SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING:SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL

EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Margaret FioreIndependent Literacy Consultant

Part-time Associate Teaching Professor, The New School / New York City

Initial thoughts…

• Reflect with me about the deeper, more individual, more meaningful evidence-based writing students can produce if we structure assignments with a smaller scale and tighter focus, guiding students to dig more deeply into fewer sources of evidence. More time spent helping students focus on a “smaller piece of the pie” is rewarded with greater student engagement and more convincing writing.

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

about that “smaller slice of the pie…• “…to know in detail, minutely what I was talking about…. Not to talk in vague

categories but to write particularly, as a physician works, upon a patient, upon the thing before him, in the particular to discover the universal” (William Carlos Williams The Authobiography of William Carlos Williams 1951: 391).

• “Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details” (Heraclitus Herakleitos and Diogenes pt. 1, frag. 3, trans. Guy Davenport 1976).

• William Faulkner’s advice to writers: “You have to write about your postage stamp” (qtd. in obituary for Andre Dubus by Mel Gussow The New York Times 26 Feb. 1999: A19).

• “The surest way to hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definite, and concrete” (William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White, The Elements of Style 3rd ed. 1979: 21).

• [sheet with additional quotes about details]

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

• REFLECT: write about – A success story with an evidence-based writing

assignment (a moment, an insight, an exemplar)– A dilemma or question about an evidence-based

writing assignment• SHARE: (then save the rest for the “parking lot”)

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

Samuel Beckett Worstword Ho (1983)

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

My rationale for this workshop…• My own college writing students struggle with focus—even if they are strong

writers• Their prior research paper experiences …• Their stories of prior research paper writing experiences have in common biting

off more than they could chew and collecting way more evidence than they could use, feeling that while collecting the evidence, they were “working hard”

• Then, having too little time left to make use of the evidence, they rushed to complete the paper at the last minute

• Barbara Tuchman wrote, “Research is endlessly seductive; writing is hard work” (21).

• I think the trap of collecting research evidence is avoidance—we know writing is hard work because writing is thinking. So instead, we collect evidence, and this does give us a sense of “something to show” for our “hard work.”

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

• So I began thinking about the idea of a smaller focus for a research paper, influenced by many prior thinkers. I have a list of resources at the end.

• My students spend the first 1/3 of the semester working on ideating and sculpting an idea which genuinely piques their curiosity so that their question is specific, narrow, thus researchable, and in a grammatically correct question structure.

• Students work with their prior knowledge, no new research, until they have a well sculpted research question.

• Then, they have a better focused idea of what they know, what they don’t know, and what they need to find out.

• The other key is lots of focused free writing along the way, most of which I don’t need to read. The writing is their thinking, for them.

• Ultimately, they complete interesting papers I enjoy reading, and my students win departmental prizes.

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

SCALE• We often think about and design curricula in terms of topics, which tend to be large in

scale and general, so our assignments are often topic-based “whole pies.”• I draw a whole pie on the board when I teach this concept, then “a smaller slice of the

pie.”• Early in the steps of a research-based assignment, before I “liberate” any student to

begin looking for research evidence, we work on finding that smaller slice of the pie.• Any pie has multiple slices, so students can find one that holds greater interest or is

better suited to their abilities or “zone of proximal development.” Could your question ask about– fewer people or beings or entities? (not “film” but one film, etc.)– a smaller time span? (not “the XXth c.” but 1963 or 1914 or 1989, etc.)– a smaller geographical slice? (not “northern Europe,” but “Amsterdam’s canal houses”)– not a category but one event (not unequal pay for women but “the Lily Ledbetter Act”)

SCALE, cont’d• Once individual research assignments are completed, students need to put their smaller

slices of the pie back together into a whole pie to grasp the full meaning of the unit of learning.

• This has multiple advantages—students can learn “a part” from their individual or paired projects, but then learn “the whole” collaboratively from everyone’s efforts.

• The collaborative learning can include – oral presentations or poster talks – a final collaborative step or part to complete, synthesizing evidence from classmates’ presentations– a “gallery walk”

• students circulate and immerse themselves in each other’s posted presentations,• write about what they see,• ask each other questions, and ultimately• create a new piece of writing which integrates learning from other students’ presentations• Answering the unit’s “essential questions” with evidence from everyone’s project

– A class publication/video/website, YouTube video, civic engagement project, etc.• A sequence, by grade, from a 2-source/2-page paper to a 3-source/3-page paper, etc., so

that students gain confidence and skill in reasonable steps

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

SEQUENCE• A curriculum unit lends itself to an evidence-

based assignment• Teacher can assign topics or research

questions, OR• Class work can focus on students’ learning how

to move through this sequence:

Itch or curiosity topic question

Specific, narrow,

researchable question

↑

specific, narrow,

researchable question

→

SEQUENCE, cont’d

• Sculpting a question so that it’s – Specific, because specific is more convincing than

general– Narrow, because narrow allows us to dig more

deeply instead of staying on a broad, shallow surface– Thus researchable, or feasible as a focus,– A question, in grammatically correct question for,

since questions have magnetic power to pull us toward answering them.

– The FFW’ing work of sculpting…

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

• Examples of itches to SNRQs:– WWII naval battles; whether my grandfather was a hero or a

villain when he disobeyed orders at the Pacific battle of X and brought his submarine up to the surface

– Online dating; how unreasonable expectations affect college students’ online dating experiences

– Sports; how current knowledge of football concussion injuries is affecting the regulations for high school football games

– Immigration; my parents’ rationale for leaving Jamaica and how it’s affected the educational achievements of my generation in comparison to theirs and to those of my cousins whose parents didn’t immigrate to the U.S.

SCAFFOLDING• Each step is challenging—it’s easier, for the teacher and the student, for us

to use our expertise to think of relevant, researchable questions and assign them to students.

• But how did we develop this expertise? Shouldn’t we give students the same sequenced, age-appropriate opportunities to develop question focusing skills?

• “College and career readiness” requires students to think independently, be able to make choices, and be able to focus their learning

• The more all of us include question-finding and choosing work in evidence-based assignments, the stronger students’ skills will grow.

• Writing and talking (Peter Elbow’s new book, Vernacular Eloquence[2012], about not neglecting the power of talking in the process of creating writing)

• WAITING to begin looking for research resources—mining prior knowledge to the fullest first to focus the search

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

• The social aspect of collaborating to find and sculpt an idea (text-on-text, etc.)

• FFWs to test out the idea and see if it holds your interest and is researchable OR needs further sculpting

• Writing is thinking– Start-now -why-wait draft in class– Is this question still asking what you itch to discover?– Does it need further sculpting?

• ANY of this FFWing can be multi-media

SCAFFOLDING, cont’d

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Margaret Fiore

SCAFFOLDING, cont’d• Commit to a research question (don’t stop at topic)• Write—or make a podcast, blogpost, film/photo collage, etc.—as you proceed• K-W-L chart as a tool to write as you go• Recognize that as your initial prior knowledge base expands, it might be necessary to

further sculpt the research question—it’s alive• Find one research resource at a time, WRITE ABOUT IT, and let it tell you what you need

to know next and possibly where—literally—to look• Create your list of sources as you go, each time you find one• Annotated bibliography• Mark McBeth’s “scripted interview” assignment• FFW (or multi-media) progress reports along the way (show example)—the “news” to

share about progress you’re making • Begin drafting your answer to your research question, using evidence, sentence by

sentence, paragraph by paragraph (write from the middle, …)

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTSMargaret Fiore

• SCAFFOLDING, cont’d

• REVISE as you proceed—get feedback on one paragraph at a time, or the exploration of the evidence in one source at a time.

• Construct the project in pieces or source by source or pages, one chunk at a time (teacher gives feedback to one chunk at a time when it still matters—while the student is genuinely figuring things out, sharpening her focus, trying out evidence and organization)

• WRITE progress reports to “keep the violin strings vibrating”• Elbow’s “cutting” idea—slices of text, then move them around on a table

to see what goes together• Let’s WRITE: then SHARE a story about giving feedback on an evidence-

based writing assignment

Relevant Resources:Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Print.Elbow, Peter and Pat Belanoff. “Ruminations and Theory: The Ongoing Conversation.” A Community of Writers. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995. 355-55. Print.Elbow, Peter and Mary Deane Sorcelli. “How to Enhance Learning by Using High-Stakes and Low-Stakes Writing.” 2005. Web. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDYQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscholarworks.umass.edu%2Fcontext%2Fpeter_elbow%2Farticle%2F1004%2Ftype%2Fnative%2Fviewcontent&ei=x7GjULLZDufG0QGRmICYCg&usg=AFQjCNE78LGHWiyENRaVL20dPMIiI5_kpAFrick, Jane. “Book Review: Retracing the Journey: Teaching and Learning in an American High School.” 17 May 2011. nwp.org. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3571Tuchman, Barbara. “In Search of History.” Practicing History. New York: Knopf, 1981. Print.Vilardi, Teresa and Mary Chang. Writing-based Teaching. Albany: State U of New York P, 2009. Print.http://wac.colostate.edu/resources.cfmhttp://www.lehman.edu/literacy-studies/nyc-writing-project/documents/Schulten_TeachertoTeacher1.pdfhttp://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource_topic/writing_across_the_curriculum

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTSMargaret Fiore

Closing thoughts…

• Handout--quotes about what research is• According to Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff, “…

a conversation with ourselves and others across history and geography…”

• By your evidence-based assignment design, help students join such a conversation and feel comfortable there

SCALE, SEQUENCE, SCAFFOLDING: SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL EVIDENCE-BASED WRITING ASSIGNMENTSMargaret Fiore

The Parking Lot: Your Questions• Reflect: Please look again at your initial

reflection—is there any dilemma you’d like to discuss?

• Write: Imagine one of your students for whom this SNRQ-focusing method sounds most helpful...which step(s) would s/he find most challenging?