Misconceptions

The misconception in the English classroom is that longer essays get higher scores. This is reinforced by tools like Utah Compose. However, teachers actually value concise and well-written essays. Students often repeat the same information in different ways to meet word requirements, even when it's not necessary. It's important to understand that longer doesn't always mean better. Being clear and concise is more important and leads to accurate information. Middle schoolers may not care about school, but by emphasizing accuracy and media literacy, they can find reliable sources. Hi, y'all. Welcome back to Misconceptions in the English Classroom. Today, we'll be talking about one of the biggest misconceptions in the English classroom, one I believed while I was in middle school, which is the longer the response, the better the answer, which means a higher score. Misconception is especially taken to heart when it comes to writing in English classes, especially essays. Teachers often set a minimum number of words or paragraphs for students, but urge them to write more. This is also encouraged by common tools used in Utah middle school writing classrooms, Utah Compose, is especially one of them. This program gives higher scores for larger essays, even if they may not be as well-written. In fact, students have reported adding words such as vegetarian to their essay simply because it boosted their score. According to the article, Teaching Excellence in Educational Innovation published by Carnegie Mellon University, the average high school essay is five paragraphs. Teachers expect these paragraphs to be well-written and get to the point. However, getting to the point often means being concise. Teachers also often have students write multiple rough drafts when revising these rough drafts. They expect students to cut out unneeded parts of their essays. Students still leave them in, however, because of the misconception that a longer essay means a higher score, as well as the thought of trying to reach the number of words that are required for. Students are going to repeat the same thing six ways in order to achieve that, despite the fact that their point could have been across in a mere six words, so much smaller. One of my favorite examples of a six-word text that gets its point across was written by Ernest Hemingway after he was challenged to write a story in six words. The story goes, for sale, baby shoes, never worn. The story does a great job expressing the baby diet. It's concise, it lets you know what it's getting across, what happened automatically, and what's happening, the consequences. It's a great story that gets it across in six words, which many students can get their point across if it comes clear and concise. However, this is not the case. Upon asking some of my sixth graders in my clinical classes, they confessed that in order to make their essays longer, they simply repeated the same thing in a different way, which means they have all this extra information in there that they didn't need because it doesn't help their point. They simply repeated the same thing two or three times, just in a different way. Instead of saying, hey, one time they said hello the next, it's the same meaning just said in a different way. Students do this in order to reach those paragraphs that are expected by the teacher, even if they don't need them. Even if this point was clear and concise the first time, which is why we need to be thinking about that the longer the essay doesn't necessarily mean the higher the score, especially because trying to make it longer can lead to more confusion, can lead to more grammar mistakes, can lead to less analysts. That actually makes sense. That's why it's important for us to keep in mind that the longer the essay doesn't mean the higher the score. You can be clear and concise and achieve just as high of a score. Being clear and concise also means that the information that the students are getting from the internet and their own research is accurate. Since students want to make their point and be as accurate as possible, they're going to be looking for that correct information instead of just grabbing any information that they find. That's so important for them, especially because at this point in their lives, they don't really care about school nearly as much as a college student would or somebody trying to get into college. Middle schoolers, 100% right now, they don't want to be in school. They just want to go hang out with their friends. They view school as a social hour almost. But by having things clear and concise for them and being like, hey, you don't need this much information. It doesn't need to be that long. It just needs to be accurate. Students are more likely to find the accurate information and put that in there instead of just adding any information that they find whatsoever, which is why it's so important, especially when it comes to media literacy and understanding the works that they can find and what websites are considered to be trustworthy versus ones like Wikipedia, which might not be the safest to find answers for, especially if you're just taking it at face value. Once again, thank you for joining us for Misconceptions in the Classroom. I hope you all have a good night.