What about writing?
The problem of access
WRITING
Increasing writing does not incurease writing proficiency:
Writing is output, not input.
Recent evidence:
Sari, R. IJFLT 2013 8(1) Is
it possible to improve writing without writing practice?
COMPONENTS OF THE COMPOSING
PROCESS
Writing makes you smarter, inspiration the result of writing, not the
cause (Boice)
The CP: strategies to use writing to solve problems,
keep your place
The classical composing process
I. Revision :
Neil Simon:
“mediocre writers write, good writers
rewrite.”
Vonnegut: "Novelists have, on the average, about
the same IQs as the cosmetic consultants at Bloomingdale's department store.
Our power is patience. We have discovered that writing allows even a stupid
person to seem halfway intelligent, if only that person will write the same
thought over and over again, improving it just a little bit each time. It is a
lot like inflating a blimp with a bicycle pump. Anybody can do it. All it takes
is time"
II. Flexible Planning: “experienced writers refuse to leave on a
trip with a map." Murray, 1984
Good writers plan, but not always formally, are willing
to change their plans
Overplanning: rigid plan – new ideas are an annoyance
III. Rereading: “I
rise at first light and I start by rereading and editing everything I have
written to the point I left off” (Hemingway, in Winokur, 1990, p. 247).
Jonathon Kellerman rereads
to “segue into new material” (Perry, 1999, p. 178)
IV. Delay Editing: This draft may not be the final one!
Disturbs the flow, coming up with ideas. “Tony” (Perl,
1979): a concern with form “that actually inhibited the development of ideas.
In none of his writing sessions did he ever write more than two sentences
before he began to edit” (Perl, 1979, p. 324).
Peter Elbow: “Treat grammar as a matter of very late
editorial correcting: never think about while you are writing. Pretend you have
an editor who will fix everything for you, then don’t hire yourself for this
job until the very end” (Elbow, 1973, p. 137).
Additional elements of the composing process
Incubation: "Composition
is not enhanced by grim determination" (Frank Smith)
Problem-solving often requires “an interval free from
conscious thought” to allow the free working of the subconscious mind (Wallas,
1926,)
Helmholz: After previous
investigation, "in all directions," .. " happy ideas come
unexpectedly without effort, like an inspiration ... they have never come to me
when my mind was fatigued, or when I was at my working table ... They came
particularly readily during the slow ascent of wooded hills on a sunny
day" (Wallas, p. 91).
Tolle (1999): “All true
artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from
inner stillness … Even the great scientists have reported that their creative
breakthroughs came a a time of mental quietude” (p. 20).
Einstein: "'Whenever he
felt that he had come to the end of the road or into a difficult situation in
his work … he would take refuge in music, and that would resolve all his
difficulties.'" (Clark, 1971) … "with relaxation, there would often
come the solution.”
Poincare (1924) there must be a
"preliminary period of conscious work which also precedes all fruitful
unconscious labor.”
Incubation not allowed in
school writing.
Rosellen Brown: writing “is a job, not a hobby … you have to
sit down and work, to schedule your time and stick to it …” (Winokur, 1999, p.
188).
Walker Percy “You've got to sit down and follow a
schedule. Unless you do that, punch the time clock - you won't ever do
anything” (Murray, 1990, p. 60).
Irving Wallace: vast majority
of published authos keep, some semblance of regular daily hours..."
(Wallace & Pear, 1971, pp. 518-9).
WHEN is variable: Michael
Chabon:10 pm - 4 am, Maya Angelou 6:30 am- 12:30, 1:30.
Time keepers: Irving Wallace (Wallace and Pear, 1971)
(Balzac, Flaubert, Conrad, Maugham, Huxley, Hemingway).
Page counters: (Updike, West,
Bradbury); Word counters: (Haley, Wambaugh) (Murray, 1990, pp. 48-65).
Kate DiCamillo: “When I turned 29, I had an epiphany: I’d
never get published if I didn’t actually write”
Source of inspiration is writing:
Stephen King: don’t “wait for
the Muse. Your job is to make sure the
muse knows where you are going to be every day from nine 'till noon or seven
'till three”
Susan Sontag: "Any productive
writer learns that you can't wait for inspiration. That's the recipe for
writer's block” (Brodie, 1997, p. 38),
Madeleine L’Engle:
"Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it”
Regular writing vs binging:
Woody Allen, "If you work
only three to four hours per day, you become quite productive. It's the
steadiness that counts" (Murray, 1990, p. 46).
Boice (1982): junior faculty members who had a “regular,
moderate habit of writing,” were compared to those who were “binge” writers (“… more than ninety minutes of intensive,
uninterrupted work)” over a six year period. The regular writers produced more than five times as much,
and all got tenure or promotion. Only two binge writers got tenure.
The regular writers more relaxed: The binge writers showed
three times as many signs of "blocking": When binge writers actually wrote, "they
more commonly did nothing or very little (for example, recasting a first
sentence or paragraph for an hour; staring at a blank screen).” Binge writers
"were three times more likely to be rushing at their work … three times
more likely to put off scheduled writing in favor of "seemingly urgent, no
more important activities.”
Why DRW helps: incubation between sessions, warming up
Flaubert: "I have the peculiarity of a camel - I
find it difficult to stop once I get started and hard to start after I've been resting”
(Murray, 1990) Gore Vidal: "I'm always reluctant to start work, and
reluctant to stop."
If Charles Dickens missed a day
of writing, "he needed a week of hard slog to get back into the flow"
(Hughes, in Plimpton, 1999, p. 247).
ACCESS to reading material and POVERTY
Child poverty in the US: Now 25%: The reason for our unspectacular
international test scores: When researchers control for poverty, American
scores are excellent: Carnoy, M.
& Rothstein, R. 2013, What Do International Tests Really Show Us about
U.S. Student Performance. Economic Policy Institute. 2012. http://www.epi.org/).
Improve
schools to cure poverty (US DOE), or cure poverty to improve schools? "We are likely to find that the problems
of housing and education, instead of preceding the elimination of poverty, will
themselves be affected if poverty is first abolished.” (Martin Luther King, 1967, Final Words of
Advice)
Dr. King was
right:
1. No
correlations between test scores and economic well-being (Zhao, 2009)
2. Devastating
effect of aspects of poverty on school achievement (Berliner, 2009)
a. Food
deprivation/nutrition
b. Environmental
toxins (eg lead)
c. Lack of
health care (eg school nurses in high and low poverty schools)
d. Lack of
access to books: home, school, community
The
Beverly Hills/Watts study: (Smith, Constantino & Krashen)
(1) Available
books in the home: BH = 200; Watts = .4
(2) Classroom
libraries: BH = 400; Watts = 50
The
Philadelphia study (Neuman & Celano): middle-class children
"deluged" with books, high poverty have difficulty getting any access
SOLUTION
1. Full
employment at a living wage for honest work
2. Short term:
protect children from the effects of poverty
a. No child
left unfed (S. Ohanian)
b. Improved
health care at school (eg school nurses)
c. Provide
access to books: support libraries
The
importance of libraries
1.
Children get their books from libraries
2.
Better libraries >
better reading (Keith Curry Lance, Jeff McQuillan)
3.
Libraries/access to books can offset the impact of
poverty
Predictors of achievement on PIRLS reading: Krashen,
Lee, & McQuillan (2012)
|
predictor
|
Beta
|
p
|
|
SES
|
.42
|
0.003
|
|
SSR
|
.19
|
0.09
|
|
Library
|
.34
|
.005
|
|
Instruction
|
-.19
|
0.07
|
|
r2 = .63
|
|
|
Other
evidence: S. Krashen, Protecting students against the effects of poverty:
Libraries (New England Reading Association Journal) http://sdkrashen.com/
Closing the gap between African –American and white children:
Fryer & Levitt (2004): SES accounts for 2/3 of gap, books in home accounts
for the rest.
Meanwhile
library funding is being cut: American Library Association, 2010. The State of
America's Libraries. Kelley, M. 2010, Budget survey: Bottoming out? Library
Journal, 2010. School library cuts greater in high poverty areas.
WHERE WILL
WE GET THE MONEY? REDUCE TESTING The NUT
Principle
The increase
in testing: NOT supported by research
More standardized high stakes tests do not mean better
performance: Nichols, Glass & Berliner, 2006
Adding SATs to grades does not improve prediction of
college success: (Bowen, Chingos, & McPherson, 2009; Geiser &
Santelices, 2007).
The cose of online testing: Must connect all students/provide
computers/upgrade and replace/new "innovations". The winners: the .001%
-
.001%
invests little, takes NO RISK: Taxpayers pay for everything, and if it fails: teachers
blamed, but corporations win: Call for more tests and more technology.
A modest proposal: rely on teacher judgment – the most valid
Can we make tests more sophisticated? Requires years
of careful research.
NOW: An improved NAEP, drop the rest. Need not test
every child every year.
Are we falling behind in STEM? "… the impending
shortage of scientists and engineers is one of the longest running hoaxes in
the country" (Bracey, 2009).
1.
Three qualified engineers for each position
2.
the PhD glut
3.
US labor statistics – no shortage of engineers (but
electricians, plumbers, construction jobs)
4.
Teitelman: cycles of shortage panic > oversupply
Salzman, H. 2012.
http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-foreign-stem-graduates-get-green-cards/no-shortage-of-qualified-american-stem-grads.
Teitelbaum, M. 2014: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-teitelbaum-stem-fears-20140420,0,120851.story#axzz2zYCn7SCA
More Ph.D's
than the market can absorb: Weissman, Jordan. The Ph.D Bust: America's Awful
Market for Young Scientists—in 7 Charts. The Atlantic, Feb 20, 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/the-phd-bust-americas-awful-market-for-young-scientists-in-7-charts/273339/
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