Intellectual nutrition for the snack food junkie

What’s in that bag of cookies or chips could be an opening to a wholesome discussion and project in which learners fully engage in technical writing.

Something about junk food satisfies and comforts us; we crave the fats, sugars, or salts they offer and ignore their potentially harmful side effects or their bleak nutritional value. Have you ever read the ingredient list of your favorite snack food? You’d need a degree in chemistry or in nutrition to translate many of those labels. For example, what is monosodium glutamate, acidophilus, rapeseed, or a medium-chain triglyceride? More important, what are these ingredients doing in my food, and what are their effects on my body? Such a guiding question — one rooted in a student’s own curiosity and desire to know — can motivate learning.

I use this exact scenario to stimulate student curiosity and to begin the inquiry process in a technical writing project. With the Internet at their fingertips, those answers are within easy reach. Students have an appetite for discovery when the topic matters to them.

When writing projects have an authentic reader beyond the classroom teacher, students see a direct connection between their lives and their literacy development. That connection is key to learning engagement and motivation. Furthermore, according to Burke (2010), when learning is organized around meaningful, clear questions motivated by a student’s own curiosity, “they understand better, remember longer, and engage more deeply and for greater periods of time” (p. 11). Such writing also supports the Common Core State Standards and their focus on informational texts and on literacy in technical subjects.

The new distinctions in the standards have important implications for teaching practice because the common standards invite inquiry that focuses on questions students might ask as they try to understand content and deepen their learning. Evidence-based practices and the Common Core are asking teachers to abandon the traditional call-and-response structure in favor of more meaningful discourse with students. Hallmarks of the inquiry process encourage learners to:

Pose questions or “wonderings”;
Collect data to gain insights into their wonderings;
Analyze that data along with reading relevant literature;
Make changes in thinking/behavior based on new understandings developed during inquiry; and
Evaluate those changes, and share findings with others.

In this inquiry-based environment, students are expected to reason, think critically, and apply their knowledge in meaningful ways so they make connections between content and their experiences. Ultimately, the common standards are about autonomous transfer: students solving complex problems outside of school independent of teacher-provided scaffolds.

Using inquiry in technical writing

Before students bring in their favorite snack to peruse its label, I make available a variety of technical writing documents (brochures, flyers, signs). Together, we define technical writing and its common purposes, tone, point of view, and style. Then, in small groups with a document in hand, students will discuss what makes the document effective. I don’t prompt them to look for certain elements beforehand; I allow the inquiry process to work.

After their inquiry sessions, students orally report their findings while I record their observations, which usually fall into three categories:

Design elements— headings, font variations and enhancement, bulleted lists, white space;
Text features— clear, concrete, detailed, factual information presented succinctly in an objective, formal tone free of opinion and jargon; and
Use of graphics— color blocks, line art, or pictures to add meaning and aesthetics to the page.

They generally notice that effective design helps organize the information to enhance the reader’s comprehension and to facilitate the eye’s movement or flow. They further recognize that the writing, graphics, and design work together to make the piece resourceful. In the new common standards, students are expected to know how to analyze texts in this manner as early as 2nd grade. For example, here’s one of the English language arts standards for reading informational text for grades 2-5:

Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.

With this knowledge about technical writing, students have a model for presenting their own research. I tell them to select one esoteric ingredient from their snack food and to discover what it is, why the product contains that item, and what effect that ingredient might have on the body. Not all students will select a nasty preservative or a chemical; some will choose to research dextrose or niacin, unaware of that ingredient’s nutritional character. As they research on web sites, students will print information, noting the details necessary for eventual citation and documentation purposes. To develop information literacy, they’ll also assess their sources for accuracy, credibility, and potential bias.

Students then present their findings in a tri-fold informational pamphlet, organizing it for maximum readability and suitable as consumer information. Microsoft Office Publisher, found on most school computer networks, provides templates for simplifying this task. With the Publisher program launched, the student simply selects Publications for Print and then clicks on Brochures. From here, students will choose a template, then insert text and choose color, graphics, and design.

We display the finished products, offering intellectual nutrition for other students and providing authentic publication for the writers. Students have seen such information brochures in the wider world, so such writing engages and motivates them because it is authentic.

How-to writing

How-to writing is another genre that often appeals to students because it is prevalent and applicable in their world. How-to writing includes everything from instructions for programming a cell phone or playing a video game to giving driving directions or golf lessons. Although this genre, also called process writing, gives instructions or directions, it can take on a range of possibility to match student interest. “How to Succeed in 4th Grade,” “How a Bill Becomes a Law,” and “How Food Moves through the Intestines” are examples that might align with what students want to know.

How-to writing often appeals to students because it is prevalent and applicable in their world.

Popular print and electronic magazines often feature the genre in such articles as “How to field dress a deer for the best venison” (Petzal, 2004) and “Twerkology 101: How I learned to twerk in three minutes” (Lowe, 2013). Entire books, like Dale Carnegie’s 1936 classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People, have been written using traditional aspects of the genre: imperatives, numbered lists, and explanations that elaborate on directions.

But the form also serves a purpose when genre boundaries blur and extend into social commentary and humor, like “How to beef up and be a bully” by Ian Thomsen (2003) or “Dave Barry’s complete guide to guys” (1996). Almost ubiquitous, the how-to genre also showed up when I visited Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., with a student group, where theater personnel handed out Audience Etiquette flyers. Modeled after a dictionary entry, the flyer shares both acceptable and unacceptable behavior:

Unacceptable behavior: dis-rup-tion dis-‘rep-shen n: the act of interrupting, showing disrespect.

Even poetry borrows the form with models like “How to make rhubarb wine” by former U.S. poet laureate Ted Kooser (1985) and “Recipe for a 7th-grade boy” and “How to pull an all-nighter” by poet, educator, and teacher advocate Taylor Mali (2002).

Because such writing involves exploring interests, identifying a topic, conducting several research methods, and working through the writing process, it not only engages students but fulfills the rigor outlined by the Common Core. I agree with Beers and Probst (2013) who argue that rigor is not an attribute of a text; instead, rigor resides in the energy and attention invested by a reader. Because of a reader’s invested interaction with a text, rigor is an attribute that aligns with motivation and engagement. The payoff of such rigor comes in the form of knowledge and writing development as student writing shows greater proficiency when their topics focus on what they know and care about.

An inquiry approach

Dean (2006) argues for what she calls “strategic writing” as a way to teach students strategies for manipulating texts to achieve different purposes. The inquiry process will also be relevant here in helping students develop their skills of observation, interrogation, comparing, contrasting, and evaluation. Inquiry allows students the opportunity to discover not only what process writing looks like but how it can take on different forms to accomplish diverse purposes. On the topic of inquiry, Wilhelm (2007) declares:

The research base is clear: Inquiry-oriented classrooms cultivate motivation and engagement, deepen conceptual and strategic understanding, produce higher-level thinking, develop productive habits of mind, and engender positive attitudes toward future learning (p. 16).

With inquiry, we embed test preparation into instruction because inquiry allows us to design an experience that cultivates innovation, collaboration, and critical thinking. We structure curriculum as a conversation (Applebee, 1996), and we teach the habits of mind defined by psychologist Howard Gardner that give students credibility: creativity, respect, ethics, discipline, and synthesis (2008).

This same inquiry concept pervades the ideas shared in Study Driven (2006), a book designed for elementary teachers. Author Katie Wood Ray says, “no one’s really studying anything if the lessons are already written” (p. xii). So she proposes inquiry as a means of making learning active and offers this framework:

Gather texts: Gather real-world texts that mirror examples of the kind of writing you wish to do.
Set the stage: Expect the piece of writing to show the influence of the study.
Immersion: Spend time reading and getting to know the texts you’ve gathered. Annotate the texts, noticing process, rhetorical moves, and strategies employed by writers of this craft.
Close study: Revisit the texts, and ask “What did we notice about how these texts are written?” Envision yourself using what you’re learning in your own writing. This is where important idea work happens.
Writing under the influence: Finish pieces of writing that show the influence of the study (p. 19).

From such inquiry, writers can pursue their own questions and genre interests:

How do writers use punctuation in powerful ways to craft their texts?
How do writers use description effectively to enhance their texts?
How do writers craft this genre so that it’s compelling for readers?
What kinds of topics do writers address with this genre, and what kinds of things do they do with these topics? (p. 125)

Writing curricula

Technical writing aims to communicate practical, instructive, and often prescriptive information. Whether presenting factual information, assembly and operational instructions, or how-to manuals, technical writing’s goal is to convey a message that is clear, concise, and helpful to its intended readers. Often called workplace or professional writing, technical writing is task-specific and focused in its presentation of useful information.

Most of the writing we read outside of school is this type of “real-world” writing. To practice such styles not only prepares a student for eventual employment but also provides practice in clarity, precision, and brevity for any writer. Many students welcome a change from the creative, personal, and subjective writing that often populates school writing curriculums in favor of a more objective style — one that transacts more than it beautifies. Technical writing supports effective communication in a particular discipline and differs from other writing by focusing on format and specific rhetorical techniques. It does not concentrate on topic or content selection and development or upon argumentation.

Many students welcome a change from the creative, personal, and subjective writing that often populates school writing curriculums in favor of a more objective style.

When integrated with established writing curricula, technical writing strategies complement and expand programs rather than compete with or replace composition or literature-based activities. With their alternate style, technical writing tasks differentiate instruction and give learners with diverse learning styles — including those who process information more literally, functionally, or technologically — a chance to experience writing competence.

Designing an informational pamphlet can be one performance assessment in a technical writing unit. This task comes as a practical application of learning about elements of design, features of text, and use of graphics. Drawing from the forms and techniques compiled during inquiry, designers will adopt the tone and language appropriate to the audience and create a pamphlet. All the while, students are reading complex informational texts, doing research, building their knowledge, and learning how to present their knowledge, all in line with Common Core reading and literacy standards.

References

Applebee, A. (1996). Curriculum as conversation: Transforming traditions of teaching and learning. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.

Barry, D. (1996). Dave Barry’s complete guide to guys. New York, NY: Ballantine.

Beers, K. & Probst, R. (2013). Notice & note: Strategies for close reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Burke, J. (2010). What’s the big idea? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Carnegie, D. (1936). How to win friends & influence people. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Dean, D. (2006). Strategic writing: The writing process and beyond in the secondary English classroom. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Gardner, H. (2008). Five minds for the future (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Kooser, T. (1985). Flying at night: Poems 1965-1985. Pittsburgh PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Lowe, J.M. (2013, March 13). Twerkology 101: How I learned to twerk in three minutes. Mused. www.musedmagonline.com/2013/03/twerkology-101-how-i-learned-to-twerk-in-3-minutes/

Mali, T. (2002). What learning leaves. Newtown, CT: Hanover Press.

Petzal, D.E. (2004, October 31). How to field dress a deer for the best venison. Field and Stream. www.fieldandstream.com/node/57387

Ray, K.W. (2006). Study driven. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Thomsen, I. (2003, October 27). How to beef up and be a bully. Sports Illustrated. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1030222/index.htm

Wilhelm, J.D. (2007). Engaging readers & writers with inquiry: Promoting deep understanding in language arts and the content areas with guiding questions. New York, NY: Scholastic Teaching Resources.

Citation: Miller, D.L. (2014). Intellectual nutrition for the snack food junkie. Phi Delta Kappan, 96 (1), 59-63.