Revision is a term with no referent. We think of revision as something that we do, but how is it not just writing. If we think of our writing as linear--in time--first write, then revise--then revision seems like a thing. But how is it not just writing some more. It is much like our assignments we give students. We think we are being clear, that our words, our assignments have clear referents, yet as we experienced in our blind-walk exercise today, the referent fades from focus and all we can do is make something up in conversation with others--close approximations but not "ideal texts." Or like the wiki, where our words go down on the screen, yet can be erased, transformed, rewritten by someone named only as "another viewer." No referent.
Which brings me to my inquiry on "valuing" and "valuation." Valuing is how we spend our lives. We value things differently. Sometimes its for "use value"--like putting on a pair of old sneakers on a rainy day because they have value, or doing the laundry so that you have something wear. Use value may be in selecting the clothes we put on our backs each morning, but more often it is for exchange value. How we look matters if we want to impress others, or have the right style, or feel good about ourselves. Exchange value commodifies things so that it can be marketed and advertised and sold and made precious. The same with kids' writing. Particularly how valuing has been taken up by large scale assessment, where there are extreme social consequences, and children and teachers have no say in what is being valued. What-is-valued is "good writing"--which is often mystified or commodified by corporations who have fail proof and teacher proof exercises which they sell to schools for great sums of money.
How do we make the commodification of writing and the de-valuing of student writing visible?
Couple of things that I'm thinking after reading your post, Lil. First, the way you tied together all the pieces of SI was way cool. I find myself drawing connections as we go, but my blog posts either mention them separately or just focus on one or two pieces. I'm going to try use your post here as a mentor text for an idea that I'm going to try in my writing.
ReplyDeleteSecond, thanks for the thoughtful explanation of value and valuation. I hadn't thought about it like that before..at least not at that depth. I'm thinking about these extreme social consequences. How it goes beyond what we see in the classroom when a student asks how many sentences need to be in each paragraph. It creates a mindset that is counter to the critical one they ought to use to view the world. And for the teacher-proofing that takes place with the commodification of writing, I think that we are such suckers for it because we (teachers)are so lacking in our understanding of writing. It's another reason why the writing project is so important....its work is a step towards answering your final question...I think.