They write essays on a regular basis.

(*Facepalm*) the issue is, the ACT’s writing section is different enough through the writing normally done at school that I see lots of students underperform in a fashion that is totally preventable. Typically “good” writers are receiving scores of 6 or 8 (away from 12), if they should be getting decidedly more competitive numbers.

Although it’s certainly not an 11th grade English teacher’s “job” to do ACT/SAT prep or even to “teach write my paper to your test”, there’s a problematic reality that when teachers aren’t getting involved a little, most students won’t understand this knowledge and/or skills anywhere else. And that, my teacher friend, is worrisome.

An english teacher can take to help juniors be more ready so what’s going on, and what are the easiest steps?

Here you will find the biggest culprits:

1. The timing is more intense than school. It’s 30 minutes total, including reading the prompt while the entire brainstorm, draft, and proofread process. That task can be daunting if students get writer’s block, have test anxiety, hardly understand the prompt in the heat of the brief moment, or struggle to wrestle their ideas into submission.

In the event the students haven’t done timed writing in some time, are accustomed to 45 minutes, or are not effective in it, then they’ll need help to cope. Check out my timed writing unit to help students get practice completing a cohesive draft in a shorter time.

2. Students don’t know the (new) rubric.When the ACT changed the writing test in 2016, the prompt style AND the rubric both changed. The assessment is no longer just a typical 5-paragraph (or so) opinion essay. Students are meant to also:

• acknowledge, support, or refute other viewpoints
• provide some mix of context, implications, significance, etc.
• recognize flaws in logic or assumptions produced in a viewpoint, utilizing it for their advantage if necessary
• (still write a cohesive essay with a thesis and a variety of evidence, as before)

all in 30 minutes or less. English teachers can help by at the least going over the rubric in class, or even assigning an essay that is ACT-style gets assessed as part of the class.

3. The linguistic bar is high. As well as the content characteristics described in #2, students are supposed to have decent grammar, varied sentence structures for good flow, transitions within and between paragraphs, and extremely great fiction or synonyms.

English teachers: in the event your writing rubrics or style that is gradingn’t typically address these, consider bringing it up in class, assessing for these characteristics from the next essay, or reading over a mentor text that DOES meet this bar (see #4).

4. They have to see examples. I strongly recommend that students head to this link to not merely read a sample 6/6 essay, but compare it to a 4 or 5 essay to note its differences. When I teach my ACT writing lessons, i actually do a compare/contrast activity as a result. The stakes are high enough that it is worth going over a mentor text to see what the expectations are and debunk the idea that you will never complete.

The Bottom Line i have been tutoring the ACT long enough to acknowledge the differences between the old and new versions, as well as without “teaching to your test”, there are easy steps educators may take to greatly help juniors stay at or over the national average and achieve their college dreams. Using even a few of these tips will help students be a tad bit more ready on test day, and more grateful which they had you as an instructor.