I realize that we talked about the following topic in class a little, but I wanted to further divulge the subject as I think it's an important one and one I'd like to think through it more thoroughly. So... In The Discovery of Competence by Kutz, Groden and Zamel, chapter three expresses, "...the classes that will bring students into this community must necessarily focus, in a conscious way, on the students' development of new ways of thinking as well as their acquisition of new uses of language” (37). The chapter then gives examples of theories, such as Piaget’s, to discuss the development of the students’ minds in these basic writing classes, though I’m not sure we need a scientific/psychological explanation to understand the patterns of these students.
Piaget makes the comparison of the mind of a basic writer to that of a child learning his/her first language. I think this may be a little harsh, though helpful in some ways. However, as we discussed in class, we cannot technically compare the mind of a child to that of an adult and feel good about ourselves. So what’s really happening? My theory, and it seems obvious and non-genius to me, is that these basic writing students have not had opportunities to successfully practice higher-order thinking skills, and therefore do not know how to accomplish these skills in writing or otherwise. So the solution? Teach them to think in these new ways! Because the adult is in fact an adult, it should be an easy task… if the teacher can show the student these new skills in a way that is understandable and meaningful. Sometimes telling a student to write a persuasive paper where they take a position on a topic boggles his/her mind for some reason. But if examples are given from the students of fights they’ve had recently with their friend, neighbor, mom, boyfriend… and those examples are used to explain the perimeters of a persuasive paper, all of a sudden it makes sense. Just like with any person, context makes all the difference. So it’s not that these students don’t have these skills in them somewhere, it’s that perhaps we don’t have the correct methods to bring them out. Maybe I’m simplifying too much. I tend to do that. But I know for sure that too many things that could be simple are often made much more difficult than necessary. Let’s not complicate the matter, but just get the job done.
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I agree that we need students to be able to use higher level thinking skills. I think the problem lies in the fact that if they are already college students, then the time given in a Basic Writing class to teach them to think in this way is beyond reason. Higher level thinking skills should have been ingrained at a much earlier age. I guess my question would be "is this the fault of the student who didn't learn earlier, or of the teacher who did not prepare the student for the future?"
I also thought Piaget's reference of BW students to small children not quite right. Those are two very different brains usually.
Yeah, it was kind of harsh to describe learning basic writing as a baby learning to talk, and it could be that the students just haven't had an opportunity to learn. However, a lot of the people who teach writing, have been good writers from the very beginning. I've never had a hard time writing my thoughts on paper, but some people do. I guess a more constructive way of stating the nature of teaching basic writing is learning how to play a musical instrument. We have a basic understanding of how the oboe works, but need a teaching agent and a manual in order to play a tune. It's the same analogy as the baby-thing, with just a little more dignity.
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