Well, I can get on a soapbox about writing instruction. Hearing others make excuses about why students can’t write when we haven’t taught them really bothers me. As I say often, teaching students to write is hard work, but it CAN be done.
Research is available about what works and what doesn’t. Best practices are available. A process for teaching writing is available. There is even a process on monitoring struggling students (RTI) that is available. We know what to do. We need to rethink schools, I believe, to envision a world where we are educating all our students where all leave school literate and knowledgeable. We are not there yet.