The Future of Writing Instruction: Dr. Steve Graham on AI and the Science of Teaching Writing
by Roel Concepcion
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the classroom and what it means to be a teacher. It's both an exciting and unsettling shift in education — offering new possibilities for reaching students while raising concerns about efficacy and the human element of teaching.
To help educators navigate this moment, the Writing Pathway recently hosted a special webinar featuring Dr. Steve Graham, a Warner Professor in the Division of Leadership and Innovation at Teachers College and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame. Drawing from his 42 years of experience studying writing development and his recent work with digital learning tools, Dr. Graham shared valuable insights on how to balance technological innovation with proven teaching practices.
The Writing Challenge in Today's Classrooms
Dr. Graham highlighted a concerning trend that predates the AI revolution: students aren't writing enough, especially in secondary education:
"In national surveys that we've noticed in the US, but also outside the US, students are not writing very often at the secondary level," Dr. Graham said. Even more troubling, in surveys of randomly selected teachers across the US, Dr. Graham found that only about one-third of teachers report having an organized approach to teaching writing — most are left to figure it out on their own. So when it comes to AI and this longstanding issue of writing in classrooms, the question becomes:
How can we use new technology to address these challenges rather than make them worse?
Introducing the Writing Pathway: A Free, AI-Enhanced Solution
The Writing Pathway tool emerges as a thoughtful answer to that question. This free scope and sequence for teaching writing (grades 3-12) uniquely integrates AI technology to help teachers create customized writing practice in any content area, while keeping educators firmly in control of the learning process. The platform is organized into five key categories:
Sentence-level skills
Grammar
Informational writing
Persuasive and argumentative writing
Narrative writing
Unlike many AI tools that can feel like they're taking over, the Writing Pathway works behind the scenes, helping you create practice materials instantly — but you decide what makes it to your students. Teachers who've used the platform are seeing impressive results: according to Sherry Lewkowicz, Senior Director of Writing Pathways Innovation Lab, their recent study showed students in Writing Pathway classrooms improved by 2.4 points on a 24-point scale, while control classrooms declined by 0.3 points — representing 9.3 times more growth in the Writing Pathway classrooms.
AI in Writing Education: A Balanced Perspective
Dr. Graham offered a nuanced view of AI's role in writing instruction. Rather than seeing AI as a threat, he emphasized its potential as a teaching tool. He shared an example of a teacher using AI to generate writing samples with specific miscues for class discussion, making it easier to address common writing challenges without singling out individual students.
However, Dr. Graham stressed an important distinction: "Writing is a thinking tool." He explained that when we write, we:
Make decisions about what's important
Organize information
Integrate existing knowledge with new information
Achieve greater clarity through sentence crafting
Develop new insights
These cognitive benefits are lost if we simply let AI do the writing for us. The goal, therefore, is to use AI to enhance instruction while preserving the valuable thinking processes that make writing such a powerful learning tool.
The Science of Teaching Writing
While the "science of reading" has gained significant attention, Dr. Graham offered a broader perspective on the science of writing instruction. Rather than focusing solely on specific procedures, he emphasized understanding:
How writing operates within different contexts and communities
The knowledge required for effective writing
The cognitive operations involved
Motivational aspects of writing
Writing development over time
Looking Forward: Research-Proven Results
According to Sherry, the platform's success is based on consistent research with over 50 teachers and 1,000 students across the country in grades 7 through 10. The strongest results appeared in middle school grades, where the research team saw the greatest impact and fidelity in implementation. These findings suggest that when teachers have the right tools and support, they can significantly improve student writing outcomes.
Getting Started
Educators interested in exploring the Writing Pathway can create a free account on its website. The platform offers comprehensive support, including getting started webinars and ongoing professional development resources.
The Writing Pathway shows us that we don't have to choose between AI and good teaching — we can have both. By combining Dr. Graham's deep understanding of how students learn to write with technology that supports teachers (not replaces them), the platform is helping teachers do what they do best: teach writing effectively. It's proof that when we use technology thoughtfully, we can make real progress in helping students become better writers.
