Authentic writing, or “real” writing, involves cultivating a piece of real-world writing to a specific audience for an intended purpose. Some examples of real-world writing are Tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, movie reviews, etc. These are instances of real writing that real students engage with outside of the classroom. Even adult professionals do not adhere to Five-Paragraph essays in their career writing. This can be particularly helpful for emergent bilingual students as well. By engaging emergent bilingual students in meaningful writing that draws upon their individual literacy practices – their native language proficiency, how they express themselves best, and the background knowledge and experiences they bring into the classroom – students can have a much more enriching and rewarding academic and writing competency.
Authentic writing focuses on engaging students with real-world writing in purposeful ways. Authentic writing can include writing book or movie reviews or letters to the editor, even How-To guides. Giving students a real purpose and a real audience to write to places a value on the writing. A case-study done by Rochelle Verstaendig on one of her emergent bilingual students revealed, “he loved participating in class discussions and telling stories about his former home life on a family farm in his native country.” Verstaendig shares how his classmates were fascinated by his stories, and she asked him to write about his experience, so that it could be shared with students outside the class. She explains how his typical dislike of writing was replaced by eagerness, and “slowly, his writing began to improve.” By giving him the opportunity to place a purpose and audience to the writing he was doing, Verstaendig created an avenue for him to improve his writing in a meaningful and intrinsically motivating way. Authentic writing opened the door for a more engaging writing process and writing practice that emergent bilinguals need to develop their literacy skills; yet, can be effective tool in the writing instruction of all students, especially in such a digitized, media-saturated world where social media platforms and online interaction preoccupy their literacy practices.
Writers Who Care Blog
For more on Authentic Writing, see:
Dean, Deborah. “Going Public: Letters to the World” Voices from the Middle 8.1 (Sept 2000) 42-47.
Ken and Leila’s Chapter 3, “Writing in the Real World: Authentic Writing Assignments.” From Continuing the Journey 2: Becoming a Better Teacher of Authentic Writing. Urbana, IL: NCTE. Forthcoming.
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