Observe, Infer, Create 5

Observe, Infer, Create 5

Melissa Froseth-Sorge

NPWP Institute

Summer 2009

Writing research component

Observe, Infer, Create

“Would you light my candle?” - Mimi, Rent (Larson)

Inspiring, welcoming, an island of light: A candle is a beautiful analogy for the educational process, just as layers grow around the wick as the candle maker successively dips it in the wax. Traditionally, light symbolizes knowledge, a universal comparison; the flame is the result of a creative spark of ingenuity; like wax, teachers and students alike can mold and shape their perspectives and characters; and candles can light others without being diminished in turn.

On a basic level, a candle is symbolic of knowledge: a light in the darkness of ignorance. Students gaining knowledge is, after all, the main purpose of an education, illuminating paths of opportunity which would otherwise be missed in the shadows. Knowledge is only the first step toward the wisdom which will guide them through the journey of each new experience. Education provides students with the tools they need to live successful, fulfilling lives. When students are exposed to volumes of American history or the great literary classics, they learn how to become participants in the cultural saga. They gain more than the ability to discuss Hemmingway in a book group; they gain ownership of everything in that novel, connecting to a wider community of character and theme.

Not only does a candle provide light, but there is also something magical about it which creates an inspirational atmosphere. The rules of daylight are blurred; the rigid control of one’s mind is loosened. Ideas come freely and may be shared just as freely. It is a tremendous benefit to any educator to put her students at ease with herself, other students, and their own creative minds.

For many students, the hardest part of writing – or tackling any large-scale project – is finding the right idea. A classroom based on the collaboration of learners revels in its diversity, sparking countless options for learning and writing. A strong curriculum must include a variety of subjects, including music, art, and athletics, to provide students with resources for developing their interests. Creativity should be central to every classroom, as it is a key to critical and innovative thinking.

Just as the light of a candle projects welcoming warmth, a teacher must be approachable for her students. Attitude may not be everything, but it certainly plays a pivotal role in effective teaching. Both flexibility and structure are necessary to provide a conducive and sheltered environment which provides consistency yet can be altered for special events or students’ individual needs. Within the classroom, some students need help compensating for a disability; others may have other stressors which distract them, such as an emergency situation at home. Factors outside the classroom often intrude; for example, sports and other extra curricular activities may pull half the class away for a day, demanding readjustment of lesson plans on short notice. It takes concentrated effort on the part of the teacher to orchestrate all aspects of the classroom with grace and finesse.

Aside from fueling the candle’s light, wax has some unique properties which lend themselves to this comparison. Wax will conform to any mold when hot, but holds its shape when cooled. Likewise, students engage in a process to build themselves through the crucible of the classroom, examining, stretching, and molding their views to suit their ideals; as they near the end of their formal education, they can approach the world knowing who they are and what they’d like to become. With the opportunities provided by the teacher, students commit themselves to their own discovery. The knowledge of how to continue learning throughout one’s lifetime and how to apply those new skills in an ever-changing world is essential. As students grow academically and professionally, they must be encouraged to think critically about choices to make responsible, independent decisions. By learning these skills, students can engage in the fine art of self-renewal, finding and applying knowledge on their own. They become life-long learners, accessing a renewable fuel source through research and their own capable minds.

Even before students have mastered these skills, they can apply another fundamental lesson: One of the best things about a candle is that it can light many others without decreasing itself. Rather, the light in a room increases by sharing the flame. The more students a teacher can reach with a lesson, the better their quality of education will become. It’s a chain reaction: each student’s increased awareness brings more ideas, leading to better discussion. Creating such an exciting environment stimulates interest and participation, and the cycle accelerates to engulf everyone. Eventually, each student will share some flame of knowledge with another, and the glow will grow.

Each of these candle metaphors applies to the lesson “Observe, Infer, Create: Writing from Primary Research.” This lesson is intended to improve students’ perceptive and critical thinking skills. Since drawing conclusions from primary research seems to be difficult for high school students, this lesson challenges them to use both their prior knowledge and their creativity to respond to and infer characteristics from a picture. The objectives for this lesson are threefold:

·  Students will analyze photographs of people for specific characteristics and describe them using precise language and grade-level vocabulary.

·  Students will make inferences and draw conclusions from their own observations.

·  Students will use their information to write a character profile in first-person point of view then edit and revise for a publishable product.

The lesson opens with a review of descriptive language, especially the difference between overused adjectives and verbs and those with impact. This process activates prior knowledge and sparks the creativity within the students. Next, I allow students to choose any picture of a person from a magazine. They should be able to see the person’s face and the individual should not be someone famous about whom they may have preconceived notions. This picture will be a further “spark” to inspire the students in writing their character profiles. Once the character is selected, students respond to a list of questions intended to lead them from denotative meaning to connotative meaning. To ensure clarity, I define denotative as “what you see” and connotative as “what is implied.” Since the terms are so similar, I remind students that connotative is like a con man: a con man is much more than he appears, so it is important to look beneath the surface to find what he really is. With this knowledge, students prewrite on the following questions:

1.  Describe the person’s facial features. What makes him/her unique?

2.  Describe the person’s expression. What is he/she thinking or feeling?

3.  Based on what he/she is wearing, how would you characterize this person’s sense of style?

4.  What activity is this individual engaged in? What does this say about him/her?

5.  Elaborate on the individual’s personality, such as thoughts, feelings, and values.

After students have compiled their lists, they interact with others in the class, sharing their perceptions and giving feedback to their peers to “grow the light” of their ideas. They are able to use reference materials, such as a dictionary or thesaurus to aid their quest for descriptors using grade-level vocabulary. I walk among them, giving feedback and encouraging their efforts.

Once their prewriting is completed, I review the concepts of first-person point of view and character profile. Students then create meaning through writing by developing a first person character profile for the individual in the picture. Writing from someone else’s point of view allows students to experiment with attitude and experience empathy.

Students initially check their own work then have a peer review the writing for the following characteristics:

1.  Consistent first-person point of view

2.  Appropriate voice

3.  Vivid verbs and powerful descriptors

4.  Standard edited American English

These traits help students express themselves effectively to the larger community, an ever important skill in our information savvy society. Through their published finished draft, they are communicating their own unique interpretation from a visual media.

The fundamentals of this lesson are supported by a variety of research, beginning with the descriptive language review intended to encourage words with impact. According to David Holliway, “For descriptive writing to be successful, readers need critical information that articulates a clear picture through the writer’s words.” If the information is vague because of limited vocabulary, the writer will be unsuccessful in creating a living image with his or her character profile.

The next stage of the lesson suggests a modeled example to guide students through the process. This step is important on two levels. First, it can clarify the teacher’s role as a fellow writer: “Teaching for creativity in writing requires not only knowledge, skills and understanding, but the emotional capacity to tolerate uncertainty, take risks and engage artistically…It is argued that in order to support children’s creative development as writers, teachers need extended opportunities to engage artistically and creatively as writers themselves” (Cremin 415). When students see their teachers engaging in the process, especially an imperfect work in progress, it authenticates the lesson for them. Secondly, seeing the process modeled can improve students’ writing process on not only the current project but also future writing projects. “Writers who learned by observation performed more high-level processes like planning. Furthermore, for some activities, these writers showed a changing pattern of execution over time” (Braaksma et al. 2).

In steps three and four, teachers utilize magazine pictures as a medium for learning denotation and connotation, requiring media literacy and critical thinking skills. As Alvermann and Hagood suggest, “critical media literacy is a natural and necessary component of day-to-day literacy instruction” (Van Horn 128). Such literacy has an added bonus: “Becoming visually and critically literate is closely related to narrative writing, in that writers of stories need to heighten their awareness of the ways that words and images convey meaning” (Van Horn 128). In other words, being good observers will help students become good writers.

Observation cannot remain superficial to be effective, but teachers must be cautious when asking students to make assumptions even about magazine pictures. There is no such thing as a value-free reading, because “the meaning of a written message, a visual image, or a sound bit rests not in the thing itself but instead in us, the audience – the reader, the viewer, the listener” (Alvermann, Moon, and Hagood qtd. in Van Horn 128). We make meaning with text or pictures based on our own experiences and beliefs; additionally, students need to be aware of the effect their character profile in progress may have on the intended audience. Teachers need to step back and let students take ownership of their opinions; Blachowicz and Fisher declare, “As in all learning situations, having learners attempt to construct their own meanings is a hallmark of good teaching” (Olson 313).

Peer collaboration is an essential part of this lesson, because in this “interpretive community” students can “construct knowledge together” (Olson 293). As mentioned above, synergy in the classroom results in more ideas and better discussion. It is the responsibility of the teacher to “create a risk-free environment that supports social interaction, open discussion of ideas, and multiple perspectives” (NCTE).

As students develop their character profiles, they have some unique opportunities to refine their writing skills. One area in which students struggle is finding their voice. Rebecca Gemmell gives an example of one such student: “Here was a bright, articulate, witty young man whose papers read like cardboard. He did what I call ‘robot writing’…I wasn’t hearing his voice or ideas in his writing” (64). She suggests that students have become programmed to simply regurgitate what they hear from teachers rather than creating their own opinions, because “it was easier that way. And it was what they were used to” (Gemmell 65). With the necessity of becoming someone else in a first-person character profile, students feel free to create voice, a practice which could spill over into their other writings, too.

In addition, this writing assignment encourages students to examine both their perceptions and limits in a new way. As Karen Rodriguez suggests, “creative writing as an arts-based method of qualitative inquiry…provides students and researchers a powerful way to reflect upon … experience” (1). An important role of the classroom is to push students outside their comfort zones. Maxine Greene states, “creative projects help us move beyond the barriers that impede us from imagining other realities than our own” (Rodriguez 4). Rodriguez takes this even further when she claims creative writing can be used

as a means through which to question the status quo, deconstruct one’s ideas, and work towards social change. These too valorize personal experience as expert knowledge, and highlight the relationship between the personal and the social with a keen eye towards unmasking how power and ideology function in this relationship. Words are seen as shaping reality and society, so it follows that learning to write in new ways could lead to re-thinkings of society (6).