Writing Control

One of the most empowering things we can do for students is to allow them to make decisions about the course of their own learning. It instills a sense of ownership, increases engagement, and amplifies learning.
 

We know this.

Then why has so much of writing instruction been about removing decisions from students? We've told them in a variety of ways that they are incapable of making sound and effective decisions about their own writing, and then we chastise them for writing poorly and for not understanding the huge implications in their future academic and actual careers for not being able to write effectively.

Is there a solution to this? Yes, and it is something we're already experts at. When we teach kids to ride a bike, drive a car, dance, play an instrument, or dribble a basketball we're trying, ultimately, to teach them to control what they're doing. So, let's teach them to control what they're doing on the written page.

What "Real" Writers Do

If you look at what writers do, there are three areas they have to control if they're going to effectively communicate their ideas to their readers.

Whether it's a novel, a play, a poem, a scholarly article, an email, an essay, a letter, or a blog, these three areas need to be effectively controlled: Ideas. Structure. Style.
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First and foremost, is control of ideas. It has to be, for without an idea, there is no reason to write. And this is how students naturally come to writing because they have ideas bursting forth. They are enthusiastic writers of fantastic things, and we reward them for this. But too soon, we alter their conceptions of their approach to writing by proposing to them that they need to consider structure first and foremost.

As a classic example, consider how we teach them to write essays (three- or five-paragraph). We begin by handing them an outline of the structure and ask them to fill it in section by section--or even line-by-line. The hollow equivalent of a paint-by-numbers picture that looks pretty from a distance, but that possesses no originality or evidence of transferable skill.

Structure is important, but only in service to an idea worth writing about.

All three areas are vitally, vitally important. Without an effective structure, meaning begins to unravel. Without style, the writing will be lifeless and unread. But without an idea, there is no impetus to write.

But they have to earn a grade, isn't that impetus enough? Yes, for some. And these few will write dutifully, and without any real commitment--and most significantly, without any sense of control or authority.

Author-ity

The word "author" has its roots in the word "authority." In all writing endeavors, we must instill this in our students. We must allow them to make decisions about their writing so that they can begin to assert themselves, begin to sense and develop a sense of control over their writing.

So they can become authorities and authors.

Thanks for reading,
Steve

Upcoming articles will detail the pedagogical implications for the three areas of writing control, beginning (of course!) with Control of Ideas.

Please leave a comment or ask a question. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This Reminds Me of An Old Truck I Used To Have...

[Author's Note: This post was originally written for our school's technology newsletter, where as a technology pilot teacher, I was asked to comment on our very rocky shift to one-to-one devices that were more like one-and-done (as in one use and defective and unusable) devices. The most unfortunate thing is that our district administration and IT department had pursued every implementation aspect so professionally and thoughtfully, but this has been somewhat forgotten due to the horrible devices we received.]

I once had an old pickup that seemed to need something on it repaired every month. The thing used to eat fuel pumps like crazy, and for some reason kept throwing U-joints. During college, I used to drive from Cascade Park to downtown Portland where I was a graveyard shift guard at the Portland Building. That old truck of mine broke down on I-205 and I-84 more times than I’d like to remember. And since my shift started at 11pm, it was always dark--and usually raining--as I started walking the rest of the way. It got so bad that my dad bought me a AAA membership one year for Christmas. And while I might’ve considered pushing that truck off the 205 bridge more than once, I knew that with a little bit of wrenching I’d be back on the road (for at least a few weeks, anyway).

So much of our transition to these new devices felt like my college days, where I didn’t know if the old thing would start half the time. There was always that anxious few seconds where I inserted the key, started cranking the engine and feathering the gas pedal just so, hoping to hear those cylinders come to life. From, one period to another, we never knew if our new devices were going to lock up, glitch out, not connect to the wifi, start initiating some function test that would last half the period, randomly start updating, etc., etc.

Many times when the devices were malfunctioning, students would say, “Can’t we just use paper and pen?” I had to remind them that it was our job to get in and get our hands dirty, to run these things down the highway a bit and see what they were capable of doing--or of not doing--to try things out, to run into problems and figure out how to deal with them so other people didn’t have to. While there may be a few students who still cringe at the word “device,” by and large, the students were so flexible and understanding of their role in this early roll-out phase.

Though they might’ve been more reliable choices, I didn’t trade in my truck for a horse, or a sweet 1970s moped (you know, the kind with pedals like my crazy aunt had!). And while paper and pencil are certainly reliable technologies, they’re technologies that are falling into disuse in the world outside our schools. No matter how frustrated I got with that truck, and no matter how frustrated we got with the devices, it makes no sense to retreat to antiquated technologies.

I eventually traded up and got a new(er) truck, and it too had a few mechanical problems over the years. There is no perfect technological device (except the 1970s moped!), so we will keep facing problems, need tech support, get frustrated. But the alternative--no devices at all--would put us back to the decade before the typewriter was invented. And they didn’t have Starbucks back then, so that would be totally unacceptable.

Steve