Week 10: Writing 1, Representations
10.0 Writing 1, Representations
Objective(s): to support by scaffolding students’ development of a first draft.
Orientation
It is easy to set deadlines and expect results from students; in fact, it is often the default position of teachers to allocate scaffolding to the curriculum designing phase of teaching, which occurs before students enter the classroom. Such defaults, however, often presupposes and supports a product-oriented approach to teaching that fails to support the drafting process. How do I help students develop a draft? For students with a strong background in your subject-area or with the medium-specificity of your project (e.g., writing via computational media), completing a draft may be easier than it is for other with less experience. In other words, by not scaffolding the process of project development (i.e., drafting), teachers unintentionally privilege the experiences of students who have had greater access and prior support. The distance increases exponentially when scaffolding is absent from group work. In some situations, folks with more experience are tasked with more labor, while those with little experience have fewer growth opportunities, for example.. To approach drafting from an antiracism perspective require teachers both support and value the process, not just the final product. We’ve arrived at two support structures, Individual Blocks and Group Blocks, that teases out the oft mystified process of project development into discrete, manageable steps that ask students to identify and to plan according to their experiences – without assuming all students know how to complete the task successfully.
Activities
Premise
When we ask students to tell a story, write an essay, complete a project, we are asking them to synthesize. Synthesis may appear like a daunting task for students because of its generality. By grounding project development to students’ prior experiences, a path forward emerges.
Purpose
Students will reflect on their labor practices to leverage successful habits to arrive at an organic and sustainable approach to completing a project draft.
Preparation
Students generate a project plan based on the following phases.
- Phase 1. Students identify individual responsibilities/steps they must fulfill to meet project outcomes by deadlines. Next, students prioritize responsibilities/steps and estimate total time to completion.
- Phase 2. Then students will review their labor logs to identify successful patterns. Here, ask students to review their labor logs to identify the work sessions that achieved their highest rating of productivity (factors may include: time of day, location, and other situational aspects such as a good night’s sleep, coffee, etc.).
- Phase 3 asks students to leverage their labor data in relationship to the project at-hand to schedule a series of “writing blocks” that will allow students to complete their project on time. Next, students assign a measurable outcome (from Phase 1) to each block. Alongside writing blocks, I ask students to build in rest and relaxation, whether this a short ten-minute interval between writing blocks or a fun activity at the end of the day, the point is to help students cultivate a sustainable work pace. Rest Blocks might include: physical movement to the extent one is able – stretching, walking, resting; productive dissociation; connecting socially or relationally; self-care such as eating, hydrating, laughing, etc.
- The final phase, 4, centers on reflection: at the end of the day, invite students to record their labor and productivity, reflect on what worked and didn’t, and revise approaches for the next day.
Protocol
Students follow and revise their Project Plan developed during the preparation stage.
Premise
The global pandemic and resulting shelter-in-places have further isolated students from each other. Writing groups can help students feel more connected and less isolated. Further, some students work better when working near other people.
Purpose
Writing groups provide structured and shared writing intervals that bring people together in one workspace.
Preparation
Students decide on a common time, agree on the duration of intervals (e.g., 50-minutes), determine who will facilitate each session, and then log-in to Zoom, Google Hangout, or another platform at the start time.
Protocol
Students write nonstop for the entire duration of the Group Block (e.g., 50-minutes). During the Block, students keep their screens on and microphones muted; this allows each participant to see the others without having to worry about noise. When the time is up, the facilitator gives everyone a 5-minute warning. Students then socialize with each other for ten-minutes before the next Block begins. Repeat until the time limit has been reached.
Note: It may help to rotate facilitators for the social time to provide structured but silly provocations (e.g., spoon or fork – type of questions). Other options might include unstructured discussions; “right-brain” activities that engage different media than the one working in (i.e., if writing, perhaps paint, record memo, doodle); pop culture explorations; and general check-ins.