What Counts as Writing (to me as a student)

In ENGL 514 (Computers and Writing) I realized that “writing” is not simply an action done with a pen or pencil.  “Writing” can include cave drawings, time capsules that children bury in schoolyards, formulas in Biology or Chemistry  class, hieroglyphics, engineering drawings … the engineer's second "draft"/re-draws, pencils, pens, and lipstick on paper, a message in a bottle, a love note or a thesis for a Ph.D. , a composition or an equation in Chemistry class.  It can be applied to loose leaf paper or card stock,  drafting sheet  or white board, painted on canvas,  carved on metal bracelets to identify a patient with a defibrillator or latex allergy, a limestone wall to articulate the life of a great pharaoh, or a greeting card to welcome a new baby.  It can be transferred via the Internet, Facebook, blogs, U.S. Mail, Pony/Federal Express, or scripted on a lllllooooonnnnnggggg sheet of toilet paper (really) and handed off in a high school classroom.

“Writing” attempts to communicate thoughts and ideas, to make meaning (or we’re just drawing symbols”), and capture them to “make ideas permanently visible, so it can be stabilized and re-examined at a later date (Winsor).

Blog Use for Winter 2011

How I've use my 515 blog:

Originally invited to create a blog to reflect on the articles being read for ENGL 515 class during the winter term, I was happy to participate.  I’ve created blogs before … mainly for classes at EMU.   I’ve actually kept hard copies of my blogs as they grew under the weight of the text involved.  These “archives” have come in handy as references for studies in my current classes.  I have the intention of doing the same with this blog from 515.

I enjoy cruising on-line for curiosities related to my classes.  I regularly post conference information for anyone interested in literacy/written literacy/ and writing centers.  It provides me with the chance to research additional opportunities for professional development.  I love quotes, so I’ve included a posting to capture quotes on literacy and writing.  I think writers are inspired to write, and sometimes it just takes a few words of inspiration to get them started. 

Also included in the blog is information about literacy related organizations, books and writing center programs at area colleges and universities.

I've used the blog as a sort of educational journal.  Many of the articles read, conferences reviewed, and inspirational quotes taken to heart have helped me learn and immerse myself in theories about writing that I didn’t know existed.  It’s humbling to read the thoughts and ideas of so many writers, who have questioned and/or augmented current practices with the hopes of helping other writers improve their own theories and practices.  

Blogging gives me more tech experience too … which is after all another form of “writing”. 

Do you have a favorite INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE about education/literacy/writing/the teaching of writing? Post it here!

Please include author's name!

Emig, James. “Writing as a Mode of Learning.” College Composition and Communication 28.2 (May 1977): 122-128.

Emig breaks down language into two major “orders”.  First, talk/listen – both natural elements of language that requires no formal instruction.  Second, read/write – both found in systematically learned instruction.   He continues to define brain functions (left and right hemisphere) but attests to the fact that “writing involves the fullest possible function of the brain that requires full participation of both left and right hemisphere."

He suggests to the reader that writing is: a slower method of learning, but a powerful learning strategy that uses a higher cognitive function of analysis and synthesis.

Murray, Donald (1991). All Writing is Autobiography. College Composition and Communication 42.1 (Feb 1991): 66-74.

Murray provides a demonstration of how he puts himself into all he writes, in a sense becoming what he writes … fiction and non-fiction ... through a peculiar way of looking at the world and his own way of using language to communicate what he sees.  He explains that the autobiography grows from deep tap-roots set down in childhood, and cites Graham Greene as saying “For writers it is always said that the first 20 years of life contain the whole experience – the rest is observation.”

Murray summarizes by reflecting on the origins of his writing process as:

·         What I experience

·         What I heard later

·         What books say

·         What I need to believe

Reflection:  It’s all rhetoric … even our autobiographies.

Quote:  The present comes clear when rubbed with memory (Donald Murray)

Quote:  We become what we write (Donald Murray)

Quote:  My spellcheck hiccupped at “squenched” and “companioned.”  As an academic I gulped; as a writer I said, “Well they are now.” (Donald Murray)

The Neglected ‘R’. The Need for a Writing Revolution. National Commission on Writing, 2003.

The cross-generational writing project (senior citizens and first grade students working together in an on-line writing project) was a perfect example of what can happen when teachers think outside the classroom when considering the process of writing.

This article is also full of wonderful quotes that should inspire teachers of writing as well as their students.  

• Quote: Writing is everybody’s business.
• Quote: Writing is how the student connects the dots in their knowledge.
• Quote:  Writing has helped to transform the world.  Revolutions have been started by it.  Oppression has been toppled by it.  And it has enlightened the human condition … when pressed, many of us, young and old alike, still turn to pen and ink in an effort to make sense of our grief, pleasure, rage or happiness.
• Quote: Writing today is not a frill for a few, but an essential skill for the many.

Reflection:  I agree that teachers need more PD in written communication.  They need to understand the width and breadth of writing in all circumstances in their students' lives and they should address it to gain a larger (more energetic) following of students.

SUB(conscious)REFLECTION:  I need more time to write.

Scherff, Lisa & Piazza, Carolyn. “The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Survey of HS Students’ Writing Experiences. Research in the Teaching of Engl 39.3 (2005): 271-204.

The authors run through a recent historical brief of reforms and changes that took place in the late 20^th century in Teaching of English.  From experiences in their junior year in high school to being pre-service teachers and beyond to “teaching to the test."  Sherff and Piazza cite Miles Meyers (NCTE Executive Director in 1996) in his pleas for  a more supple, multiplistic set of tools and strategies to allow students to meet contemporary demands of life beyond the classroom.  Their methods, data, results and reflections of student responses to surveys show that students truly want to learn by “explicit modeling”, and find that teachers do not teach to a writing process consistent with needed life-disciplines, but rather to the expectations of “the test”. 

Reflection:   I’d like to see a more concise process for writing across the curriculum at community colleges and universities that teach the students how to apply what is being learned to whole life learning.  Performance Based Learning is the term used at our school.  The idea is “it’s not WHAT you know, but what you DO with what you know.”  

Luke, Allen & Woods, A.F. “Critical Literacies in Schools: A Primer.” Voices from the Middle 17.2 (2009): 9-18.

Luke and Woods give us a traditional definition to the term “literacy” as a “mastery of skills, processes and understandings in making meaning from and through written text”.  Tradition sees literacy as a fixed body of skills that is neutral to all cultures, and universal in its features.  Yet over the past 20 years this view has been challenged by a multitude of disciplines. The authors reveal models of “critical” literacy to have a specific focus of developing useful and powerful mastery of texts to transform lived social relations and material conditions.”  To these authors, rather than “teacher knowledge” being transmitted to the student learner, literacy is acquired through a process of naming and renaming, narrating and analyzing life.”

No longer simply defined by a ruling (dominant) class’s knowledge as the ideal literacy, new literacy grows from a new literacy technology which affiliates youth and industrial/professional cultures requiring a new vocabulary that creates practical alternatives for teachers and students to reconnect literacy with everyday life.

Reflection:  Last week’s group discussion of skills vs whole language focused on skills as the necessary tools and whole language as the structure built by the tools.  We agreed that "structures" are not only skyscrapers and modular homes of literacy … there are mud-huts and tee pees … igloos and yurts being built world-wide … utilizing a variety and whole different world of “tools” to build.  There can be no “one-way” on these streets … all roads can lead to literacy as defined by its local culture.

Gutierrez, Kris (Morales, Martinez) Re-mediating Literacy; Culture, Difference, and Learning for Students from Nondominant Communities. Review of Reserach in Ed v33,212-245.2009

Gutierez cites Scribner and several other authors and their studies of literacy in the context of its use.  The authors' names indicate to me that they are of "nondominant" communities (possibly Hispanic) and so refer to nondominant cultures and their litercies first hand.

It is important to learn as much as possible about an individual and the community practice of literacy.  Gutierez cites Scribner and Cole's (1973) research and explains that the methods and problems of school could not be attributed to the problems and technologies of everyday life or the home; rather, the focus should be on "rethinking the social organization of education and its effect ... searching for specific deficiencies are socially mischievous detours."

Schools need to create a "functional" learning system ... identifying varying methods to promote the study of literacy in the context of real life experience to promote organization of learning and thinking skills of the individual ... a sort of cross-cultural effort toward student literacy in nondominant communities.

Faulkner, Val. "Adolescent Literacies Within the Middle Years of Schooling: Case Study of a Year 8 Homeroom" Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 49.2:108-117

Faulkner finds fault in the school's various efforts to transmit school based literacy to adolescent students using traditional methods in writing (read, write, interpret text).  The article tells of (student) Bebe who "presents a snapshot of a student struggling with the school-based academic literacy favored by his teacher".  Bebe tells the researcher that he "can write a sentence pretty good without changing it" ... and that the teacher "speaks another language".  The author suggests that literacies are inclusive of cultures and teachers must draw from the "private literacies of the world beyond the school".   

Teachers tend to marginalize students that the schools say they most want to engage, and fall short when they shuffle the student that does not fit the general mold into lower level learning.

Reflection:  It seems that the schools simply want to by-pass students that do not fit the traditional form in the classroom, when they should be focusing on the student's needs -- not simply the subject matter/content being taught in the classroom.

Clark, Romy & Ivanic, Roz. "Writing Processes and Practices." The Politics of Writing (81-106) London: Routledge. 1997

Clark and Ivanic write extensively about the definition of writing.  They make comparisons of the thinking process involved in writing as well as speaking and doing, and the part thinking plays as a requirement to take part in these activities. 

They identify two basic models of writing which include:
Linear - method most taught in schools, and
Recursive - free flowing method that utilizes the writers environment, memory, and process (planning, translation, review and monitoring).  Clark and Ivanic remind us that there is no set sequence to the writing process.

Committee of Ten (1892)

The conference of the Committee of Ten submitted a report dated 1894 that sounds as though it could have been written today.  I have a personal interest in writing across the curriculum and issues of student interest in writing.  I believe that more effort needs to be made to promote greater use of written work in disciplines outside of the English department.  Reaction to the report in 1894 was overall very positive, as I'm sure it would be if presented again today.

Performance based learning was also referenced in the report over one hundred years ago.  Educators then, like now, wanted students to be able to apply learning to their life's work, not simple learn to gather needless information. 

The Global Literacy Challenge, UNESCO. 2008

UNESCO's primary interest is in sustainable literacy through policy making and strategies that address an "acquisition of basic literacy skills as a foundation of education for all people".  They see literacy as a means for the development of society through lifelong learning, empowerment, increased awareness and influence of individuals as a method of building self-confidence and self-esteem. 

Reflection:  I found a special interest in reading about Second Chance Schools and Family Literacy.  I've toyed with the idea of creating a small (urban) community "tutoring" center for children and their families interested in learning basic skills in literacy as well as fine tuning established talent.  This is the first time I've been made aware of the UNESCO organization  I would like to know more.

The Plurality of Literacy, UNESCO. 2004

The UNESCO article suggests that when we speak of literacy, we're not referring to a universal set of technical skills.  Plural literacies are associated within the community and throughout the life of the individual in that society (p 13).  A 'plural' notion of literacy is focused on the life and society of an individual person and their ability to read, write, and communicate by identifying, understanding, interpreting, computing, using printed and written materials associated with various contexts. 

Siegel, Marjorie, et al. "Literacy in Motion: A Case Study of a Shapeshifting Kindergartener." Language Arts 86.2 (November 2008) 89-98

A "jewel" of an article.

Jewel is a child of globalization and "fluid" meanings of literacy. Labeled as "at risk" due to factors that include - working poor family background, immigrant status, English is her second language ... Jewel is only able to prove her "literal" worth when she enters the first grade computer lab and not only completes her assignment (several times, since she's erased and started over while she experiments with the software), she tutors a classmate and later socializes for a while. The New London Group defines the emergence of multi literates built on change, flexibility, quality and distinct niches.

A citizen in a globalized world is able to design themselves as a "shape shifting" portfolio person capable of changing their skills to fit changing social and economic opportunities.

Reflection: I vote this article "five stars". I agree that with the educational system we have in place, many students are losing out. The article states that "what is needed is a rethinking of literacy curriculum that considers the changing texts and practices that are already part of the students' worlds."

New London Group. "A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures." Harvard Ed Review 66.1 (1996) 60-92

The focus of this article is the mission of education as the assurance that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to fully participate in public, community and economic structures in life. It expands this idea to meet global needs, and asks the reader to think about how literacy pedagogy must change to meet present day needs in schools where people become members of multiple communities and the boundaries of those communities overlap ... where "differences are the NORM" and also "complement each other."

Reflection: It seems that this is the way colleges and universities have designed learning for many years. No doubt that improvement has to be made, but more thought has to be placed on k-12 education where diversity of cultures is becoming more commonplace. Perhaps a "college model" for k-12 design (redesign) needs to be created.

Roberts, Peter. "Defining Literacy: Paradise, Nightmare or Red Herring?" British Journal of Ed Studies 43.4(Dec 1995): 412-432

This article stresses an idea that I believe most educators agree with. "The great divide in literacy is not between those who CAN read and write and those who (CANNOT). It is between those who have discovered what kinds of literacy society values and how to demonstrate their competencies in ways that earn recognition" (Meek 1991), and that literacy is entirely a matter of how reading and writing are conceived and practiced within particular social settings (Lankshear and Lawler 43).

Roberts explains that there is very little agreement among scholars about the definition of literacy. It speaks to seveal approaches to attempts in defining literacy like: QUANTITATIVE - number of years in school; QUALITATIVE - concentrates on the qualities of being a literate person; PLURALIST - multiple modes of literacy (survival, social, cultural, functional, higher order, and critical); and PARTICULARISTIC STRUCTURE -form of reading and writing.

Heath, Shirley Brice. "Literacy and Social Practice." D.A. Wagner, R.L.Venezky & B.V.Street(Eds.) Literacy: Intl Hndbk(102-106) Boulder,CO:Wview 1999

Heath tells us that the definition of literacy has changed over the years. The old view of literacy embraces the development and reception of writing and reading of literal texts. In 1970 the perception changed to the decoding and encoding of symbols for meaning being conveyed by oral language. The article discusses how ... 1-scholars believe activities, values, patterns of time and space shape responses to written texts in societies and institutions ... 2-research reveals how literacy practices and formal instruction clash with literacy that is fostered in the home and local communities ... and 3-social position and orientation to community values are not the results of formal education. Instead it is influenced by ethnicity, geographic location, social and political factors.

Reflection: The definition of literacy has changed with time and between cultures. There cannot be one definition for "literacy" unless it is so general as to fit generic meaning into that of industrialized U.S. and China as well as aborigine Australian bush-country and west Africa. Each culture has its own way of making meaning of those symbols valued in its society.

Smith, Frank. "The Myths of Writing." Language Arts 58.7: 792-798. 1981

An article on "WRITING" from the writer's point of view. This list should be posted in all writing classrooms.
The author responds to some of the mythical ideas of writing in a brief narrative on "writing".
1 - Writing is done to create experiences and explore ideas.
2 - The writer is the first reader ... sometimes the only reader.
3 - Writing is not a matter of taking dictation from yourself; it is more like a conversation with a highly responsive and reflective other person.
4 - Writing can be reflected upon, altered, and even erased at will ... and also gives the writer power to manipulate time ... speech, once uttered, can rarely be revised.
5 - Writing is "plastic art" - it can be done in several places and directions concurrently.
6 - Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, neatness, etc. are necessary aspects of the transcription required to make written language manifest. For ALL writers, undue concern with transcription can interfere with composition (the creative and exploratory aspect of writing).
7 - The only difference between writers and people who do not write ... writers write.
8 - Writing fluency and facility comes with WRITING.
9 - The easiest way to learn to write is to see something you would like to say being written.
10 - One learn to write by READING.
11 - The classroom atmosphere is NOT the most reasonable place in which to expect children to learn to write.
12 - Thoughts come WITH writing. Writing may never come if it is postponed until we are satisfied that we have something to say.
13 - Writing is hard work and requires concentration, physical effort, and a tolerance for frustration and disappointment.
14 - Writing generally requires many drafts and revisions to get ideas into a form that satisfies the writer. A separate editorial polish is required to make the text appropriate for a different reader.
15 - Writing cannot always be "done to order".
16 - The act of writing does not break itself into neatly identifiable and manageable "steps".
17 - Writing is not a sedentary activity -- that's unrealistic.
18 - Writing is not a silent activity -- writing frequently involves making noise, exchanging ideas, expressing exhilaration or frustration.
19 - Writing is not a solitary activity -- writers need other people to stimulate discussion, provide spellings, listen to choice phrases.
20 - Writing is not a tidy activity.
21 - Writing is not the same for everyone.
and
22 - People who teach writing must be able to 1) demonstrate what writing does and 2) demonstrate how to do it.

Teach children to write with a purpose -- the primary purpose being one's own joy and satisfaction.

Gee, James P. "Ideology and Theory: The Moral Basis for Discourse Analysis." In JPGee Social Linguistics and Lit: Ideology in Discourse, 2nd ed.(1-20)

Gee's article on non-standard dialects describes a child's early literacy as initiated in the home followed by their subsequent entry into the school's literacy program. The child is seen as poor and possibly neglected and impoverished, with no books in the home environment and little encouragement or support from parents. Gee considers these thoughts "charitable". But he goes on to analyze the child's use of words and explains that they are properly used within the atmosphere of the home.

Gee uses historic points to explain his views on ideology and Napoleon's efforts to thwart any effort to allow the Renaissance and Enlightenment to release his power over his people. Napoleon felt that he was the most "literate" for his time as he had the most experience in the matters of social discourse at the time. Marx, on the other hand, spoke of ideologies in his social theory by identifying the "real" socioeconomic structure of society as "what the course of history was" and the determination of whose ideas were right versus whose were an "illusion of false consciousness and bad faith rooted in exploitation." Marx's ideas make us ask "What theories are we to believe in and act on? Not, Whose experience is the best?"

Street, Brian. "The Meanings of Literacy." In DA Wagner, RL Venezky & BV Street (Eds) Literacy: An Int'l Hndbk (34-40). Boulder, CO: Westview P 1999

Street sees a shift from a study of literacy as phonics vs whole language to more social and contextual practices. The major shift from illiterate to literate society reflects the historical beginning of modern society and the fact that writing brought language into social consciousness. The use of plural "meanings" in the title of his article signifies the author's idea of multiple literacies at work in society ... and that the emphasis is on the practice of literacy abilities (context and social meaning) and not on the medium (computer, visual media, traditional print). Those different literacies may include (as in Street's example of an Iranian village) the village literacy, community literacy, in-school and out-of-school literacies. But he also points out "home practices" as an important part of the "repertoire" of literacy.

Street identifies an interesting case study of a successful cross-age tutoring program in which students who had been failing and dropping out were trained as tutors for elementary reading students. The success of the program in terms of teacher attitudes and pupil improvement in literacy skills became a model for teacher-researcher collaboration.

Scribner, Sylvia. "Literacy in Three Metaphors." American Journal of Ed 93.1: 6-21. 1984

Scribner begins by giving the reader a general definition of what she means by literacy as "Assessing what counts a literacy in the modern epoch in some given social context" (p8). She then goes on to explain that these considerations include societal "value(s), philosoph(ies), and ideolog(ies) similar to those that figure prominently in debates about the purpose and goals of schooling." She further explains that "we may lack consensus on how best to define literacy because we (all) have differing views about literacy's social purposes and values."
Her assumptions are displayed for us as three metaphors. Each metaphor demonstrates an assumption about the societal motivation and practice of literacy in America in a specific culture or time period in history. The metaphors include:

1) Literacy as ADAPTATION
2) Literacy as POWER
and
3) Literacy as a STATE OF GRACE

Metaphor 1 - Literacy as ADAPTATION - Scribner defines functional literacy "only with respect to the proficiencies required for participation in actual life conditions for a particular group or community" (p 10). She chooses points in history as her examples for "adaptive" literacy using a "sliding scale" employed by the US Department of Census. The scale moves from World War I (when a fourth grade education was necessary to function in society) to 1947 when the Census survey moved the expectation to fifth grade. By 1952 the minimum literacy expectation was a sixth grade education. Today's expectations are even much higher with arguments for expected levels of literacy in the future still being fought. Yet the question of what is "functional literacy" still surfaces today. The author points out that some people who are assessed as "functionally literate" actually lack the skills to be adequate parents or workers.

Metaphor 2 - Literacy as POWER - According to Scribner, literacy as POWER emphasizes a relationship between "literacy and group or community advancement ." An example used is how illiteracy in America is concentrated in poor, elderly, and minority groups that do not participate fully in the country's political, economic, and educational institutions."
Metaphor 3 - Literacy as a STATE OF GRACE - This form of literacy is explained by the author as a person's ability to read religious materials and holy books in order to give life "more meaning and significance from intellectual and spiritual participation to knowledge of humankind." Literate people in some cultures are given special respect and "endowed with special virtues". This "state of grace" literacy is different from bookishness. Scribner speaks of literates and illiterates being in different states of grace as well as different stages of intellectual development.
Scribner presents a case study of a West African society of a traditional non literate subsistence farming culture whose script has been passed down in tutorial fashion through the generations, yet at least on third of this group is literate in up to three scripts, and maintain religious and theological learning. Ultimately we must come to understand that the current western style literacy is not necessary for personal survival in all parts of the world. There is no one best answer. The ethnographer needs to understand the history and culture of the group to decide the form and level of literacy needed to function in that society.

Welcome !

This site is under construction and should be ready to view by Saturday, February 12, 2011.  Thank you.