Passion in a subject can strike students at any time. Be it science, math, or history, students can find themselves enamored with their class of choice. However, writing can lose its luster early on with students as it is usually associated with busy work. This loss of interest in writing is what Mystery Writing is trying to fix.
Here we speak with Ryan Brusco, Senior Director of Strategy at Discovery Education, about why writing is so important and how a system such as Mystery Writing can help students find more fulfillment in their writing.
Why Writing Programs Are Necessary
From writing your name to completing your first book report, putting pen to paper has been a fundamental way to flesh out ideas, create stories, and communicate universally. But why would writing become such a focus for a dedicated curriculum?
“Most of the folks on our team are former educators,” says Brusco. “We want to make sure that whatever we create is by teachers, for teachers. When we think about what edtech should be, we want to make sure that it saves teachers time and engages students with ‘wow’ content. Those are the two pillars we focus on when we build out a Mystery product.”
But what is the main issue that students face when it comes to writing?
“Confidence,” says Brusco. “We want our students to be confident writers. We want to help them get over the fear of the blank page. We’ve talked with teachers over the last four years. Teachers brought up the fact that they will give a writing assignment, students will sit down to write, teachers will circulate the room, and 30 minutes later they will get to a student who hasn’t written anything. Our goal is to help students develop confidence in their writing.”
How Mystery Writing Develops Confidence in Students and Efficiency in Teachers
It’s true that a blank page can be a daunting task to fill, especially for a student. Pressure to write the right thing can be overwhelming, and this is doubly so when a grade is on the line. So how can a curriculum empower students to overcome the fear that comes with writing in order to become their best selves?
“We started out by making 45-minute lessons at the sentence level that students can do in a short period of time,” says Brusco. “Then we have genre units that are separate from the 45-minute essential skills lessons.”
When asking teachers about what they would like to have in a writing curriculum, the sentiment revolved around how writing was being taught. Most teachers told Brusco that they taught writing in a gradual way, focusing on one particular genre and ending in an overall final project.
In order to help serve teachers while helping students better understand their writing process, practice lessons were also created to parallel the main lesson. This allows students to continuously work on their writing skills without having to go over the same lessons that they have already completed. The beauty of this method is that lessons are set up to be familiar to complete while offering different subject matter to keep writing interesting.
Similar lessons also help teachers who want to keep their curriculums uniform. Simply being able to log into the Mystery Writing service and begin a lesson in minutes allows teachers the ability to use their time more efficiently for other tasks. Many teachers look for ways to help save time during the school day due to the sheer amount of tasks they have to complete. As this service was made using the input of teachers testing it, it was designed with giving teachers back their time in mind.
Mystery Writing was made to help teachers get their students to a more solid understanding of their writing process by demystifying the blank page, as Brusco calls it. With this, we create a future of confident communicators ready to let their voices be heard, even through writing.
