Teaching writing during the COVID‑19 pandemic in the 2021–2022 school year

Abstract

This study examined if in-class, online, and hybrid (in-class and on-line) instruction provided to middle and high school students in the U.S. differed during the third school year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provided a description of how writing was taught to secondary students. Thirty-eight middle and high school teachers (32 female, 6 male), who mostly taught languages arts (84%), were asked to complete a survey each day during the 2020/2021 school year for a single class that best represented how they taught writing. The survey included questions about mode of instruction (in-class at school, online, and hybrid), whether writing or writing instruction was provided that day, and if so, whether 11 specific writing activities occurred. Teachers completed 2676 surveys, and their responses indicated there was only one statistically detectable difference between in-class, online, and hybrid lessons in terms of the proportion of lessons that included each of the targeted writing activities or the time devoted to them. The only difference involved creating digital written products, which occurred more often in hybrid lessons than at school in-class lessons, but not more often in online lessons One significant finding across all reported lessons was that teachers devoted little time to teaching writing. Writing and writing instruction did not occur in close to one-third of all lessons; teachers typically included only one writing activity in a lesson; and an average of just 19 min a lesson was devoted to the targeted writing activities.