From what I’ve witnessed in my classroom, the main struggle comes down to a lack of vocabulary [defined as broadly as possible]. My students have ideas in their head of what they want to say, but they struggle with the transformation of ideas to text. This problem manifested itself in a different way with the collage assignment. In that format, a few students who had previously written indifferent narratives were able to muster a greater degree of skill in the audio/visual components of the collage. Of course, many students also went from weakness to weakness as they struggled with technology the same way that they had struggled to write.

Where do students acquire the tools they need to build an idea into a text? My best guess is by reading widely and critically. Before class the other day, my students were discussing the Harry Potter books. While a few students had read them all multiple times, many were only mildly aware that they had even started out as books before being adapted for the screen. To these students, reading is a skill that is used strictly for academic purposes and rarely, if ever, for pleasure. I’m skeptical that reading Harry Potter books would make one an astute, critical reader later in life, but it’s a possible stepping stone to that higher order thinking.

I’ve heard it said that writing is thinking, but I’m not sure that’s entirely valid. In person, in discussion, my students have much more incisive, penetrating remarks than they ever do in a text. The transition from their heads to their pens is where the fault lies.