“I’m not a good writer.”
We’ve heard it. Usually right after assigning a task. For students, the gap between understanding an idea and writing it down feels like climbing a wall without ropes. Too often, schools treat writing as the grand finale of a unit, a high-pressure reveal that leaves kids scrambling for a roadmap that doesn’t exist.
Teachers know the game has changed. We can’t just assign essays anymore. We have to teach the act itself.
Dr. Barrie Olson of Curriculum Associates argues we need a hard pivot. Drawing from her time as a professor and curriculum designer, she explains why kids stall out on the page. And why “backward design” might be the only thing saving the day.
The Myth of the Blank Page
EdSurge : We’ve obsessed over explicit reading instruction for a decade. Is catching up to that pace for writing? What does actual good teaching look like here?
Olson : The data isn’t hiding. Students improve when instruction is explicit. Structured. Built on actual knowledge. It isn’t about giving them more essays. It is about teaching the craft.
We have to define the finish line first. That brings focus. Each lesson in a unit must move them closer to that specific output. Incremental steps. No leaps.
What keeps students stuck? Why does the blank page win?
It is the cognitive load. Writing demands everything at once. Idea generation. Organization. Evidence selection. Sentence structure. Grammar checks. All while your brain is supposed to be creative? No wonder people freeze.
Olson says many struggles trace back to foundational gaps. They haven’t practiced organizing thoughts. They can’t talk through an idea, which makes putting it on paper exponentially harder.
“Writing is one of the most demanding things a student does.” — Dr. Barrie Olson
So where do teachers start? What’s the one lever that pulls the whole system forward?
Designing Backward
Backward design.
That’s the move. Stop asking what the teacher will do. Start asking what the student must produce. A literary analysis? An argument based on evidence? An explanatory essay? Once that endpoint is locked, the path becomes clear. Lessons build the skills required to hit that target. Step by step.
But prompts matter too. How do you craft one that actually helps?
EdSurge : What makes a prompt work?
Olson : Quality writing stems from quality prompts. Simple as that. Do they have what they need to succeed?
Some folks shy away from complexity. They think short is easy. They’re wrong. Vague prompts raise the cognitive load because kids have to guess.
A clear prompt feels harder, sure. But it is transparent. It aligns with direct teaching. A good prompt forces students back into the text. To quote. To analyze. It strengthens reading and writing at the same time.
Scaffolding Without Lowering the Bar
Even with great prompts, it feels heavy. How do you support them without dumbing it down?
Chunking complexity.
Start earlier. Don’t wait until essay day. The work begins on day one of the unit. The scaffolding isn’t a lower standard. It is a staircase to the rigorous goal.
This progression tells students something vital. Learning isn’t a magic trick. It involves gathering info, layering it on existing knowledge, and then communicating the result.
“The key is not lowering the bar.”
Reading and writing are locked in a loop. When kids dissect a text’s structure or an author’s argument, they are building a blueprint. Using them together makes literacy instruction efficient. Writing becomes a thinking tool.
Better reading fuels better writing. Better writing deepens comprehension.
Olson wants classrooms loud. She wants kids excited enough about what they’re learning to burst the seams. Writing lets them capture that energy. It leaves a record of their thoughts.
That record matters. Whether we like to admit it or not.
