English Textual Concepts - the Processes

About a month ago I had the opportunity to undertake some professional learning after school. One was an Adobe Connect session (which are a fantastically efficient and user-friendly way to conference - and FREE!), and the other was a Primary Executive Support Group seminar (only $40 and not too far from where I live - money well spent). Both, by serendipitous coincidence, focused on the English Textual Concepts - the rollout and implementation of which continues with much excitement and energy across Australia.

I've spoken about the Concepts on this blog before; in particular the way this framework re-positions the English syllabus through a lens that assists in applying a consistent focus and agreed-upon metalanguage to the way we (English teachers) approach our subject area. All English teachers have an idea of what characterisation and narrative are, however, do they have the same idea of what they are and where students should be in their own understanding of these things? How do we approach a level of consistency and standardisation that lends our KLA increased credence and authority?

We can agree that English is about the study of texts and textuality, and that texts represent power relationships and culture, but the English Textual Concepts allows this to be extended further into a definitive paradigm. 

I think I've attended six separate sessions explaining the Textual Concepts now and I've mostly spent this time thinking about the Concepts part of the framework - the things like Argument, Code and Convention, Figuration, etc. This time though I found myself thinking more about the Processes half of the framework. 

My colleague and friend Kira Bryant pointed out to me that the Processes are the framework's equivalent of the syllabus modes (the way we assess English - Listening, Speaking, Writing, Reading, Viewing, Representing), and it got me thinking about how the Processes could be used in a similar way. 

Processes

• Experimenting - Creative or Imaginative Writing, and Representation
• Engaging Personally - Enjoyment or Value or Personal Response
• Engaging Critically - Analysing Techniques and Structure
• Connecting - Exploring Context, and Intertextuality
• Understanding - Identifying and developing Understanding of Themes and Ideas
• Reflecting  - Metacognition and recognition of Learning Processes

Imagine dividing our assessment of English into these processes. There's a certain authenticity in modelling assessment on the ways we want students to think. We teach this stuff anyway, and the English Textual Concepts framework points us in the direction of teaching this stuff more explicitly. 

And hey, this interpretation has only just come to me while listening to the aforementioned seminar, so I may soon reformulate my ideas of how to use the Processes to assess. Heck, I know I will. But, to paraphrase the entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, if you're not embarrassed by the first version of something - then you've launched too late.

I might not be an ambitious capitalist techno-wunderkind like Hoffman (incidentally, he created LinkedIn, which was recently purchased by Microsoft) but I do believe this philosophy is applicable to teaching, writing, and most other things.

In other words, if you wait until something is perfect before you've revealed it to anyone, then you're probably waiting well past its due date in terms of relevance. In addition, it feels naive to think that anything can be perfected to this extent - we need to test ideas out in the real world to see if they stand up outside of the vacuum of our minds; if they can grow through the magic of dialectical exchange, or if they wither under the scrutiny of our peers.

Besides, history has shown us time and again that ideas are never 'finished'. There's always going to be something new to add. That's the nature of culture.