Drawing IS Writing

These clips show moments in the class that Katie and I were very excited by when they were occurring, and both marked with so many flags that when Brad started talking, I accidentally wrote Blag and we both contracted a nearly terminal case of the giggles.

But--I'm not sure they're exciting as episodes per se--I don't know that I could really say "something interesting HAPPENED". I think they are exciting because the *ideas* that the teachers are communicating are exciting to us! I see these clips as showing us not the process of learning, but a demonstration of some of the learning that has occurred over the past several weeks.

It seems to me that the teachers are expressing that writing is not the only way, or even the best way, to represent an abstract idea. Akbar points out that drawing using symbols but so does writing, "so in a way, drawing IS writing." Julie takes it even further: "Drawing is even MORE abstract" and less prone to "BS-ing" using what Brad calls "the conventions of writing". I don't think it's a stretch to say that these views may have been influenced by the teachers' participation in energy theater, which uses ways other than written language to communicate ideas about abstraction. I also have felt the importance of escaping the "conventions of written language" over the past two weeks--I can see how when my students use words like "respiration" and "metabolism", it is too easy to assume that they mean what I mean when I use those words. Having students represent their ideas in other ways might give me--and them--a better insight into what they are truly thinking. This is a very powerful idea that *I* have learned over the past few weeks!

Transcripts
Clip #1
Akbar: With drawing, when you're learning something it's easier to see it...You see it here (gestures out, as if to a piece of paper) and then you see it here (gestures in). And then you're able to draw what you see. It's easier to see it than say it. And so writing is like saying it, and drawing is like seeing it. So sometimes it's easier to see it.(continues gestures) And then once you see it very well, now it's easier to say it.  Drawing is a good segue into writing, like a first line of defense, or first thing to do. Like BOOM--ok, I'm going to gather what I'm seeing in my mind's eye. And then from here, now, if you're able to talk about it...then it would be easier to put it into writing.  Drawing is real good tool...A lot of times kids are fearful of writing...say they may have language barriers or other things, and they may not have the right words to say it, or the appropriate words.  But drawing is almost universal, there's not like a Somalian eye or a Russian eye; we all see!

Clip #2
Akbar: So in drawing, basically, you use symbols, and in writing you use symbols, so in essence, so drawing IS writing.

Julie: ...more abstract way. I think as teachers...I think *I* have viewed kids drawing as sort of a cop out - they don't want to write. And somehow we think drawing is less academic, but in fact it really is MORE abstract...than BSing their way through...

Brad: There are fewer conventions in drawing. A lot of times kids have trouble writing because they have difficulty with all the conventions of writing, not the articulation of ideas in a cohesive fashion. And so it can be a cop-out--just like writing can be a cop-out. If you know the conventions, you can bullshit your way through something. Versus...you could cop out of a drawing as well, but the conventions of drawing, particularly when you're not given any requirements...it's just so raw that it frees you up to try things...I already have the vision, I just wanna get that vision out...F


Debra: The assessment of what they know is crippled by how they write. I'm assessing their thinking, not their writing. So to me...if you can draw it, and tell me about it, then I know you know it.