Faculty Resources

Teaching Resources

Artists do write. Art teachers know this and often require written components to the projects they give their students. We are, however, sometimes at a loss as to how to evaluate it or coach students on their writing.

In order to coach students to be effective writers, we need to first know what a good writer is. Here is a description of a "good writer", some tips for eliciting good writing from your students, and a sample rubric for a piece of writing.

GOOD WRITERS HAVE…

• Strong purpose to their writing: What am I communicating? They know what they are saying and what they want to accomplish with their message.
• A sense of audience: Who am I writing for? They know how to tailor their message to specific people.
• The ability to revise: How can I say this better? They are flexible in their ability to express themselves and are not afraid to throw out several pages of writing and completely rewrite it.
• A well developed voice: Does it sound like me? They are comfortable expressing themselves in writing.

Teachers Can Elicit Strong Writing by Doing the Following:

1. Give "real-life" writing tasks that have a very clear audience and purpose. For example: "Describe your project" will elicit weaker writing than "A potential client has contacted you about doing some work for him and has asked about your most recent project. Write an email describing your project to this potential client who has minimal artistic background." Or "What did you learn in the process of completing this project that can be helpful for your classmates? Write up a description of your project process and bring 15 copies to the final class to share. What you learned may include resources, or methods for working smarter."

2. Allow time for and encourage revision. There is a process to writing, just as there is to creating visual art. Writing usually starts with brainstorming, or some other method of generating ideas. The writer then focuses on a message, organizes the writing, and develops ideas. The final step is proofreading and polishing. Each of the steps in the writing process entails revision. Each step should bring the piece of writing closer to something that is interesting and informative for someone to read.

3. Have students turn in a first draft that you (or other students) respond to.

• The most helpful first draft responses are usually the questions that naturally pop into your head while you are reading, questions like: "This is interesting—tell me more about this." "Can you give me a couple of examples to make this point clearer?" "This is interesting, but I am not sure how it relates to the idea of…." "This part is not clear to me—are you saying…? Or….?"
• You can also fill out a rubric (see below) for the first draft.
• Remember to respond to "global issues" like ideas first. Correcting spelling on a draft that is going to be completely rewritten is a waste of your time and distracting to the student.

4. Have students do frequent informal writing to help them develop their voice. We have all read writing that feels "stilted" or self-conscious. We have also had the experience of reading something that "sounds like David Sedaris" or "sounds like my grandmother". If people are uncomfortable writing, their "voices" are usually not very strong—their writing doesn’t sound like them. The more you can have students write for each other and for you, the more comfortable they will become.

A Generic Sample Rubric for Writing:

• Filled out with checkmarks and comments as an example.
• “Development and organization” may not be an appropriate category for very short assignments.

Resources:

Lots of tip sheets and information about the Academy’s Writing Lab
» http://arc.academyart.edu/writing/index.asp

Go to IDEA paper #25, Improving Student Writing
» http://www.idea.ksu.edu/

» http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/menu.html