Then I grew into a teenager—but my feelings for “labs” didn’t change much. The loathing shifted to apathy and appreciation, but never love. There was something too systematic, too sterile, too contrived about the idea of a lab in high school. Science labs. Math labs. All too stifling for me. And curling up in my world of books didn’t help either, as Vonnegut and Dr. Felix Hoenikker & Shelley and Dr. Victor Frankenstein showed me the dangers of experimentation, even the most well-intentioned experimentation. What I didn’t realize then, was that my understanding of labs was significantly limited in scope.
So when a small team of teachers and I started our Writing Lab last year, I initially (secretly) took umbrage with the word “lab.” I knew rationally lab implied more than my not-so-nostalgic notions, but I couldn’t shake it. But looking back at the successes (and missteps) of Westerly High School’s first year of Writing Lab, I’ve redefined what a “lab” truly is & I’m beginning to understand just how they can help change our school (and hopefully yours).
Lab as a Place for Experimentation—
The Writing Lab was driven by a sort of scientific process from the start as we questioned how to improve the writing in our school, researched other WL models, hypothesized how it would best function for us, collected data (using Google Forms & fieldwork reflections), questioned more, researched more, hypothesized more, collected more data, etc. in an organic, recursive, divergent way.
Experimentation= Better Teaching & Learning
Lab as a Place for Modeling & Observation—
We work to provide Writing Lab teachers models of effective writing instruction. Teachers invite us into their classrooms to demonstrate writing lessons & to watch them (in a non-evaluative way) to help them improve their practice. We work with them to create their own writing models to use with their students so the teachers themselves can gain more confidence in their own instruction. Check out this from a Social Studies teacher:
We are even starting to tape model lessons for teachers to access from our website.
Modeling=Better Teaching & Learning
Lab as a Place for Research—
We strive to research best practices & spend time reading up on Kelly Gallagher’s Teaching Adolescent Writers & Write Like This or watching lessons from Sarah Brown Wessling from the Teaching Channel or exploring digital writing techniques with Catlin Tucker’s blog & webinar series to name a few. Implementing the practices into our own classes & sharing those practices are key to the success of the lab concept.
Discovery= Better Teaching & Learning
Lab as a Place for Collaboration-
Working together with the other WL coaches, the teachers in other disciplines, and the students drives the lab. In the labs of my childhood, the scientists often worked alone, hiding their discoveries. In real labs, including our lab, collaboration & dialogue drive the work. Collaboration=Better Teaching & Learning. . .unless it looks like this:
Lab as a Place for Sharing-
We do important sharing in one-on-one meetings and in classrooms, but the webpage for the WL is an additional platform for communication. Our ultimate goal is to go beyond teacher sign-up and document access. We want to create more how-to videos to help teachers & students reach their writing goals. We want to promote discussion blogs about hiccups and successes in classrooms. We want these, but we have to work to promote the kind of sharing that will make this lab function even better than it already is.
Sharing=Better Teaching & Learning
Lab as a Place for Play-
The lab concept implies serious work, missteps, falling, confusion, but there is also time for mind bursts, standing back up, and clarity. There is time for play. We play around with multi-media texts, with discipline-specific lessons, with editing, with note-taking techniques, and so much more. It’s important to remember, especially with teachers who don’t feel comfortable with teaching writing that it is the play that we learn, not the final products. Play=Better Teaching & Learning
Only now, through revisiting our work through the WL, do I confront my misconceptions and reconcile my connotative issue with the word “lab”; only now do I realize labs are where better teaching & learning happens. Labs are workshops because life is a metaphorical lab full of experiments, and failures, and good intentions, and fun, and negative outcomes, and successful ones and that’s ok—because it’s all part of better teaching & learning.
