Along with the other members of the English Dept., I attended
a workshop put on by Bard College entitled, Writing to Learn. We spent an
entire day as students, reading extremely challenging articles, excerpts and
poems and writing about them. Our instructor purposely gave us difficult texts
to show us how our students often feel when presented with a reading challenge.
Genius! As I struggled to understand the literature, I appreciated having time
to grapple with my thoughts in writing, to discuss my ideas with a peer, and
then to hear the ideas of the group before returning to the text for another
reading. (We never had time to return to the text, but boy, I wanted to!)

The difference between the writing that the instructor was
having us do and the writing we English teachers often have our students do
lies in the purpose. We teachers often use writing as a form of final assessment
while the workshop used writing as a learning tool. While I expected the
workshop to teach me how to become a better teacher of writing, it actually
helped me become a better teacher of reading. Many of the strategies that we
learned about at the conference, like quick writes and dialectical journals, have
been around for ages. I continue to have my students use them, but I must admit
that I often toss these exercises aside for “more important” activities,
especially during a 45-minute class period. After using them myself at this
workshop, though, I realize just how effective they can be in the learning
process.

One approach that was rather new to me (but integral to
science classes, I’m sure) involved simply writing down observations without
judgement. All of our critical thinking begins there, with what we notice. The
instructor projected a picture at the front of the classroom, and all we had to
do was write down what we saw in the image. Then, in “popcorn” style, we read
our observations, one at a time and beginning with the phrase “look at”, to the
rest of the group. This was a comforting exercise for me because I couldn’t go
wrong. I felt validated by the affirming nods from my peers as I read each of
my observations. Plus, my classmates noticed things that had escaped my
attention. We then did the same exercise with a difficult poem. Again, the
stakes were low, and I learned from my classmates. I felt like I could take
risks. I also felt grateful to my observant peers.

By the way, every writing activity we did in the workshop was
pen to paper. The instructor was adamant about the benefits of writing by hand
when struggling with new ideas. She must be right; after every writing exercise,
I felt like I had a better understanding of the text. The best part was that I
was figuring it out for myself, with a little help.