful employment across much of the workforce.

How did the Finns build the best readers in the world? By eliminating standardized testing and emphasizing the importance of reading and critical thinking, by nurturing deeper thinking and creativity, and by leading their students away from the drill-and-kill instructional approach that is currently permeating American schools.