Teaching the Writing Processes

The following post is reflective of the last section of Pietro Boscolo's chapter 19, Writing in Primary School found in Charles Bazerman's Handbook of Research on Writing: History, society, school, individual, text.

During the 1980s the process approach gained significance due to the work of Donald Graves (1983) and Donald Murray (1985). When the writing process is viewed through this lens, the process is taught using a recursive stance rather than a linear perspective in which “prewriting and revising” (p. 299) is valued. There are four components to the process approach with the first being the emphasis on small group instruction. Second, students select their own topics on which to write. The third element involves the teacher as listener during conferencing as students share their developing written work. The fourth and final component emphasizes the social aspect associated with sharing the finished creation with one’s peers. This is aligned with Boscolo’s three dimensions and challenges of writing; continuity, complexity, and social activity (p. 293-4).

Boscolo discusses cognitive writing development based on two theoretical perspectives. The first is a neo-Piagetian outlook that indicates student difficulty with processing and organizing information into categories makes the writing process a challenging endeavor. The difference between “knowledge telling” and “knowledge transforming” that differentiates beginning and more experienced writers is the second theoretical stance. In knowledge telling, novice writers share information in an uncomplicated manner for the purpose of fulfilling an assignment. With knowledge transforming, expert writers understand that the knowledge they share is multifaceted and useful when applied to other forms of understanding.

Learning to Write

In my last posting, I discussed Pietro Boscolo’s primary school writing from chapter 19 in Charles Bazerman's text, Handbook of Research on Writing. Boscolo mentioned the three dimensions and challenges for the teaching of writing: Continuity, complexity and social activity (p. 293-4). In this post, I will discuss Boscolo’s take on the concept of emergent literacy, the debate between phonics and whole-language approach and his discussion of Berninger’s studies on early writing (p. 294-8).

Says Boscolo, “Emergent literacy is the name given to the child’s various contacts and relations with printed matter and related activities in kindergarten, and in his or her family life prior to schooling, that are the developmental precursors of formal literacy” (p. 294). In other words, children come to school with “funds of knowledge” (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992) that help to prepare them for the knowledge acquisition that occurs in the classroom. Writing literacy occurs on a continuum beginning with scribbling and invented spelling efforts as a child progresses towards independent writing.

Literacy experts have been debating the phonics versus whole language approach to reading and writing for decades. The conflict stems from different philosophical approaches that entail a focus on skill acquisition for phonics instruction as opposed to a more constructivist stance from the whole language people. More recently, balanced literacy instruction has been embraced by literacy professionals (Rasinski & Padak, 2001).

Berninger et al. (2002) devised a writing study with a group of third graders who had poor “compositional fluency.” Four treatments were used: spelling, composition, spelling and composition, and control. The researcher’s findings were that successful writing occurs with several components including phonics, self-regulation, reflection, and composition practice.

Learning to write begins in the home and continues within the school classroom. As a child learns to construct language in the written form, she or he is gaining control over the useful and powerful medium of language. Teachers must reflect upon currently used effective strategies as they consider new research to enhance existing writing curriculum.

Writing in the Primary School

Pietro Boscolo discusses primary school writing in chapter 19 of Charles Bazerman's text, Handbook of Research on Writing. He frames his discussion with three dimensions and challenges for the teaching of writing: Continuity, complexity and social activity (p. 294-5).

In continuity, students possess an understanding about their own writing that is progressive in nature. The ability to write occurs on a continuum that is constantly expanding and changing. During these changes, student ability to realize what they are doing and why they are doing it becomes known to them. Students understand both the importance and the purpose of the writing process.

With the dimension of complexity comes the “product versus process” debate. The product side of the argument emphasizes the acquisition of a gradually more complex group of writing skills. Emphasis is placed on getting it right with writing being evaluated according to the end result of written text. With an emphasis on process comes the understanding that student learning is imperfect and idiosyncratic.

Social activity is the final dimension mentioned in this chapter. According to Boscolo, “writing is a tool for making them (students) members of the classroom community” (p. 294). Students use writing as a way to connect with other students within this population of learners.

These three dimensions: continuity, complexity, and social activity are interdependent as students gain increasing proficiency with writing behaviors. Students engage in meaningful interactions as they participate in writing tasks that they share with their peers. This is indicative of a constructivist classroom where students take an active role as they question, examine, and practice during the learning that takes place.

Local Literacies~Socially Constructed

In Ways with Words, Shirley Brice Heath details her ethnographic research completed by Brice some forty years ago in the Piedmont Carolinas. She investigates the acquisition of literacy and how one’s surrounding cultural environment influences the way language is learned. Educators are encouraged to recognize student cultural background and appreciate how potential differences might affect learning in the classroom.

In Local Literacies, David Barton and Mary Hamilton document the lives of several residents of Lancaster, England during the 1990s. “This book is a study of what people do with literacy: of the social activities, of the thoughts and meanings behind the activities, and of the texts utilized in such activities. It is about how a particular group of people use reading and writing in their day-to-day lives” (page 3).

Language is a tool that we humans use as a way to communicate. Through reading, writing, speaking, and listening we are engaging in the exchange of ideas. During this making of meaning, the participants involved all bring to the table their own thoughts, feelings, and knowledge that influence the interchange of ideas. After exchanging ideas with another, it is often difficult to think about the concept in the same manner…the “other” has informed our thinking in one way or another.

Harry had many that he mentioned who had influenced his literacy development. Harry’s father brought the local paper home so that his parents could read the paper daily. Harry remembered reading the comic strips regularly and sharing with the other children in his neighborhood. During his work with the fire service, Harry encountered many people during the investigative interviews and had to teach himself how to write the reports. (Harry later shared that information with beginning firefighters.) Later Harry would write employment references for former firefighters who had asked him. The library was a great source of enjoyment where Harry found newspapers and books that he that he enjoyed reading and “swapping” with his friends. Harry enjoyed helping his grandchildren and other children from the neighborhood with their homework. During all these encounters, Harry was engaged in meaning making with one or more individuals.

Social constructivism is based on the concept that learning occurs as a socially or culturally constructed practice (Bruner, 2009; Dewey, 1996, 1933; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978). As a child interacts with others, s/he is participating in a collective knowledge construction or socialization. This making of meaning is an essential component of the continuation of one’s culture. Beliefs and practices are communicated between individuals through the use of language.

Both John Dewey and Len Vygotsky believed that language was one of the cultural tools used by human beings as they interacted and exchanged information (Garrison, 1995; Smidt, 2009). The knowledge transfer that occurs when individuals speak to each other during social interactions is essential to the growth and development of children as they increase their ability to verbally communicate with others. During the socialization process, children build and exchange understandings about the culture in which they inhabit.

Those who impacted Harry’s life certainly changed the way he thought about reading and writing, as Harry impacted the lives he touched. The social activities and the "thoughts and meanings behind the social activities" were used to build and further develop the culture that existed in Lancaster, England during the 1990s.

Why We Do What We Do When We Write

"And of course, if psychoanalysis can help us better understand human behavior, then it must certainly be able to help us understand literary texts, which are about human behavior." (Tyson, 2006, p. 11)

Psychoanalytic Criticism can be traced to the principles of classical psychoanalysis established by Sigmund Freud over one hundred years ago. Psychoanalysis is the process of understanding human behavior and its origins. With the use of this therapeutic tool, one begins to better understand how the unconscious mind motivates human behavior. In Psychoanalytic Criticism, the author's unconscious is studied through a psychoanalytic lens. Below is a brief overview of several psychoanalytic principles as discussed by Lois Tyson in chapter two of her text, Critical Theory Today, (2006).

The unconscious is "the storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions, those wounds, fears, guilty desires, and unresolved conflicts we do not want to know about because we feel we will be overwhelmed by them" (Tyson, 2006, p.12). Beginning in childhood, unhappy and painful events are repressed into the unconscious mind so that the person is not overcome by those disturbing experiences. Psychoanalysis uncovers information that has been repressed and allows one to understand how behavior has been influenced by the repression of events and memories from one's past.

One's family of origin often has a direct impact on the unconscious particularly with what Freud referred to as the oedipal conflict and sibling rivalry. Oedipal conflict is the conflict one feels for the parent of the opposite gender. Sibling rivalry is the competition siblings possess as they compete for parental attention.

Defense mechanisms are tools of the unconscious that our minds use to avoid anxiety and unpleasant emotions. Some of the common defense mechanisms include denial, selective perception, selective memory, avoidance, displacement, projection, regression, active reversal, and fear of abandonment.

Literary critics believe that by examining an author's work through a psychoanalytic lens one can take a peek into the writer's unconscious mind. The production of a literary text is the expression of an author's conflicts and anxieties. Simply put; what an author says or does not say in a piece of literary work is a projection of his or her innermost thoughts, anxieties, and repressed events from one's past.

Perhaps this is why so many are intrigued by the work of great writers. It is not always what is written on the page, but what can be seen between the lines that fascinates us so.

Below is a link to Purdue's Online Writing Lab with further duscussion on Psychoanalytic Critism.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/04

The Ocoee Middle School Flash Mob

The following link is from a story featured on Oprah about a middle school in Florida that used this technique to encourage reading.


http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Watch-a-Florida-Middle-Schools-Reading-Flash-Mob-Video

The Question: What is knowledge?

Writing and Secular Knowledge~Ch. 9

"Knowledge is a large, vague term often considered coterminous with civilization."

"By knowledge, we mean concepts and information shared with other people rather than personal certainties." (Bazerman & Rogers, 2008, p. 143).

Until I began this concentrated study of literacy, I never truly thought about the ways that reading and writing -as a way to share and disseminate knowledge- are used. The sharing of knowledge is done through reading and writing; which makes the role of educator ever the more daunting. Hmmm...

"Thus the impact of literacy on thought and knowledge should be understood within particular social, cultural, and historical circumstances and practices. Writing in turn reshapes the forms of social and cultural organization in which literacy is practiced" (Goody, 1986, as stated in Bazerman & Rogers, 2008, p. 144).

I've been reading quite a bit about social constructivism lately. It fascinates me to think about the idea that learning does not occur in a vacuum, and that the interplay and exchange of ideas is beneficial to the meaning making process.

Social constructivism is based on the idea that learning occurs as a socially or culturally constructed practice. Vygotsky’s social constructivism has its roots in Marxism and socialism. He believed that language and culture played a large part in the learning development of a child (Vygotsky, 1962, 1978).


Local Literacies and Ways with Words reinforce the idea that learning is socially constructed and dependent upon others for implementation. In Local Literacies for example, Harry discusses helping his grandchildren with their homework, writing references, assisting neighbors with taxes, and writing letters to the local paper with his friend of twenty years. These activities certainly could not take place without the others in his life! How fortunate for his friends and family members that Harry is so generous with his time and writing abilities.

In Ways with Words, Heath documents the many influences one's home environment has on the learning that takes place at school. Heath discusses the socialization process that occurs in differing communities and the disparity that exists in educational opportunities because of those differences. She emphasizes that teachers must be made aware of language and cultural diversities so that students are not marginalized but empowered through their unique qualities.

The answer:

"Knowledge is power" (Sir Francis Bacon,1597).