OK, grades are done, and it’s time to write about something positive. I stumbled randomly onto something this year that solved so many writing problems in one sweep that it’s near magical. What is this silver bullet?

Choice. Kids write a mini-essay– that is, three paragraphs, no more, no less– once a week, on whatever topic they choose.

I did this primarily to help motivate kids to write– that is, merely to get some pleasure out of producing words. I had no idea it would make them write so much better. They are regularly turning in work that is creative, lively, well supported with detail, and organized. My current favorite example is the kid who wrote his last essay describing, in five paragraphs of hilarious irony, how he couldn’t think of anything to write his essay about.

And I don’t think I will ever forget my student K., a reluctant writer at best, who shocked me by bursting out spontaneously in class the other day, “You’re like my favorite teacher ever. You give us…like… options.”

Now, this is not to say that I now have 85 Hemingways on my hands, but the writing problems I hear about in faculty meetings are not ones I consistently have. “They’re so dry. They have no voice.” “Their use of dialogue is awful.” “Why can’t they get their thoughts organized?” And I sit in the back and think: Who are these children?

These results are supported by a strong body of research conducted by Ed Deci at the University of Rochester, my new hero– I’ll be blogging on his stuff next post. But here’s a quote to whet your appetite: “…The performance of any activity requiring resourcefulness, deep concentration, intuition, or creativity is likely be impaired (italics mine) when external controls are the reason for their behavior.”

Oh my.

It seems to me that the most interesting thing about this is the implications it has for assessment. I would love it if kids were regularly given were opportunities to polish and share their own writing in addition to imposed assignments (which we do need to do, and can do well). This guarantees more of a multiple measures approach. But if a child’s writing portfolio is composed of nothing but demanded pieces, then what are we actually seeing?

A monkey hitting typewriter keys at random may eventually produce Shakespeare. But given my experience so far this year, I’d rather see what he turns out if we let him write about bananas.