What Is The Educational Pit and the Pendulum?
Earlier this fall, I wrote a blog about the educational Pit and the Pendulum where I explored the
notion that schools tend to make curricular decisions that vacillate from one
extreme to the other, despite the fact that research solidly supports a middle
ground approach. My goal for today's
blog is to to focus on narrative writing instruction and how a middle ground
approach is essential for developing students who can and (more importantly) desire
to communicate articulately and effectively via written discourse.
This November, I experienced life as a NanoWriMo
participant for the first time in my writing career. NanoWriMo, which began in
1999, is a web-based writers' group (among other things) that encourages
participants to start and finish an entire first draft of a novel during the
month of November. The annual contest boasts many success stories via published
works that started as NanoWriMo projects, including titles by popular YA
authors Rainbow Rowell and Marissa Meyer. Although I didn't "win" the
contest as I accumulated only half the required 50,000 words in a single month,
I wrote more than I ever had in thirty day's time. More importantly, I was reminded of the inspiration that comes
from interacting and sharing ideas with a community of enthusiastic
writers. This realization led me to
think how every day classrooms across our country have the opportunity to build
passionate writers or to cultivate students' misconception of writing as a
cumbersome chore.
Hence, I'd like to examine closely some of the obstacles that
instructors face when it comes to standardized tests and their potential to
negatively impact curricular decisions.
What Standardized Testing Has Done to Writing
Instruction
Let's first begin by assuming
best intentions on the part of government officials who have mandated written
assessments for students on high stakes tests.
Their reasoning for including written tasks for students is to ensure
that all students will be taught how to write fluently and be held to the same
standards. I am guessing that anxiety probably plays a role here as well: if students are not assessed in the area of
writing, some schools and teachers may fail to focus enough of their
instruction on writing and more on the skills that are being assessed
instead. I'm sure that at least some
truth probably exists in this fear, unfortunately. After all, this is where the notion of
backwards planning lives and breathes.
So are standardized tests inherently evil? No.
While I never really believed in the logic behind the "guns don't
kill people, people kill people" mantra as an argument to explain why gun
laws shouldn't be made stricter, I think that this analogy makes a lot more
sense when we apply it to the relationship between standardized tests and
writing instruction. Standardized tests
don't kill students' passion for writing;
however, what educators sometimes choose to do to "ready" their students
for these standardized tests do.
Despite even the best of intentions on the part of the mandators and
creators of standardized assessments,
the effects of assessing students on a high-stakes standardized test via
a written task often translate into detrimental curricular decisions that
influence students daily. By no means am I suggesting we shouldn't assess
students' writing. However, I am
suggesting that we need to recognize common curricular pitfalls that
standardized assessments inevitably bring about in order to provide our
students with quality writing instruction. I don't think anyone would disagree
that students need to be solid readers and writers to obtain success in college
and beyond. If we wish for this goal to
come to fruition, students must first value the art of writing as a way to
creatively communicate their viewpoints to others. In order to help students
value writing as an art form, the following potential pitfalls must be
addressed.
Authentic Writing Is Never Timed Whereas Standardized Tests Always Are
Why is this a problem? Well, if our goal is to develop authentic writers, we are
definitely holding our students to a higher standard than we do published
authors. In an Interview with Scholastic, J.K. Rowling, for example, has admitted
that the quickest she has ever written a Harry Potter novel is a year. Of
course you might point out that we are asking students to write much smaller
pieces than Harry Potter during timed experiences, so comparing a novelist's
experience to that of a timed narrative essay isn't necessarily fair. To make
it fair, let's examine typical word counts. Ernest Hemingway, for instance, boasted that he could
write 500 words worth salvaging in a day (not, in a timed single hour of the
day as expected of students, but in a full day from sunrise to sunset). My point is this: if a Nobel Prize winning author could only
spit out a meager 500 quality words after a full day's work, why are we
surprised when even some of our most talented students struggle to compose a
masterpiece in an eighty minute setting?
I know, personally, it takes me at least a few days to map out an idea in
my mind before I can even think about sitting down in front of a keyboard.
Thus, as educators, we need to help students understand that two types
of writing exist: writing for
standardized tests and pretty much everything else. While we need to give students opportunities
to practice writing within a strict time constraint so that they are confident
in their abilities to do, we need to focus the majority of our time helping
them to value that authentic writing involves a process It is messy.
It doesn't always follow the brainstorm--pre-writing--outlining--first
draft--revising--editing-publishing steps as illustrated on those beautifully
laminated posters hanging on classroom walls.
It might include throwing out the entire rough draft and starting over,
changing the wording throughout a piece to reflect a different tone or mood, or
editing a rough draft only to realize that it needs to be revised yet
again. As a first step toward this goal,
we need to talk through the pieces we are working on ourselves and detail the
struggles we are having. As Kelly Gallagher often reminds us, we need to show our
students that writing is a struggle for everyone. But that it is also rewarding. It is not a high speed sprint with the winner
being the one to cross the finish line first.
Instead, it is a cross country endurance run with many twists and turns
along the way.
Authentic Writing is About Rewriting And Not for A "One and Done" Experience
Just this week, famous YA author Meg Cabot tweeted the following: " Day 2 of the New Year. Are you a writer? Do you hate the book you're writing? Good, that's normal. Get back to work." Probably one of the biggest lessons we want
our students to learn is that in first drafts never a finished product make. As
I write this blog, for example, I am already rearranging sections in my head,
knowing that I will have to go back through each portion many times with a
fine-toothed comb before I publish it and allow the world to judge the quality
of my ideas. In standardized testing situations, students' first drafts are
their final drafts. How many popular books or news articles would have never
made it to publication if their authors had submitted their first drafts? To
quote Hemingway: "The first draft of anything is sh*t." Yet, on
standardized tests, we not only expect students to craft exceptional pieces of
well organized writing, but we are also sending the unnerving message to
students that writing is a one and done experience. If all of our writing
assignments mimic the experiences of the standardized tests, students will never
learn to internally value the revision component of process writing. Recently, too many teachers have expressed to
me that students these days think that revising is simply changing the font or
applying spell check to their writing.
They tell me that when students write their first draft, they assume
they are finished; the hard work is over.
Do we own any of this responsibility for their misconception? I know that in my personal experience with
writing that revision is probably the most rewarding part of the whole
experience. It's where the real magic
happens. If students do not currently
recognize revision as rewarding, we need to stop and wonder about what we can
do to change their mindset.
Authentic Writing Is Written for A Real Audience And Not For a Computer of Scorer
Although we write for a myriad of purposes in the real world, we rarely
write something that we don't intend to share with others. With the exclusion
of journal writing (although I might argue that even this type of writing has
the author as its authentic audience), we write to entertain or inform or
change the viewpoints of others. We write to communicate our ideas and to help
others a glimpse into the way we view the world. We write to understand ourselves and the world
around us. If every time I wrote something my final product was only assessed
on a four point scale, I am pretty sure
I would grow to despise the act of writing.
And if I were writing this blog only to know that a computer was
eventually going to determine the merit of my words, I definitely wouldn't put
my heart and soul into revising. Thus,
the way teachers choose to give feedback to students in class is pivotal. The reality is that most students will never
read those lengthy comments you laboriously detailed onto their essay at
Starbucks last Saturday (this should be good news as I have just given you a
giant portion of your life back). They
respond much better to small group mini-lesssons and individual conferencing. Stop and think: when was the last time you halted class to
share with everyone a beautiful line that a student had just crafted? If you can't remember, do it today. And tomorrow.
And the day after that. While
students may not remember whether they met or partially met on the PARCC
examine ten years from now, they will remember classroom moments like these for
a lifetime.
Authentic Writing Exists
For a Variety of Purposes Whereas Standardized Tests Too Often Assess the Same
Task Again and Again
To me, this is probably the most disconcerting worry when it comes to
standardized testing. With the shift to the Common Core, the PARCC exam now
assesses narrative writing very differently than the Illinois Standardized
Achievement Test had previously. In the past, when the state actually had money
to include and assess a written task, the ISAT test would ask students to write
a personal memoir that focused on one specific moment in their lives. Often,
the ISAT may have required students to describe a moment when they learned a
lesson from recent experience they had. With a shift to the Common Core, the
narrative task is now exclusively assessed in conjunction with the fiction
texts that students read. The actual sixth grade narrative task from last year's
test was released by
PARCC and required 6th graders to write the following after listening to an
audio recording of part of Alice and Wonderland: "Imagine Alice has
returned from her journey down the rabbit hole and is retelling the events to
her sister. Write a story from Alice's point of view, in which Alice explains
what happened to her after she reached the bottom of the rabbit hole. Be sure
to use dialogue to show how Alice's sister responds to the story. Use details
from the audio recording in your response."
This is where the educational Pit and the Pendulum again chooses to rear
its ugly head. I would vehemently argue that both types of writing tasks are essential to a students' growth and
success with written discourse. The ISAT prompt asks students to delve into the
world of personal memoir, to write from the heart, to reflect on one's own life
experiences and to detail these experiences in a creative way that intrigues
others. Speaking from personal experience
for a moment, the year 2015 has been one of my toughest yet. I've learned lessons about myself
and human behavior that I probably should've learned sooner. And creative writing became the vehicle
through which I learned these things.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be in the place I am today if I hadn't
allowed my writing to take me there. We
need to show our students how creative writing can be therapeutic and lead them
toward self discovery. Reflecting on our
experiences and thoughts enables us to grow in ways that we wouldn't be able to
do so otherwise. Therefore,If you've
allowed the pendulum to swing fully in the direction of PARCC-like tasks, only
asking students to craft writing attached to texts, your students are missing
out.
Similarly, if your students only spend their time writing based on
personal choice and their own life experiences, they are also missing out. The
PARCC task is just as valuable as the previous ISAT task for different
reasons. The PARCC task requires
students to read as writers, examining the craft and style of a mentor
author. Students must imitate the
setting or characters developed by the mentor and incorporate them into their
own piece. By mimicking the style of
expert writers, students continue to add new techniques to their toolboxes and
understand the texts they've read on a deeper level. In his books, Kelly Gallagher describes several tricks to help students utilize mentor texts to grow as writers. A great place to start if this is a new concept for you.
So if standardized assessments test essential writing skills, what is
the problem? The problem occurs when we make curricular decisions based solely
on the latest standardized test and ONLY asking students to do one type of task
or the other. Let me ask you a question:
if you were an educator in Illinois prior to Common Core, did you
require students to write to tasks similar to those on the PARCC? Or were all
of your students' written experiences more personal or openly creative in
nature? Similarly, if you are teaching
now in the age of the CCSS, how many opportunities have you given students to
write about their own life experiences, to create their own characters and
worlds, or artistically express themselves via the written word? How many
opportunities do your students have to dabble in poetry writing? In blogging about topics they love? Students need a myriad of experiences, and
we cannot let the task of a standardized assessment dictate our every
curricular move.
I would further argue that those
creative opportunities for students to craft memoirs and their own short
stories are probably the most essential types of tasks. After all, what is the
first piece of advice given to aspiring writers by the experts: write about what you know. Since all of our students are diverse and
bring unique experiences to the table, they will not necessarily see themselves
reflected in the characters inside the stories they read in class. Writing about themselves gives them an
opportunity to share their culture with others and learn about themselves while
doing it. It is where student engagement is alive and strong. By including creative writing into your
curriculum, you are developing a student's passion for writing. We know that research supports the idea that
the engaged student achieves higher. Thus,
creative writing is definitely not a waste of instructional time by any means
because it engages students in the art of writing.
To illustrate my point, consider the following scenario. You are about to travel cross country with a
toddler and desire to get there as soon as possible. You know that stopping to have your toddler
use the bathroom and gather up his favorite DVDs and toys for the road will delay your initial departure. You also know that this is time well spent as it guarantees that you will have to stop less frequently
along the way and avoid many hours of incessant whining that might result if
you didn't take the time to grab that Despicable
Me DVD on your way out the door.
Such is the case with creative writing.
Yes, it will take initially take time away from some of your curricular
objectives, but in the end, students will arrive at the final destination and
objective mastery sooner, and they will have had a much more pleasant experience
along the way.
How Do We Avoid the Educational Pit and The Pendulum
and Allow Students' Creative Talents to Flourish?
What can we do inside our classrooms to ensure that
students write for more than a grade on a rubric? How do we develop that passion that we have
about writing?
●
Find opportunities for students to write about things that matter to
them by giving them choice and options in their writing opportunities.
●
Explore all types of writing with students (blogs, poetry,
advertisements, wikis, websites, infographics, fanfiction etc) with
"scholastic writing" being just one type of writing students do.
●
Make sure that students have
ample time and opportunities to revise pieces that matter to them.
●
Prior to revising give them time share them with others, and teach them
how to give feedback to their peers.
●
Have them reread their first draft and final draft days after completing
the final draft and reflect on the effectiveness of each.
●
Create a classroom environment where students feel comfortable sharing
their thoughts and collaborating with classmates.
●
Provide meaningful feedback to your students. Spend time talking to them about their
writing rather than marking their papers up with comments (Isn't this one
liberating????)
●
Invite published writers into your classroom via email, twitter, skype,
or author visits. Ask them about their
writing practices. Ask your students
about their own.
●
Yes, give students timed experiences periodically to relieve their
anxieties on standardized test day, but explain to them why they are being
timed and that they can always go back and revise after time is up.
●
Become a writer yourself. You cannot teach something that you do not
fully understand. Start projects and set
your own deadlines. Share your successes
and stumbling blocks with your students.
●
* Join twitter and follow the
famous authors you enjoy. Look for
contests and other opportunities for students to share their work publicly and
we awarded for their efforts.
●
Most importantly, MAKE.
WRITING. FUN. ( Otherwise,
instead of a bunch of happy Despicable Me
watching minions frantically waving their final drafts in your face, you
could end up with a bunch of disgruntled Calilous on your hands. Don't say you weren't warned)
I leave you with a true story
that occurred last year while I was administering the PARCC examine to a group
of 7th grade students for the first time last year. The narrative writing task had just ended,
and a student who I had only met that day came up to me with a look of intense
passion on her face. She told me she had
just written the best story of her entire life.
She desperately wanted to save the story to share with her teachers and
friends. Since saving work is against
the standardized testing rules, I had to deny her request with a heavy
heart. However, had I been her classroom
teacher and had she had just written a story in
a class setting with that same passionate reaction, I would've
reconfigured my lesson plans on the spot and found a way to provide this
student with an audience for her new found passion. Be on the lookout for little moments like
these and capitalize on them. Your test
scores will thank you.