The best way to help reluctant writers gain the fluency, confidence, and comfort that will allow them to tackle more high-stakes writing is to begin with low-stakes writing. We talked a lot about low-stakes writing in the writing as process course, but I want to review a few key points here. First, what is low-stakes writing? Low-stakes writing is either not graded or just graded just for participating. This is unusual in the current standardization movement where every writing seems to have to lead to a final product that gets graded. Low-stakes writing focuses on process, not product, we're not going to evaluate the quality of what students write or the quality of how they write it, we're simply asking students to try. Low-stakes writing is typically short, some teachers set a timer for five minutes, eight minutes, 10 minutes, and ask students to write for that amount of time. The key is that on asking students to write for an amount of time rather than for a certain number of words we are, again, stressing writing as process. Telling students, write 100 words on that subject, is asking for a product. Telling students, 'write for eight minutes about that subject, is asking for a process. Low-stakes writing uses write-to-learn activities, it focuses on writing as discovery. The student writing as to discover what they think or know or believe or aren't sure about. In a science class in which you're about to talk about photosynthesis, you could set a timer for three minutes and ask students to jot down everything that comes to mind when they hear the word photosynthesis. This will allow students to begin thinking about the subject in advance of a lesson. It will also allow students and you to get a sense of what they already know, what they don't know, what they need to know, and perhaps what they mistakenly think they know but don't about the subject you're about to discuss. Another write-to-learn activity at the end of the week, set the timer for five minutes and ask students to jot down everything they feel they've learned in the week that is concluding. Low-stakes writing can be used as a first step in what will become a larger writing assignment as well. This is also known as pre-writing. Consider the exercise on writing territories, for instance, if you have students explore some of their writing territories that writing could serve as a pre-writing for a personal narrative essay that they begin writing later. Low-risk writing is particularly valuable for reluctant writers because students may be assessment-phobic or have a history of failure with writing. You can't fail at low-stakes writing as long as you participate. There is no right or wrong answer and you are the expert on the subject of yourself. Because the writing time is short and the expectation is simply to write for a certain amount of time rather than produce a specified number of words, low-stakes writing seems doable. One popular form of low-stakes writing is freewriting, there are two freewriting, regular free riding and focused free writing. Regular freewriting is a technique to increase writing fluently. The writer writes without stopping for a set amount of time. The writer does not worry about spelling, grammar, or correctness as one of the readings in this module, I have posted a link to Peter Elbow's article describing the basic process and benefits of freewriting. If you haven't read it before, please take a look because we spent a good deal of time on freewriting in the writing as process course, I won't go into more detail here. But if you're not familiar with freewriting, please give it a try. I find that focused freewriting is most helpful for me because it allows me to explore a particular topic while still writing freely without concern for correctness or confidence. It's also a great way to get over the perfectionist syndrome. Focused freewriting uses the same process as regular freewriting, except for focused freewriting, the writer selects a topic in advance to focus on. Many professional writers have found some inventive ways to allow themselves to write low-stakes discovery drafts in the spirit of the freewriting model. The novelist, Kent Haruf, used to write on an old manual typewriter and because he didn't want to stop and correct what he was typing, he would wear a bag over his head. He couldn't see the words on the page, but he could still look down and see the keyboard he knew that he was typing on the right row. To recap, with low-risk writing, students can write for an amount of time, not in amount, they can begin to see that writing is produced in multiple drafts over time. They can build fluency, something they may have struggled with in the past. They can begin to see writing as discovery and they can begin to see writing as a process instead of just a graded product.
