I must admit I am having a hard time digesting the "Writing Process" book. The book's title, and this chapter in particular, seems to be advocating for process over product, but I admit the authors seem to be taking it a bit overboard. Chapter 5 severely dissuades teachers from introducing students to any strict forms or organizational tools, arguing that this stunts the ideas that can come out while writing the paper. It's not that I don't agree rigid forms can stifle in-depth thinking. Wesley's article about the five-paragraph essay convinced me of that fact, as well as my personal experience working with students one-on-one with their writing.
However, I think a significant amount of time set aside to varied and cognitively demanding pre-writing assignments is the solution to this problem. The purpose of pre-writing is to spend time thinking, to get first thoughts out on paper, to question one's thinking without worries of structure. After looking back on ideas generated during pre-writing, a student can and must devise an organizational strategy to convey those ideas to the best of his or her ability. And how is a student to learn about those organizational strategies without instruction from the teacher? After generating ideas, effective organization is, in my opinion, the most difficult part of writing. Because of this, the two issues should be tackled thoughtfully and separately.
It's not that I don't believe writing is thinking and the process of writing generates new ideas. The issue I have is that some writing products are better than others, and they are better for reasons that we can and should explain to our students. To let them wander willy-nilly using any form they feel like with no discussion of craft is doing them a disservice as writing teachers. I agree that learning the process is more important than the finished product, but I also believe that students should learn the process that will lead them to the best possible product.
Resource Link of the Week: I have not tried this resource out myself yet, but my cooperating teacher alerted me to its existence. Apparently his students discovered some version of this last year while writing their research papers. I'm posting it here because I'd like to have you all evaluate it--try it, let me know if it works, and let me know if you think this "fill in the box" approach would help or hinder "writing to learn."
http://www.atech.org/faculty/burke/writing/thesisoutlinegenerator.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I took a quick look at the thesis generator. It's kind of quirky, and in fact, it creates an outline for a five-paragraph essay! Basically it asks you to plug in about three scenes and explain their significances, plus what you think the author's "message or point" is (AKA, thesis statement). It's not really sophisticated software - it just reorganizes your information for you. However, it does make sure students have at least three arguments to go with their thesis.
ReplyDeleteWith this whole "process" and "product" thing, I'm thinking more and more that it'd be nice to do one multigenre paper that requires research and one expository paper that, well, requires research. The two complement each-other in their respective focuses on process and product. The pragmatic voice in me is happy that kids learn to make a mature, polished product (well, two actually), and the expressive voice is happy that kids can explore a topic of their choosing in a form or forms of their choosing.
One of my high school teachers had a similar "thesis and outline" generator, but it was in the form of a 3 page worksheet that everyone hated filling out. Maybe something like the online generator would engage students more!
ReplyDeleteI'm on the other side of the fence on organizational tools when it comes to writing. When I was in high school I usually wrote the paper and then wrote the outline and notecards after my finished product was done. While I get the theory behind notecards and outlines, forcing them upon students doesn't seem like a good way to go to me.
I agree with the comment about the "Writing Process" text. I felt like they were talking about all these other types of less structured (but still structured) essays and writing styles. It didn't seem like they offered any suggestions for student creativity other than shying away from the FPE. The pre-writing activities, like looping, were excellent ideas but I questioned their effectiveness in an urban high school classroom; maybe I'm just too focused on how I'm supposed to engage my Reg 12 students to think about other kids...guess that makes me a little selfish:)
ReplyDelete"And how is a student to learn about those organizational strategies without instruction from the teacher?" I asked myself this same question as I was reading. I know that when I was a beginning writer the FPE is something that I loved doing _because_ it was so structured and a student knew what was to be expected. That basic structure is something I still use today(very loosely of course) when writing a research paper or analytical essay. I agree that we have to teach the techniques and points of a clear, efficient essay like topic sentence, thesis, supporting details, attention getter and a closer. I feel like our task now is _how_ to do it without boring our students!
A new Emily Blog! I found it following yellowdart's trail from one of your other blogs through his comment.
ReplyDeleteMarley is still dead...