Scan barcode
deservingporcupine's review against another edition
5.0
As a writing teacher, I could not agree more. This book feels mis subtitled, though. It’s about much more than just how we’re hurting student writers with 5 paragraph essays. It’s about how education is failing children in nearly every way. (Standardization, teacher evaluation, devaluing educators, testing, teachers you know the list). As a teacher I couldn’t agree more. He gives ideas on how to change things in your own classroom, but really I want policy makers, parents, and people outside education to read this, because classroom by classroom does not feel like enough.
indianajane's review against another edition
4.0
This wasn't earth-shattering, but it was a good round up of many of the mistakes that are being made in the teaching of writing and in schools in general. Warner has one blind spot: The necessity/good of institutional schooling.
siria's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who teaches in a writing-intensive discipline at the college level, and who has taught writing seminars in the past, I found myself nodding along with so much of what John Warner has to say here. The billions that have been pumped into standardised testing, private charter schools, ed-tech, etc., over the past thirty years or so haven't just been wasted—they've caused actual harm. In this, we are in absolute agreement.
I'm also not the person who needs to read this book. Why They Can't Write needs to find its way into the hands of the politicians who defund public education, the college administrators who pay comp/rhetoric instructors a pittance for a crushing workload, and my senior colleagues who sniff about "kids these days." The kids are all right; it's the system that's an unholy mess.
I'm also not the person who needs to read this book. Why They Can't Write needs to find its way into the hands of the politicians who defund public education, the college administrators who pay comp/rhetoric instructors a pittance for a crushing workload, and my senior colleagues who sniff about "kids these days." The kids are all right; it's the system that's an unholy mess.
writerkatier's review against another edition
2.0
I want to firstly share that I agree with Warner’s claim that standardized testing and educational reform in K-12 and beyond has changed students writing (in many ways adversely — as seen with the five paragraph essay to prepare for those tests). However, while I agreed with this and some of his other claims, I struggled with this book for two reasons.
Firstly, the text read as a series of the author’s thoughts/critiques to educational studies, educational trends, and outdated pedagogy. I found that he would share a 1-2 sentence overview of a research study, and then he would provide his own thoughts as a type of critique/counterargument. I found that he often times omitted helpful findings/data from these studies (such as with KIPP schools, what funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation goes to regarding education, etc.). Instead, he shares surface level issues, many of these that fairly well known in the field. For example, he shares that instructors should not teach grammar out of context. Great. However, I think by sharing why grammar is better taught through context, he could have added more depth that could have benefited his readers.
This point of sharing mostly his thoughts rather than other current literature (popular and scholarly) gets to my second issue. For folks who have been teaching writing, this book doesn’t offer too much in the way of new information. For example, giving students choice/agency in their writing is another fairly standard practice, but this concept is presented as novel in this book. Further, many of the examples he provides are fairly routine exercises and assignments folks in FYC and other writing classes are familiar with — for example the “is a hotdog a sandwich” prompt or “how to make a PBJ” process prompt. It may be that I am not the intended audience member for this book. This book may be for folks who are new to teaching writing classes or who just believe “students can’t write.” While I appreciate the author sharing these thoughts in a more public arena, I would most likely not recommend this text to my colleagues.
Firstly, the text read as a series of the author’s thoughts/critiques to educational studies, educational trends, and outdated pedagogy. I found that he would share a 1-2 sentence overview of a research study, and then he would provide his own thoughts as a type of critique/counterargument. I found that he often times omitted helpful findings/data from these studies (such as with KIPP schools, what funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation goes to regarding education, etc.). Instead, he shares surface level issues, many of these that fairly well known in the field. For example, he shares that instructors should not teach grammar out of context. Great. However, I think by sharing why grammar is better taught through context, he could have added more depth that could have benefited his readers.
This point of sharing mostly his thoughts rather than other current literature (popular and scholarly) gets to my second issue. For folks who have been teaching writing, this book doesn’t offer too much in the way of new information. For example, giving students choice/agency in their writing is another fairly standard practice, but this concept is presented as novel in this book. Further, many of the examples he provides are fairly routine exercises and assignments folks in FYC and other writing classes are familiar with — for example the “is a hotdog a sandwich” prompt or “how to make a PBJ” process prompt. It may be that I am not the intended audience member for this book. This book may be for folks who are new to teaching writing classes or who just believe “students can’t write.” While I appreciate the author sharing these thoughts in a more public arena, I would most likely not recommend this text to my colleagues.
eekgranola's review against another edition
3.0
Some good ideas and I don’t disagree with the arguments but this gave very few solutions.
gracealexandraa's review against another edition
5.0
If you want to be in the teaching profession, especially that of writing then you have to read this. It’s not a need, but a must.
shawntowner's review against another edition
3.0
I think I would have appreciated this before I went back to grad school. Having read all sorts of writing research, there's not much new here for me. But that also means that I'm not really the audience for this book. There is a huge disconnect between the research world of academia and the pedagogical reality of K-12 education. For a reader who's unfamiliar with writing research or the policy statements of NCTE, CCCC of the WPA council, this book could be eye-opening. I think it would make a great professional book club selection for teachers and administrators, as a lot of the book deals with education and schooling in general, with writing and the five-paragraph essay serving as examples of the counterproductive norms of standardized education.
kserra's review against another edition
5.0
A fantastic book for writers, teachers and everyone in between - I really appreciate the mix of systemic analysis and specific suggestions!
ktempleton's review against another edition
4.0
There are so many important ideas in this book, but the one that is staying with me is this: we know from research that the number one predictor of reading ability is the background knowledge a reader brings to the text; this is the first time I’ve encountered the research that says the same thing about writing. It is so obvious but students will write better about things they know about. How often do they get to do that?