Running head: EVERY CHILD A WRITER CURRICULM

Every Child a Writer Curriculum

Trisha King
University of Northern Colorado

EVERY CHILD A WRITER CURRICULM

Every Child a Writer Curriculum

The National Literacy Coalition in Aurora, Colorado, developed a writing
curriculum called Every Child a Writer (ECAW). The overarching goal of this researched
based curriculum is to give every student an opportunity to learn a plethora of writing
skills in order to become successful writers not just in the classroom setting but outside of
the classroom setting. According to the National Commission on Writing (2011) the,
Average American student spends less than three hours per week in structured writing
activities; furthermore, the National Commission on Writing recommend that students
should have double that time for writing instruction, and the way to achieve that is by
having common expectations for writing across the curriculum (National Literacy
Coalition, 2011, p. 2). Therefore, this program was founded in order to give students
more opportunities to practice the writing processes, and to raise students test scores on
high-stake tests.
Which commonplace is the authors starting point?
To begin with, the introduction to this curriculum states numerous statistics on
why writing is an influential skill to have beyond K-12 classrooms. For instance, The
National Literacy Coalition (2011) quoted a Carnegie Report that stated, 70 percent of
students are low-achieving writers while 50 percent of high school graduates are not
prepared for college-level writing (National Literacy Coalition, 2011, p. 3). These
statistics demonstrate a need to implement a program that guides and teaches students the
processes of writing and genres. Furthermore, it illustrates how writing can be utilized as
a real world application, which demonstrates to all students relevancy to their learning.
Hence, The National Literacy Coalition utilizes the common place of subject matter in

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order to illustrate to their audience of teachers and school districts the importance of why
students need more writing throughout the school year.
If one were to look at this curriculum as a tapestry all the common places of the
subject matter, milieu, learner, and teacher (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988, p.85) are
blended together in order to encourage all students to become stronger writers. However,
the subject matter requires several activities to take place; therefore, the writing genres
are to be taught in three week sessions in the following order: description, narrative,
instruction, explanation, and persuasive. The aim of these genres is to boost every
student into having a chance to demonstrate his or her learning regardless of learning
abilities. Thus, this aim resonates with Nel Noddings argument of how curriculum
planners must reflect on the aim of how every student does not come to the classroom
with the same equipment when it comes to teaching subject matters. In Noddings text
titled Happiness and Education (2003) on students abilities he states the following: it is
dead wrong to expect the same performance from each childwe act as though all
children are academically equal and can be held to the same standard (Noddings, 2003,
p.90). Noddings statement demonstrates the commonplaces of the teacher and the
learner for ECAW while still surrounding the idea of subject matter. For the teachers
lens it makes the teacher reflect on their practices and their overall aim for their outcomes
of their students. Additionally, it allows students to have autonomy in their work, yet
have a facilitator (teacher) to guide the learner and provide support where it is needed.
What is the commonplace of the authors end in view?

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While, subject matter is the starting point of the authors of this program it is also
significant to note how the commonplaces of the milieu, teacher, and learner play a role
in this curriculums overall end view.
The milieu for an ECAW classroom must have the teacher do the following to
create a learning environment where all students practice writing. The milieu must
encompass demonstrated writing with the full class to model an exemplar as well as to
teach the writing target for that day. After the demonstrated writing is finished the
teacher meets with the differentiated writing groups for fifteen minutes of writing to a
particular genre. Additionally, if and when a student has been hitting their writing targets
they can progress to a higher writing group after they have shown that they can achieve
the particular writing outcome. Finally, while students are not with the teacher in the
writing group students are attending writing centers that incorporate practicing and
learning a variety of materials such as academic and content vocabulary, peer editing,
grammar, spelling, and mechanics, and/or working on their rough drafts to final drafts.
This commonplace of the milieu can also be looked through a lens of Elliot Eisners idea
of organization of learning opportunities as the staircase model. In Eisners text titled
The Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs (1979)
states:
Those with a more conservative view of education believe that there is a body of
content that children should learnthe staircase model fits the view nicely
because it is systematic, well organized, and linear. Individual differences usually
means varying pace through which children proceed to climb the same staircase

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rather then building stairways leading to different goals for different children (p.
143).
Eisners explanation of the staircase model coincides with ECAWs commonplace of the
milieu because within this classroom model there must be consistent structure for the
learner to grow in his or her writing targets; furthermore, it starts with the simplest
writing genre then the student linearly can reach the more challenging genres while still
providing an environment that encourages support to get to the next level.
In addition to the milieu the teacher also plays a crucial role in the end view of
this curriculum because they must implement the strategies and take the time to develop
the exemplars for the full class modeling session, the rubrics, and be mindful of the
learners abilities. Overall the teacher holds the essential key because they must create
the use of this curriculum to generate learning objectives that are meaningful for all
learners. Author W. James Popham (2013) argues, Educational systems are designed to
improve the learner in some way, and educational objectives should describe the
particular kind of behavior changes which will reflect improvement (Popham, 2013, p.
94). If one considers Pophams claim with relation to ECAW it is imperative for the
teacher to know this curriculums aim in order to create learning objectives that will
reflect improvement because ECAWs aim is to support all students writing abilities,
yet the objectives of the teacher is what progresses the learner to mastery of the genres.
Finally, the commonplace of the learner plays throughout this curriculum because
the learner can demonstrate their growth through numerous avenues, and can move to
another writing group when he or she has accomplished their writing targets.
Furthermore, the commonplace of the learner allows for students to work on goals they

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need to work on for their writing targets. This also encourages students to overall grow
in their skills and knowledge, which in turn is positive because students need to be
proficient in writing skills.
What is the commonplace that is emphasized?
Overall, the commonplace that is emphasized throughout this curriculum is the
commonplace of the teacher. The teacher must learn how to differentiate for a whole
class and individual students; furthermore, the teacher also has to create exemplars and
rubrics, use the targets of the program to assess students and provide feedback to students
in a timely manner. Undoubtedly, this curriculum wants students to grow in their writing;
however, the student cannot change their academic writing behaviors unless the teacher
guides the student.
What type of community would this curriculum be appropriate for?
The ECAW curriculum is appropriate for a K-6 program because it does not
require students to conduct researches, prove claims with textual evidence, as well as
analyze a text or texts. The ECAW program has a regimen of very simple prompts that
train students how to write towards a particular purpose and employ planning tactics.
The school I work for (Craig Middle School) utilized this program for several years in
order to influence and make students familiar with prompts that could appear on
Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP). Nevertheless, since the state has
adopted Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and
Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) students need to be familiar with
analyzing non-fiction texts and to prove their analysis through claims and textual

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evidence. Consequently, if my school were to employ this curriculum again we would

need to adapt it to fit the preparation for PARCC and CMAS assessments.
Clearly, this curriculum has been proven to be effective in theory and practice, yet
from the perspective of a middle school teacher or high school teacher it would need to
be adapted to fit the commonplace of the student to make them familiar for high stakes
testing as well as for their careers. On the other hand for novice writers this curriculum is
a great place to begin learning the processes of writing because it aids in growing a
students confidence in writing.

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References
Connelly, F., & Clandinin, D. (1988). Teachers as Curriculum Planners:
Narratives of Experience. (p.85). New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Teachers
College. Columbia University ;.
Eisner, E. (1979). Dimensions of Curriculum Planning. In The Educational
Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs (p. 143). New York:
Macmillan.
National Literacy Coalition. (2011). Every Child a Writer: Straight-up Writing (612) National Literacy Coalition Research into Practice (pp.2-3). Aurora, Colorado:
National Literacy Coalition.
Noddings, N. (2003). Happiness and Education. (p.90). Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
Popham, W. (2013). Objectives. In D. Flinders & S. Thornton (Eds.), The
Curriculum Studies Reader (4th ed., p. 94). New York, New York: Routledge.