How to Teach Writing: What Happens When a School Finally Figures It Out

How Jones-Gordon School Transformed Writing Instruction

Many schools are working on improving writing in their buildings. But some decide it matters too much to leave to chance and make a deliberate change in how they teach it. Jones-Gordon School in Scottsdale, Arizona, is one of those schools.

Serving students in grades 1–12, many of whom have dyslexia or related language-based learning differences, Jones-Gordon was built on a clear belief: students should not be held to lower expectations. Instead, they should be given better tools.

That belief didn’t stay theoretical. It shaped decisions about instruction, professional learning, and what teachers were expected to do every day in their classrooms.

When I sat down with founder Dana Herzberg, Lower School Director Jennifer Roscoe, and their team, one thing became clear very quickly: this wasn’t a story about trying something new. It was a story about committing to a way of teaching writing, staying with it long enough to see it work, and making it part of their DNA.

Because when students struggle with writing, especially those with learning differences, the problem is often not effort. It is not intelligence. It is not motivation.

It is the instruction.

And what Jones-Gordon shows is what happens when a school decides to take that seriously. (See the entire webinar here: Jones-Gordon School Success)

The Problem Every Teacher Knows—But Few Can Solve

If you’ve been in a classroom long enough, you’ve felt this tension. Students are asked to write constantly. But many struggle to organize their thoughts, develop ideas, or even get started. Teachers assign writing but often feel unsure how to teach it explicitly.

That was the reality at Jones-Gordon.

Even experienced teachers, teachers who cared deeply about literacy, found themselves facing the same challenge:

What Students Needed

• Students needed structure
• Students needed repetition
• Students needed clear guidance

But teachers didn’t always have a system to deliver that. And when your student population includes learners with dyslexia, dysgraphia, or other language-based challenges, that gap becomes even more visible.

The issue wasn’t effort. It was the absence of a clear instructional pathway.

“Teachers were saying, ‘I don’t know how to teach writing. I need help.’ And they were right. We needed a better way to show students how writing actually works.”

Why This Work Became Personal

For the founder and head of school, Dana Herzberg, this wasn’t just a professional problem. It was personal. She built Jones-Gordon after years of working with students who struggled and after experiencing those struggles herself. She knew what it felt like to sit in a classroom without the tools needed to succeed.

So, when she encountered Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) years earlier, she saw something different.

Not only a way to teach writing but a way to teach thinking.

And when the school reached a point where writing skills needed to improve, she knew exactly where to turn.

“I didn’t want to lower expectations. I wanted to give students the tools to reach them. That’s what this work has always been about.”

What SRSD Did (And Why It Works)

At some point in every school, the same question comes up: What does it actually look like to teach writing in a way that works?

Not assign it. Not hope students figure it out. But truly teach it.

What Dana recognized, and what Jennifer helped bring to life, is that Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) answers that question in a very specific way.

SRSD is not a curriculum you hand to teachers. It is a framework for making the thinking behind writing visible. It shows students how to approach a writing task step by step: how to plan, organize ideas, write, and reflect on their work. Just as importantly, it shows teachers how to model that thinking out loud so students can see what skilled writing actually looks like in real time.

Most writing programs address one side of that equation. SRSD addresses both.

Because writing is not just about getting words on a page. It requires students to manage multiple processes at once, generating ideas, organizing them, choosing language, and monitoring their progress. Without clear instruction, that cognitive load becomes overwhelming, especially for students with language-based learning differences.

SRSD addresses that directly.

What Teachers Do

• Teachers explicitly model how to think through writing
• They guide students through structured strategies like POW and TREE
• They build in repetition, feedback, and gradual independence
• They teach students how to regulate their own thinking

Jennifer described this shift clearly. The power of the work wasn’t in a single strategy or mnemonic. It was in how those tools were taught through modeling, language, and consistent practice over time.

When that happens, writing stops being something students are expected to figure out.

It becomes something they know how to do.

“SRSD gave us a way to show students how writing works, not just what to produce, but how to think through the process.”

What Changed When Instruction Became Explicit

The shift at Jones-Gordon did not come from a new curriculum or a set of worksheets. It came from a decision, led by Dana and carried out by instructional leaders like Jennifer, to show teachers exactly how writing works, and then give them a consistent way to teach it.

Teachers were not just introduced to strategies. They were shown, step by step, how writing works and how to make that thinking visible to students. Jennifer described this clearly: the impact didn’t come from handing teachers a mnemonic or asking students to follow a formula. It came from modeling, from language, and from staying with the process long enough for students to internalize it.

How Teachers Were Trained

• They saw lessons modeled
• They practiced teaching those lessons
• They received feedback
• They applied strategies in their own classrooms

Because most teachers were never shown how to teach writing step by step. Instead, they were expected to figure out the process on their own. At Jones-Gordon, that changed.

What Students Learned

• How to start
• How to organize ideas
• How to expand and revise
• How to reflect on their writing

And for the first time, writing became something students could do, not just something they were asked to complete.

“The magic isn’t in the mnemonic. It’s in the modeling, the self-talk, the repetition, and the structure that shows students exactly how writing works.”
Jennifer Roscoe, Lower School Director

What Happens When Students Finally Know What to Do

One of the clearest changes showed up in the middle school classrooms. Students arrived already knowing how to write a paragraph.

Students understood:

• Topic sentences
• Supporting reasons
• Elaboration
• Conclusions

Instead of starting from scratch, teachers could focus on improving quality.

Stronger transitions.
Deeper thinking.
More precise language.

That’s a completely different classroom. And it changes everything.

“Instead of teaching them how to write, I can now focus on making their writing stronger. They already know what to do.”

The Shift Teachers Notice First: Self-Talk

Ask any teacher what changed the most, and they don’t start with test scores. They start with confidence. Before this work, students hesitated. They avoided writing. Some shut down before they even began. That pattern is familiar in many classrooms, especially when students don’t have a clear way to approach the task.

After the shift, something different started to happen. Students began asking for help. They took risks. They started to believe they could write. That change didn’t come from motivation alone. It came from giving students a way to think through writing.

“I hear more ‘Can you help me?’ instead of ‘I can’t do this.’ That change alone has been powerful.”

What lies beneath that shift is something less visible but more important: self-talk. One of the most important changes Jennifer described wasn’t something you could see on a worksheet. It was what students began saying to themselves as they worked.

At Jones-Gordon, teachers don’t leave that internal dialogue to chance. They model it. They make it visible. They show students how to work through a task when they’re unsure, make a mistake, or feel stuck. Students are explicitly shown:

• How to start thinking
• How to handle mistakes
• How to revise
• How to persist

Over time, that external modeling becomes internal. And that’s where the real shift happens.

From:
“I can’t do this.”

To:
“I’m stuck, but I know what to try next.”

That’s not just a writing skill. It’s self-regulation. And it changes how students approach every difficult task, not just writing.

“Students used to believe they were incapable. Now they say, ‘I’m struggling—but I can figure this out.’ That’s the difference.”

What Consistency Across Grades Really Does—And Why It Matters

In most schools, writing resets every year. Students walk into a new classroom and encounter a different approach, different expectations, and often a different language for describing writing. Teachers spend valuable time rebuilding skills that should already be in place. That fragmentation creates confusion for students and limits how far instruction can go.

At Jones-Gordon, that pattern was intentionally broken. Instead of treating writing as a series of disconnected experiences, they built a coherent, schoolwide approach to writing instruction. From elementary through high school, students experience the same framework, the same language, and the same expectations. Teachers are aligned in how they teach writing, and students encounter familiar structures year after year.

What they built is simple, but powerful:

• Elementary, middle, and high school use the same framework
• Teachers share common language
• Students encounter familiar structures year after year

This creates something rare in writing instruction: predictability. Students are not starting over each year. They know how to begin. They recognize the structure. They understand what is expected of them. That foundation allows teachers to move beyond basic instruction and focus on strengthening writing quality over time.

“Students move from grade to grade knowing where to begin. That foundation changes everything.”

When Writing Becomes a Schoolwide Effort

In many schools, writing skills are confined to one classroom. Writing is treated as an ELA responsibility, and once students leave that room, expectations often shift or disappear. That creates inconsistency and limits how writing supports thinking across content areas.

At Jones-Gordon, they made a different decision. Writing is not confined to a single subject. It is treated as a shared responsibility across the entire school. Students are expected to write and are supported in writing in every context where thinking and communication matter.

Writing shows up across:

• Science
• Math
• Spanish
• Counseling support

This kind of consistency matters. Students are not asked to adjust to a new system every time they enter a different classroom. They see and hear the same approach everywhere, which reduces cognitive load and allows them to focus on expressing their ideas.

“The power is that students see and hear the same approach everywhere. That consistency builds real understanding.”

When writing becomes a schoolwide effort, it stops being a task and becomes a tool for learning. Students begin to see writing not just as something they do in English class, but as a way to think, organize ideas, and communicate across all subjects.

What Teachers Say about Professional Learning

Professional learning often feels disconnected from the realities of the classroom. Teachers sit through sessions, take in information, and then return to their classrooms without a clear path forward. But at Jones-Gordon, the response to training looked very different.

After the initial training, teachers asked for more feedback. Not because they were required to. Because they saw the impact in their classrooms. They experienced what happens when writing instruction becomes explicit, structured, and consistent—and they wanted to deepen that practice.

That response is telling. When teachers ask for more, it signals that the professional learning is working. It is relevant. It is practical. And it is directly connected to student outcomes.

“We had teachers asking for more. That tells you everything you need to know.”

The Importance of Leadership

At most schools, writing initiatives stall because no one stays with them. At Jones-Gordon, leadership made it a permanent part of how they operate.

Leaders did not treat writing as a short-term initiative or something to revisit later. They made it a core part of how the school operates. That meant setting expectations, investing in teacher learning, and ensuring that all staff, new and experienced, were aligned in how writing is taught.

What leadership did was consistent and intentional:

• Prioritized research-based practices
• Invested in teacher learning
• Stayed committed over time

That consistency sends a clear message to teachers: this work matters, and it is not going away. It creates the conditions for real change, where teachers have the support and clarity needed to implement writing instruction with confidence.

“You can’t hand teachers a book and expect change. This has to be part of what we do every year.”

What Families Notice

Parents may not know instructional frameworks, and they are not sitting in classrooms analyzing how writing is taught. They are not thinking about strategy instruction, modeling, or cognitive load. But they know growth when they see it. And in many ways, their perspective is one of the clearest indicators that something is working.

What families begin to notice is not subtle. It shows up in the writing their children bring home. It shows up in how their children talk about writing. It shows up in the level of independence and confidence they demonstrate when faced with a task that used to feel overwhelming.

They see:

• Clearer writing
• Stronger ideas
• Increased confidence

Assignments that once felt incomplete or disorganized begin to reflect structure and purpose. Students who used to avoid writing or struggle to get started begin to approach it with more clarity. Families often notice that their children can explain their thinking more clearly—not just on paper, but in conversation as well.

Just as importantly, they notice a shift in confidence. Students who once doubted their ability begin to take ownership of their work. They are more willing to try, revise, and improve. That change is hard to miss, especially for families who have watched their children struggle.

“Parents look at the work and say, ‘Is this really my child’s writing? I can’t believe it.’ And they’re proud.”

Why This Matters Right Now

We are teaching writing at a time when technology can generate text instantly. That reality can make it easy to confuse output with understanding. But strong writing has never been about simply producing words. It is about generating ideas, organizing thinking, and communicating clearly. Those are the skills that allow students to express what they know and make sense of complex information and those are the skills that cannot be outsourced.

When students are taught how to write in a clear and structured way, they don’t need to rely on shortcuts. They know how to begin. They know how to move their thinking forward. They know how to communicate with purpose.

“Students don’t need to rely on AI. They know how to start, how to think, and how to write.”

When writing improves, it is not because students try harder. It is not because teachers assign more writing. And it is not because a new curriculum is introduced. Those changes may increase activity, but they do not necessarily improve outcomes.

Writing improves when instruction changes. Explicit writing instruction, showing students what to do, how to do it, and why it works, then giving them time to practice with support and feedback, is what creates that shift. Students engage more consistently. They begin to see themselves as capable writers.

“When you give students a clear way to write, everything changes—how they think, how they work, and how they see themselves.”

Final Thoughts from This Conversation

At Jones-Gordon, this didn’t happen because teachers worked harder or because students suddenly became more motivated. It happened because instruction became visible.

Teachers were given a clear way to show students how writing works, and students were given a clear way to approach the task.

Over time, that consistency changed everything about how teachers teach, how students think, how students’ writing skills develop, and how the writing process shows up across the entire school.

And it raises a simple question for all of us:

If we know how to teach writing in a way that works, why wouldn’t we?

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