The Kids We Assume Are Fine

Why so many bright students reach high school without ever truly learning how to write

The other day, my daughter announced that she wanted to apply to a few Ivy League schools. And of course, Oxford.

(I mean… who doesn’t want to go to Oxford?)

She is in ninth grade. Extremely bright. School has always come easily to her. She was one of those children who, at four years old, simply started reading. No struggle. No intervention. No concern.

Like many parents of high schoolers, our conversations lately have shifted toward college, transcripts, course selections, and future plans. When I started looking deeper into schools like Oxford, one thing kept surfacing over and over again:

Writing.

At almost the exact same time, I had attended Regents scoring calibration with my high school English teachers. I brought home a few sample essays and anchor papers. A day later, my daughter looked at them and said:

“Mom… I don’t know how to write like that.”

That gave me pause. But if I am being perfectly honest, I wasn’t all that surprised.

Because the truth is simple.

She was never really taught.

She was expected to pick it up.

The Myth of “Good Students Figure It Out”

For years, many schools approached writing instruction with the belief that students would naturally become strong writers if they simply spent enough time writing.

And to be fair, students did write.

A lot.

But writing volume alone does not necessarily create strong writers.

This year, my district implemented Amplify’s CKLA, and one of the most consistent complaints I hear is about writing.

“The writing just isn’t there.”

“They don’t write enough.”

“There’s not enough writing instruction.”

Many teachers are used to the traditional Writer’s Workshop model where students spend countless hours writing independently. And for many educators, less time physically writing on paper feels uncomfortable at first.

Just this Friday before the long weekend, I received an email from a teacher that made me stop and think.

She wrote:

“Today we wrote ‘on demand’ paragraphs. I have to admit; I was nervous as I do feel that CKLA is lacking in writing. However, I think today’s lesson proved me wrong. We reviewed what makes a good paragraph together and then made a list of topics, which included animals, the solar system, and other CKLA topics. Then I had them write, not type, but write on their own. No planning, drafting, or me helping revise and edit. No complaints of stamina. Total shock, but I am so impressed. I have writing — good writing — about Michael Jackson, lacrosse, animals, the Greek story of creation, a few stories, and more. I have never ended third grade with such solid writing.”

That email captures something important.

Strong writing does not simply emerge from spending hours filling notebooks.

Writing develops when students have knowledge to write about, explicit instruction in how writing works, and repeated opportunities to organize thinking clearly.

Writing Is Not “Caught.” It Is Taught.

This is one of the reasons I have become increasingly interested in the work of Judith C Hochman and The Writing Revolution.

The core message behind The Writing Revolution is powerful:

Writing must be explicitly taught.

Students need direct instruction in:

• sentence construction

• syntax

• sentence expansion

• organization

• transitions

• note-taking

• summarization

• paragraph development

• analytical responses

They need models.

They need scaffolded practice.

They need feedback.

And perhaps most importantly, they need knowledge.

Because writing is deeply connected to thinking. Students cannot write well about topics they know little about.

This is where knowledge-building curricula matter. When students spend years building vocabulary, background knowledge, and coherent understanding of the world, they actually have something meaningful to say.

The teacher’s email reminded me of this. Her students were not staring at blank pages because they had spent the year immersed in rich content: mythology, science, literature, history, and topics worth writing about.

The writing was there.

The knowledge was there.

And suddenly, the writing quality appeared too.

The Students We Forget About

We can no longer afford to leave writing development to chance.

Not for struggling students.

Not for average students.

And not for the students who appear to be doing just fine.

Our kids deserve better.

They deserve writing instruction that is explicit, meaningful, and connected to knowledge and thinking. They deserve more than vague prompts and the hope that good writing will magically emerge over time.

And our brightest students deserve it too.

Because potential alone is not enough.

If your school or district is looking to strengthen writing instruction and rethink how we support students as writers, I would love to help. Supporting schools in building evidence-based literacy systems — including strong writing instruction — is work I care deeply about. Reach out to connect about professional learning, curriculum support, and building stronger systems for writing instruction

When we know better, we teach better.

See you next Sunday!

References

Catts, H. W. (2024). Rethinking how we teach reading comprehension. ASCD.

Shanahan, T. (2020). The science of reading: A handbook. Brookes Publishing.

Hochman, J. C., & Natalie Wexler, N. (2017). The Writing Revolution: A guide to advancing thinking through writing in all subjects and grades. Jossey-Bass.