In this episode of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Susan Lambert is joined by Judith Hochman, Ed.D., co-author of “The Writing Revolution.” Their conversation begins as Dr. Hochman recalls the early days of writing instruction and research, then delves into the connection between better writing and better reading. Dr. Hochman touches upon topics such as writing comprehension, her experience implementing writing instruction as a classroom teacher and as an administrator, and how the writing revolution came to be. She also answers a question from our listener mailbag, providing a detailed overview of the scope and sequence for transitioning student writing from sentence composition to paragraphs to whole texts.

Show notes:

• Resources
  • Read: The Writing Revolution 2.0: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades 
  • Website: The Writing Revolution
  • Read: “The Writing Revolution” in The Atlantic 
• Join our community Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofreading
• Connect with Susan Lambert: www.linkedin.com/in/susan-lambert-b1512761/

Quotes:

“I had an epiphany that our students really had to learn writing as a second language.” —Judith Hochman

“Having students write a lot is not teaching writing. It's just like if you put a lot of books in a classroom, students don't magically begin to read.” —Judith Hochman

“This is not learned by osmosis, and it's not learned by vague feedback like, ‘Make it better,’ or, ‘Add more details.’ You've got to be very granular. This is not a naturally occurring skill in human development for any of us.” —Judith Hochman

Episode timestamps*
03:00 Introduction: Who is Judith Hochman?
06:00 Time as an administrator
09:00 Judith’s early days of teaching writing
11:00 Classroom activities for teaching students to write
12:00 Atlantic article and NYC high school case
15:00 The writing revolution
16:00 How kids learn to write based on the research
20:00 Listener mailbag question
21:00 Writing and comprehension
27:00 Transitioning from writing sentences to writing paragraphs
34:00 Final thoughts
*Timestamps are approximate