Politics of a Paragraph

Thinking about last weeks class, we talked a lot about how we all have experienced the rigid five paragraph essay that we have been taught as gospel. All through high school we are focused on how to write in this "formulaic" way, with concise writing, no "fluff", etc. However, personally I believe this class has challenged that way of writing in multitudes of ways. I am a believer in the structure of paragraphs and the formulaic nature to it because that is what I know and have mastered between high school and college. SED 445 has brought what Christensen, Michelle Kenney and Chris Kindred  talk about and is pushing to change the way we think about our writing in schools. 

Academic writing takes away the creativity that students want to incorporate in their writing because they follow the academic structure of, "TISAS (pronounced “T-sauce”—topic sentence, introduction to supporting evidence, supporting evidence, analysis, summary, transition sentence) (Kenney and Kindred). I completely resonate with this format because I can see my old graphic organizers with these key words as sentence starters. Kenney and Kindred argue that this kind of writing is not engaged writing and I agree that this limits our thinking and almost makes writing like completing a math problem. (Why would we ever combine math and writing!) Writing is an act of discovery and should not be limited to this unmalleable structure. 

Christensen promotes the idea that students should be given opportunities to write with, "Subjects that are broad; they give students room for choice within the topic, and they offer multiple entry points" (Christensen 61). I like Christensen's word choice of entry points. Giving students these multiple entry points gives students agency to start with something that resonates most for them. Not every student may resonate with the one writing prompt that is framed to have a particular expected development. Therefore, giving multiple options encourages students to look at things from multiple perspectives. 

I also enjoyed how Christensen values narrative writing as a tool that can also aid them in understanding, "how authors construct stories and use literary tools like characterization, flashback, interior monologues, and figurative language" (Christensen 60). The more students are exposed to narrative writing that uses these tools to engage the reader in the writing, the more students will feel comfortable attempting to use these skills in their writing. "Blocking" is a theatre term I am very familiar with and I believe to be a great way to show students how descriptive a piece can really be. After reading a small passage, without assistance, students are able to 'act out' the scene being laid out. This is a great way to get students up and moving but also show them the power of words. That straying from the rigid academic formula can be very impressive writing. It shows there are other styles and tools they can use to take their writing to the next level. I love reading Christensen because she lays out her rationale with concrete ways and examples of how to facilitate these skills to our future students. Definitely keeping this book!