At AWP, I attended two different panels about teaching interpretation and analysis in composition. One focused specifically on using art to do so, and one was a more general conversation about the pedagogy of the writing class and how to infuse it with new ideas.
What both sessions had in common was a general sense that college-age students struggle with analysis and interpretation in writing, although they may be verbally adept at the same skills. The speakers (from big colleges like Syracuse and NYU as well as community colleges) all seemed to recognize that their instruction needed to change in some way to address these issues. I found the discussion of summary versus interpretation interesting.
If you have ever listened to a younger person talk about, say, a movie he has just seen, opinions and analyses are sometimes not present at all. More often than not, he recalls the movie (Remember when this happened?) or makes a generic statement of opinion ( It was so cool when she did that…) rather than stating WHY he did or or did not like it. There was also some speculation about analysis requiring the ability to think deeply for extended amounts of time and how this may be affected by the quick and instant gratification of the tech-savvy student’s life (texts, tweets, updates, etc.) I clearly see aspects of these qualities in my own students and could relate.
So, why am I relieved? These are the same writing weaknesses that are currently “freaking out” teachers at the middle and high school levels. (Technical educational jargon, sorry.) So, if students getting into NYU and Syracuse have these general weaknesses as a student body, will I be able to fix all of those tendencies with twelve-year-olds? No. This doesn’t mean that I won’t try, but the crazy feeling that I am solely responsible for making sure every student can analyze and interpret at a high level before leaving middle school can perhaps subside a bit.
And why am I worried? This is the flip side of the coin. Students who are being accepted at major universities cannot write well. As a teacher of writing, I must be concerned about this and do my best to address it with my students in the short time they are with me.
This is something D saw a lot at Stockton – she worked about 3 years in the writing lab as a tutor, and regularly saw students of all levels coming in who had difficulty with writing, organizational thinking, etc. Even the A students, the high performers, the department stars, were showing difficulty.
I think obviously teacher have some responsibility to address it – but it needs to be supported at home too. (I imagine I’m preaching to the choir here.) I think in large part the issues stem from a real lack of interest/support at home in the development language skills of children. I see it in my own life: Jacob gets tons of support from me and from D, but at his dad’s house? Couldn’t be less interested. No reading time, no encouragement to write, homework often goes undone because it’s forgotten, and there is no critical discussion of any kind – not about tv, video games, movies, books, nothing.
This is really interesting for me (I teach college freshmen). Students are writing so much in their personal lives, just in short, frequent, electronic bursts (it’s not that they just don’t write, right? And I know that isn’t what YOU are saying, but I frequently hear this from others).
I notice students struggling with critical thinking and forming strong ideas ABOUT texts (kind of similar to what you are saying). Students often seem to have trouble analyzing—all they think of first is “Did I like it” or “Did I hate it.” This especially comes up when we analyze music and movies….students have a quick, strong reaction to it that they share, and then when we slow down as a class, and I remind them to avoid judgment, we get some fantastic discussions going. But it takes a clear discussion of analytical distance before we can say anything interesting about the text. We often lead with this question: “What seems interesting/strange/revealing about x?”
There’s a good text called Writing Analytically that was pretty helpful for me (using the ideas with first-year college students).
Just had a conversation with my college son about this. He agreed that analysis probably takes more prying from teachers than should be necessary, but sees it more as a lack of interest/will rather than a lack of skill. But, as he was quick to inform me, he doesn’t often feel that he falls into the generalizations made about the skills of college students since he feels that he has a stronger skillset than the general population of others his age. I have also taught him humility, as you can see.