NCB-IDA Summer 2004 Newsletter: Beyond the Basics to Meaningful Writing

Beyond the Basics to Meaningful Writing
by Lynne Stietzel, M.A., M.Ed., B.C.E.T.

When students progress past the point of parroting back what they imagine a teacher wants in written assignments and become able to formulate their own thoughts and words, they are on their way to becoming truly self-sufficient, thinking individuals. It is only when students become personally involved with the content of a subject, rather than just memorizing and regurgitating it, that they can produce meaningful writing. Students need to be able to relate everything they learn to their own lives if they are to go beyond the basics of writing. But how do we help struggling students to reach this more sophisticated level of written expression?

First, students must have some basic technical foundation in how to write. We are lucky to have many wonderful basic programs that can be used individually or in combination to teach learning-different students the fundamentals of writing. Programs such as Auman's Step Up to Writing, Scarry and Scarry's The Writer's Workplace with Readings, and the colored templates of Haynes and McMurdo's Structured Writing Process can be used by teachers and parents who want to learn the nuts and bolts of teaching writing. These and dozens of other programs are all fairly user friendly. Most teach how to brainstorm, write sentences, and paragraphs, as well as how to organize ideas, write introductions, thesis statements, body paragraphs and conclusions. The programs are systematic and allow students to progress at their own pace.

Often as teachers or parents we wipe our brows in relief and feel we have accomplished our goal when our learning-different students master the rudimentary skills of writing a "hamburger paragraph:" a topic sentence for the top bun, details sandwiched between, and a conclusion for the bottom bun. We proudly think, "Finally this child has learned the structure of writing." Indeed, we should be proud, for such a task is often a monumental one for many of our learners. But is it any wonder that many students often find writing tedious and "boring?" They demonstrate lots of hard work and perseverance, and yet they seldom get to the most exciting part of writing: being able to take ownership of a piece that exhibits their in-depth understanding and ability to think. Learning just the fundamentals of writing with no attempt at critically thinking about the content is like spending years earning money to buy a special car or house, but never taking the extra step to research the buying of that treasure because of fear, exhaustion, or simply lack of knowledge.

Becoming a deeper, substantive writer is a skill that is rarely taught, yet it can be mastered, just like the mechanics of writing. Our job as teachers is to bring students to a point where they are no longer simply obsessed with the construction and organization of their writing, but are analyzing and struggling with the very information itself, connecting the dots in their knowledge so that they slowly but surely grow in their ability to think and communicate about ideas. In our sound-bite television culture, which encourages us to accept without analysis, it is wonderful when our children can deepen their writing and show the connection between it and their thoughtfully internalized learning. They become like fine painters who paint a little and then step back to examine their art and then paint a bit more and analyze a bit more, until they are satisfied with the perfect combination of texture, composition, and color.

Becoming a Substantive Writer

Once students have mastered the rudiments of sentence structure and paragraphing, it is important to engage them at this deeper cognitive level. However, learning-disabled students need to be explicitly taught how to write thoughtfully through critical examination of the material they are writing about and intimate interaction with what they read. In The Thinker's Guide to How to Write a Paragraph: The Art of Substantive Writing (Foundation for Critical Thinking: www.criticalthinking.org), authors Richard Paul and Linda Elder lay out a template with the acronym of SEE-I that explicitly guides writers in clarifying their understanding of subject matter and personally engages them with their written content. SEE-I asks young writers to:

State	Clearly state in a sentence the key ideas in their own words (paraphrase).
Elaborate	Expand in greater detail without repetition.
Exemplify	Give a concrete example from the real world so there is a connection for writer and reader.
Illustrate	For depth, use metaphors, analogies, similes, or word pictures to enhance understanding. (Elementary school children are expected to draw pictures that relate to their words; older students need to be able to draw pictures with words.)

Using all four of these steps is the key to becoming a good writer. Unfortunately, students are rarely taken beyond the first two steps, and thus it is no wonder that they cannot hold and internalize information, let alone communicate it fully. Students often fall short in their ability to think of concrete examples and to find analogies or metaphors that personalize the essence of the material. Yet stopping after the first two steps is like pouring the foundation of a house, erecting the basic structure, but never making it into a home by adding the personal touches and decorations that say this is me.

Practicing Substantive Writing

Practicing in-depth writing using the SEE-I template is extremely important. Repetitive practice of this technique in isolation is vital to being able to eventually transfer the technique to longer compositions. For example, we might have students carefully read and then write a paragraph about the meaning of a well known passage, such as this one from the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."

As a first step, students may need to look up words such as self-evident, truths, unalienable, and Liberty in order to understand their meaning. Then students can write their paragraph by analyzing the quote according to the four steps of SEE-I. The following example, a composite of three students' work, shows how using the SEE-I model builds a compelling paragraph:

State - It is obvious that every person is to be treated equally and has rights that cannot be taken away; these rights include the privilege to live, the opportunity to be free, and the permission to do things which make them happy.

Elaborate - Nobody may arbitrarily end the life of another or impinge on another's rights to have the same freedoms and choices as any other person. Today this most likely has a broader interpretation than it had originally. Although these rights were initially limited to white men, they now extend to everyone regardless of their race, color, creed, gender or intellectual ability.

Exemplify - For example, at one time in the history of America, black people were thrown into jail if they tried to eat at a restaurant, watch a movie or take a drink from a fountain that was designated for whites only. This was made illegal because people were made to realize that black people are persons too.

Illustrate - Being sure that every human being receives their equal rights is a little like tending a beautiful garden with a large variety of plants all of which need sunlight, soil, water and nutrients to grow. When tending plants equally, one must realize that although the basic needs are the same, each plant is slightly different and needs its own special combination of ingredients to allow it to grow freely and flourish happily in the garden. Likewise, being equal for humans does not mean that everyone must be exactly alike, but it does mean that they are equally entitled to get what they need to thrive and be happy, regardless of the fact that people are all different.

Helping Students Paint Word Pictures

Spelling and punctuation aside, lacking the ability to make verbal pictures is probably the single biggest reason that our children do not do well on essays and especially the ERB and other state-mandated writing tests. Nancy Bell, of Lindamood-Bell fame, built her whole program of Visualizing, Verbalizing on the very premise that if people are to remember what they read and then communicate it well to others, they must first have a picture of the content they wish to convey in their minds. So it is with being a good writer-students must be able to clearly communicate verbal pictures to their readers.

We need to encourage our students to engage actively and enthusiastically with the material they are writing about. Good writers, just like good readers, need to ask questions each time they encounter new content or a new idea. What exactly am I (or is that person) saying? How does that information link to my (or my reader's) life? What images of this material do I have in my mind (or want my readers to have in their mind)?

For example, if writing about something in science like the life cycle, students need to ask themselves, "What is a life cycle?" "Where do I see that in my life?" "What is the picture in my mind?" In this case, they need to imagine such thoughts as "When I eat a hamburger, it gives me energy; that energy came from the cow eating the grass, which in turn got its energy from the sun and recycled waste products." No matter what the content, we need to help our students begin to personalize the information they are trying to understand and convey.

Practice Builds Skill

So often we hear words of frustration from our students: "I can't do this anymore," "This is too hard," or "This is taking too long." We may placate them by requiring less of them, while we secretly worry that they aren't really getting what they need from us. However, we can take a lesson from a good sports coach, who might hear these same words from his or her players. A good coach never says, "Let me just tell you how to do this, so you don't have to work so hard," or "I know it's hard, so you don't need to learn all these plays." The fact is that most sports players practice many hours a week before they are expected to produce a final product, even if they are novices. They practice, then assess, then practice some more. Likewise, when working with dyslexics, we use similar repetitive techniques for teaching phonics, and so it should be with learning to write in depth. It must be practiced every bit as much as basic writing mechanics if we expect our learning-different children to produce quality work.

Writing with a conscious approach is not easy, yet the beauty and depth of communication that our students can achieve is tremendous. It is worth our patient time to assist our youngsters in growing beyond the basics to meaningful writing.

Lynne D. Stietzel, M.A., M.Ed., B.C.E.T., is an educational therapist in private practice in Palo Alto, Ca. She facilitates a monthly LD/ADHD parent support group/lecture series and serves on the board of the NCB-IDA.

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