Sunday, October 1, 2017

Brain Dumps, Summaries, and Collaborative Writing

Today in two of my classes, we did a brain dump, where both class went the whiteboard and “dumped” everything they had in their brains about two of the major readings we’ve been analyzing. By “dump" I mean list absolutely everything they knew about our two readings. Half the class worked on Paulo Freire chapter “The ‘Banking Mode’ of Education”. The other focused on Jean Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum.” We’re working on a big writing project based on both readings, and I wanted to do some retrieval practice and to compose summaries - a key element of their essay.


I put a handful of markers at two sides of the whiteboard, one side for Anyon, the other for Freire. I split the class in half, and asked students to dump away on their essay. I told student they could use their notes. Several small groups clustered around single recorders, sharing responses and arguing what would be the best way to phrase their responses. Others passed around markers, adding their ideas to the board one by one. Some even started sketching icons and images representing ideas. I urged the students who couldn’t get to the board (it got crowded and loud!) to share ideas with a partner - to loosen up their brains and practice speaking their ideas.

After five minutes, teams switched theorists and sides. They first reviewed what their peers had written before adding their fresh ideas. I continued coaching folks to keep working - in teams or individually, or to simply eyeball notes and share ideas with a partner.

Next, I asked for volunteers from each side of the board to read their lists and to explain any illustrations. I praised students for their efforts and for their collaborative spirit. Even the folks who worked solo seemed to feel invested in communal effort.

Students returned to their seats and I reminded them of our big task - to compose an analytical essay using Anyon and Freire’s conceptual frameworks. I noted that their essays would require a summary of each text and that we would draft those now while their minds were fresh.


After counting off by two, I assigned “ones” to compose a quick and dirty “nutshell” summary of Freire’s ideas. “Twos” were to do the same with Anyon’s ideas. I told all to imagine explaining their author’s main ideas to an interested friend, someone who really wanted to know what we were learning but who hadn’t read the essays. "Make 'em short and sweet,” I said. “But be sure to capture the scholars' big idea, not just details!” I also reminded them to consult the board for the raw material they’d just harvested.

The following silence contrasted our spirited brain dump. All I could hear were students riffling through essays and notes, scanning for key phrases and words. Heads bobbed up and down as students’ focus shuttling back and forth between the board, their readings, and their drafts.

After ten minutes of incredible concentration, I divided the class into groups of students who summarized the same reading. I asked students to read their drafts to each other and to find and consolidate their most important, clearest ideas together into a single, short summary. This took about fifteen minutes. Energy levels rose again as students debated the meaning and structure of their summaries. I shuttled between groups, prodding and guiding students. That prodding consisted of me directing them back to the original texts, to each others’ drafts, or to the board.

Then they posted their nutshell summaries on the board and shared them with the class. We noted similarities and differences in content and structure. Because we had six groups, three teams per reading, students now had three solid first draft summaries for each article, “quick and dirty” drafts to revise,edit, and work into their bigger essay.
Students snapped images of the paragraphs to their cells phones. In one class, a student volunteered to type up all the paragraphs so we could work on revision and editing next week. In the other class, volunteers from each team to sent me digital copies of their drafts.

Below are the sample Anyon “nutshells” that students in my “one-and-two levels below-transferable-English” class drafted. Each team had at least two or more English language learners in the group.  I admit that I did some minor polishing and proofreading before posting here. But I assure you, the content is theirs.

(1) There is no secret to why the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. The article written by Anyon it focuses in the different types of working classes and how the education bestowed upon their kids is dependent upon their income. Kids whose parents make less money get an education that prepares them for a job like their parents and the same for rich.

(2) In the essay, “Social class and Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon she states four social classes and they are, working class, middle class, affluent professional. And lastly the executive elite. The working and middle class are the 40 percent of the population, the affluent professional is the 10 percent of the population and the executive elite is the one percent of the population.

(3) Schools mold students mind according to their social class recreate/reproduce more of the same class type keep everyone in the same “lane”, aka class. The different social classes are just recreating the same thing. Teachers train students in different ways according to which social class they belong to.

To be sure, the drafts show mechanical and surface level errors, an aspect of composition I have yet to address. And the second sample, while accurate, left out Anyon’s main argument, i.e., that our education system recreates the social classes by the way students are taught, by the mode of instruction. But you will note that two out of three identified the essay’s most salient idea, despite relatively minor surface level errors. And this was, after all, a 
draft with zero craft instruction. 

Tomorrow, we will review and identify craft errors (after we clarify Anyon’s argument!). This will happen in the context of an authentic writing task. But no one can tell me that these students cannot handle the material. They comprehend. Yes, their writing is not at college level - yet. But when given the appropriate scaffolding, students can handle challenging texts. We’ll work on structure, grammar, and the like - but in the context of a substantial college topic.


Students did a remarkable job, from start to finish. They listed. They manipulated ideas, prioritizing and evaluating ideas. They paraphrased and consolidated ideas. And they practiced crucial soft-skills they’ll need as they move through college and into their careers: negotiating, working in teams, managing tasks and time. And they experienced how working together made accomplishing the task easier, more effective, maybe even pleasurable!





Many thanks to KM from the mighty, mighty ENG 99 class for her able revision and editing notes! 

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