The Growing Disconnect Between Knowing and Writing
My junior and senior students have usually been a wonderful collection of young thinkers who grasp content, master analysis of the written word, and understand the big picture ideas. They read difficult and complex texts, then dissect them to explain how the writer’s craft and intention. They manage to articulate their understandings in mature, cogent ways.
Then I ask them to write about it.
What happens next baffles me time after time. There seems to be a disconnect between what they know and what they can actually get on paper.
It doesn’t seem to matter if they are asked to do a pen to paper task or type it up on a Google Doc. It doesn’t seem to matter if the assignment is a paragraph or a 1,000 word essay. We can workshop it and complete it in incremental chunks with a lot of spoon feeding and hand holding and peer review, or we can make it an independent timed writing prompt. Regardless of the way we approach it, the end result remains the same. There seems to be a profound disability that prevents students from finding their words, organizing their assertions, and embedding their evidence. The brilliant things they know never really make it onto the page, and if they do, they are fragmented and disjointed. The strangest part in all of this is that many of the worst writers are some of the most avid readers. What a strange conundrum.
Situated cognition theory takes into consideration the cultural background, societal context, and individual situations that permeate learning (D’Andrade). All of these factors impact student ability to write, and the one thing that seems to be most meaningful way to help students develop their writing is t offer frequent formative assessments of writing with targeted feedback regarding what needs improvement. Students need multiple opportunities to practice and revise, revise, revise. This theory is grounded in the belief that earning is recursive, situated in authentic learning environments that are as dynamic and evolving as the act of learning itself (Brown, Collins, & Duguid). Authentic learning asks teachers to connect all writing assignments to real life, accessible, relevant experiences. Recursive writing loops back and revisits the same things again and again until they are internalized and become automatic in a sense. Situated cognition theory provides a framework for considering writing instruction that is sensitive to the time, purposes, and needs of individual learners. Some may be trying to pass an AP test while others may be focused on simply crafting a decent college admission essay. There is no room for meaningless, purposeless exercises in futility.
Many teachers have not had adequate training in the area of writing instruction. It is not uncommon for them to not remember revising or peer editing because they never did it and were never taught how to do it. The writing process itself is a weak area for many teachers who had teachers who only assigned writing as a one shot summative assessment which may have been entirely subjective. There was no side-by-side learning, modeling, or scaffolding. No metacognitive studies, research based writing methodology, or intensive writing training. Writing is a complex act that varies according to many factors. For this reason, writing is different across disciplines, both in its learning and its assessment. It is no wonder that teachers rarely assign activities that involve writing.
Teachers also do not know their options for how to grade these writing assignments. Printing a rubric off the internet is not the answer. There are so many creative ways to assess daily writing and to design lessons that allow students to monitor their own writing development and chart their own progress.
Bridging the gap between thinking and writing begins early and involves many complex factors. Until schools are able to sit down and design writing programs that span the grades and the core content areas, provide intensive training for teachers (my most transformative and meaningful training was New Jersey Writing Institute), and provide support, articulate expectations and develop accountability measures, teachers and students will continue to struggle and muddle along.
In a world where technology is growing exponentially and transforming every part of our lives, I anticipate new models for instruction that will replace current models within the next ten years. Brick and mortar schools may become a thing of the past, and if flesh and blood teachers want to remain relevant, they will need to become more efficient. The things an online, hybrid, or automated class cannot do is feed the imagination, think outside the box, and reward creative and independent thinking and problem-solving. They will need to have deep understanding in order to design effective lessons that incorporate elements that a computerized program of instruction could never manage.
In the meantime, I will continue to encourage my students to write what they know in ways that are seamless, profound, and evocative. I will guide them towards imaginative responses and insights. And most importantly, I will try to play matchmaker in order to facilitate a life long love affair with words and ideas.
