Keep the Low-Stakes Writing Flowing

When we write, we formulate our thoughts on new concepts, ideas, and the world around us—which is one reason students should be writing every day, and in every subject. Low-pressure writing tasks are wonderful for allowing students space to formulate their thoughts and ideas.

Teachers often use an abundance of low-stakes writing assignments in the first few weeks of school to get students comfortable and to learn about who they are as students, and as people. But a few months into the school year, particularly in middle school and high school classrooms, we tend to cut down on those journal jots or quick writes. The larger writing assignments—those processed, written, revised over time, and graded—take front and center. But I’d like to argue that this instructional decision can hinder our student writers.

Low-Stakes Writing Can Yield High-Level Thinking

What is meant by low stakes here is that this writing is typically not graded and is around a half page to a page. This kind of task can be done in just a single sitting, or a couple of days. But it’s important to note that low-stakes writing can be cognitively demanding. That journal jot or quick write is not to be dismissed as inconsequential or frivolous—students are often required to infer, critique, argue, make connections, or analyze.

The following are a few worthwhile prompts I’ve picked up in classrooms of different grade levels and academic subjects.

The Benefits of Low-Stakes Writing

Low-pressure writing assignments, given frequently and routinely, matter just as much as that assigned argumentative essay or social science research paper.

Additionally, a low-stakes writing assignment can serve as a powerful entry point for a lesson, learning segment, or unit of study. Students write and share with a partner, and then a whole class discussion follows. Going to start reading Romeo and Juliet in that ninth-grade language arts class? How about first asking your students to fire write for three straight minutes about the question: What is love?

Low-Stakes Writing Is a Gateway for Sharing High-Stakes Writing

A blunder we make as teachers is having our students write a processed paper over many days or even weeks in isolation and then expecting them to turn it over to peers for feedback or to present it in front of class. This can be stressful for a struggling writer or introverted student.

Having your students routinely share their lower-stakes, single-sitting writing with a partner or small group helps them gain confidence for sharing higher-stakes writing—those reports, speeches, and essays—later.

Low-Stakes Writing Is Required

Low-stakes writing often gets low priority in the classroom because we feel we don’t have enough time for it or deem it unimportant—especially in upper primary and secondary grades. Add to that list fear: Teachers are sometimes concerned that their use of smaller writing assignments will be judged by colleagues or called out by an administrator as not being a rigorous enough writing regime.

But let’s look to the Common Core State Standards, specifically writing anchor standard 10 (which applies to grades 3–12): “Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.”

In sum, the inclusion of writing over shorter time frames in the standard validates and supports those journal jots, fire writes, quick writes—however you and your students refer to your low-pressure classroom writing tasks.