XplanaZine

I ran into friend of mine at Starbucks this past weekend and we had a nice conversation about “contexts” in learning. This friend teaches History at the University of Oklahoma and he’s been working on and off with students whose writing skills aren’t what he expects or needs them to be.

Now, before everybody goes off half-cocked and starts lamenting the writing skills of students today, you need to understand that my friend’s contention wasn’t that his students hadn’t been exposed to the rules of the road in composition — heck, we both agreed that most of them probably made an “A” or a “B” in English Composition and had demonstrated acceptable writing knowledge at one point in their academic careers. No, what he believed was that these students had never learned to write within real “contexts” — they had never really applied their learned writing skills to real ideas in real situations.

Now, I’ve got to admit that I’m pretty sympathetic with his thesis.

• I have two sons who love to write. They are creative, know how to blog, IM, send copious e-mails. In short, they communicate fairly well with the written word. Shoot, one of them even wants to be a novelist one day. But they are both still struggling with the concept of formal composition. They’ve learned to write compositions in their English classes in school. They just haven’t been able to transfer those skills to the writing contexts of their real world.
• I’ve got Project Managers with nice degrees from Syracuse, Butler, and Cal but who struggle at times to put together clear and concise paragraphs (in other words, I spend more of my time that I’d like editing their work but not near as much as I probably should).
• And I’ve got graduate students, whose theses I’m supposed to be reading and evaluating, and they are just now learning the basics rules of grammar and composition.

Yes, I believe my friend is right. Context in writing is mighty important. And there are a couple of other things that can make a difference too. Here’s my list of the three most important things when it comes to writing well.

• First of all, context is essential. Learning to write for the sake of writing may be important but good writing won’t happen for most people until they apply the rules of grammar and composition to something that is important to them or that they really care about. At that point, they’ll remember the differences between colons and semi colons or when they should or shouldn’t use commas. Of course, what’s true for composition is also true for other subjects we teach. Providing practical, meaningful, and personal contexts for learning is essential if we want to produce learners who can actually use the information they have acquired in their educational experiences.
• Next on the list is time. Time is necessary. I remember this one student I had who defied everything I used to think about learning languages. After only one semester of classroom Spanish he possessed a passable level of oral proficiency and an intuitive understanding of Spanish culture and thinking. I mention this student because he was an exception. Completely abnormal. For everyone else, it takes a lot more time to acquire proficiency in a language through classroom experience. For most people, in fact, acquiring proficiency in anything takes lots of time. It is an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary process.
• Finally, when it comes to writing, practice is fundamental. As with many skills, writing is something we get better at simply by doing it. We gain confidence, get a better sense of what feels and sounds right, and become more comfortable with the editing and polishing processes.

Of course if you put these three things together, you have what I would call a sound educational philosophy. Context, time, and practice are the cornerstones of the learning foundation. And yet, as simple as all that sounds, there are still many times when we try to take shortcuts, build neat learning outcome grids that don’t allow for these elements, or insist on assessment over practice and real learning.

Not that any of that should come as a complete surprise. We are a culture of hustle and hurry. We are a people who like our results now rather than later. Unfortunately, real learning doesn’t necessarily happen that way. Time and practice simply don’t fit in as ingredients of the formula for instant success.

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