Put Learning Back into the Writers’ Hands: Using Protocols to Discover the “Rules” of Writing

Put Learning Back into the Writers’ Hands: Using Protocols to Discover the “Rules” of Writing Susan Mowers Co-director, Lake Michigan Writing Project Grand Rapids Community College

“Knowledge is socially constructed. That is, encounters with other people’s understanding enable learners to gain and deepen their own understanding.” -- McDonald, et al., The Power of Protocols

The Back Story • Episodic Non-Fiction: a new genre • Introducing ENF • Description • Example • Rubric • Draft

The Back Story 79% Comprehension

The Power of Communal Learning:Protocols “My ideal act of teaching is to get people to have an experience, not just talk.” -- Elbow, “Breathing Life Into The Text”

The Power of Communal Learning:Protocols My Research Questions: • Effect on writers’ understanding? • More quickly and effectively produce pieces? • Greater ownership?

The Power of Communal Learning:Protocols “The kind of talking needed to educate ourselves cannot rise spontaneously and unaided from just talking. It needs to be carefully planned and scaffolded.” -- McDonald , et al., The Power of Protocols

The Power of Communal Learning:Protocols A Facilitated “Conversation” • Levels the playing field • Gives “thinking time” • Establishes a community of learners • All voices contribute to understanding

The Power of Communal Learning:Protocols “Many people have not experienced protocol, so it is natural to be nervous the first time around.” -- Raeann, EN 102 student

Protocol Steps Jump-in Reading • Read aloud - someone else “jumps in” • No hand-raising • Optional participation • Mark lines that are important or stand out

Protocol Steps Round 1: Noticing Q. “What do you see?” A. “I notice… .” Describe the content of the work without making judgments of quality.

Protocol Steps Round 2: Stylistic features Q. “What writing techniques do you see?” A. “I notice… .” Describe the “writerly” aspects of the writing.

Protocol Steps Round 3: Questioning Q. “What questions does this work raise for you?” A. “I wonder… .” Questions about the writer, the work, the purpose, etc.

Protocol Steps Round 4: Speculation Q. “What do you think this writer is working on?” • “I think… because… .” • “Why do you think the writer is working on… ?” What is the writer trying to accomplish in this piece?

Protocol Steps Check your Learning Q. “What effect did the protocol have on your understanding of the genre?” • Write for 5 minutes • Share

Protocol Steps “Protocols force transparency . . . and make the steps of our learning visible and replicable.” -- McDonald, et al., The Power of Protocols

Protocol Steps “When you want to write in a certain form – a novel, short story, poem – read a lot of writing in that form . . . [I]t becomes imprinted inside you, so when you sit down to write, you write in that structure.” -- Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones

Protocol Timeline CLASS 1 Large group protocol (professional essay) • Create a Word document of protocol responses. • Homework: • Write a vivid “snapshot” of a scene.

Protocol Timeline CLASS 2 Share “snapshots” in groups • Compare stylistic features of “snapshots” with protocol responses. Large group protocol (student essay) • Create a Word document of protocol responses. • Compare stylistic features of professional essay with student essay.

Protocol Timeline CLASS 2 Share “snapshots” in groups • Compare stylistic features of “snapshots” with protocol responses. Large group protocol (student essay) • Create a Word document of protocol responses. • Compare stylistic features of professional essay with student essay. • Homework: • Write 2 – 3 vivid “snapshots” connected with a symbol.

Protocol Timeline CLASS 3 Small group protocols (2-3 different student essays) • Compare stylistic features of student essays with protocol responses. Share 2 – 3 vivid “snapshots” • Compare stylistic features of “snapshots” with protocol responses. • Homework: • Write a draft of ENF (5 scenes). • Writing challenge

Protocol Timeline CLASS 4 Share 5 scenes in Writing Workshop groups • How do the scenes meet the genre criteria? • What could the writer do to improve the piece? • Homework: • Revise the ENF draft.

Protocol Timeline Student Essay Scene 1

Protocol Timeline Student Essay Evolution of scene 5 (1)

Protocol Timeline Student Essay Evolution of scene 5 (2)

Protocol Timeline Student Essay Evolution of scene 5 (final)

Protocol Timeline “Instructors should encourage students to do extensive reading in a particular form of writing they will later be expected to produce themselves.” -- Falk, “Language Acquisition and the Teaching and Learning of Writing”

Do Protocols Work? My Research Questions: • Effect on writers’ understanding? • More quickly and effectively produce pieces? • Greater ownership?

Do Protocols Work? 79% Comprehension 93% Comprehension

Do Protocols Work? “Every English teacher before told me what the genre is and what an example of it is, then told me to write on it. But with these protocols, I taught myself what I was supposed to write.” -- Ethan, EN 102 student

Do Protocols Work? “If you stood in front of the class and told us to write an Episodic NF, I would have looked at you dumbfounded and unsure if you were even speaking English. . . . Calling a protocol a ‘necessary tool’ when introducing a genre is a very appropriate way of putting it.” -- Catalina, EN 102 student

Do Protocols Work? “Perhaps the most astonishing (yes, astonishing) thing is that we are actually contributing and learning (learning!) as a class.” -- Celia, EN 102 student

The Power of Protocols “The only knowledge you truly possess is knowledge you have somehow made.” -- Sheridan Blau, The Literature Workshop

The Power of Protocol Other Uses . . . • Talk about student work • Talk about literature Modify protocols for your own use.

Put Learning Back into the Writers’ Hands: Using Protocols to Discover the “Rules” of Writing Susan Mowers Co-director, Lake Michigan Writing Project Grand Rapids Community College

Put Learning Back into the Writers’ Hands: Using Protocols to Discover the “Rules” of Writing