Peristent Issues Summary

     A persistent curriculum issue/problem in the district I work for is inconsistent writing workshop/instructional times.  When looking at different teacher's schedules I found as much as 35 hours difference (a year) of instructional time between Teacher A and Teacher B.  On average, it seems as though teacher's have writing workshop between 1.5 and 2 hours a week.  Knowing how heavy the CCSS places on writing as a process and for responding, I thought writing would be a place to start thinking about.
     Writing to Read, published in 2010, clearly articulates the need for consistent writing times and explicit instruction in the area of writing because research has shown that it improves students' reading skills.  The CCSS also advocate for students to be writing on a routine basis for extended amounts of time.  Lucy Calkins and many of her colleagues to include Fountas and Pinnell say that writing instruction should occur daily for about 60 minutes with 45 of that for students to independent write on self-selected topics.  So clearly, the research tells us that writing time each day is important for students.
     I plan on sitting with the administrator for which I work to examine more teachers' schedules to look at not only current writing times, but also figure out in our busy and short day how to fit more consistent writing times in.  Hopefully bringing about an awareness of our inconsistencies if the first step to help solve the problem.  We can't fix what we don't realize is happening!