Writing transforms uncertainty and confusion into confidence and clarity.

I am sure I am not alone when I describe the experience of sitting down to write about something, only to be surprised that I actually know a lot less than I supposed. Writing something clearly demands such intimate understanding of a topic. The precision of a sentence depends so much on clarity of thought and purpose. Because of these inherent intellectual challenges, writing is also one of the most rewarding parts of education. Clear and precise expression is the powerful tool of a well-trained mind.

Today in the fourth grade, we discussed a chapter from The Hobbit called “Queer Lodgings.” In it, Bilbo and his friends spend time living in the home of a skin-changer named Beorn. On the surface he is a terrifying man, but as we talked more and more about him, we realized that he is also strangely adorable. The students and I enjoyed talking about his various personality traits which defy easy categorization. Beorn decapitates goblins while simultaneously trying to preserve peace in his valley. He is quick to violent anger, but refuses to harm animals. In fact, he is a vegetarian who lives mainly off of cream and honey. No matter which form Beorn adopts, he always appears to be large and physically strong. Nevertheless, he remains a sensitive protector of his ponies and even regards them as his children. We laughed at all of the seeming paradoxes which ultimately come together to form a surprisingly well-integrated character. We realized that Beorn fits perfectly into Middle Earth.

*Beorn greets Bilbo and Gandalf in ‘The Return Journey’ - Art by David T. Wenzel*

We laughed more and more at the strange paradoxes of Beorn, and at the height of the laughter, I stopped the discussion. I asked them all to write their own character descriptions of Beorn. Suddenly, the chaos turned to silent contemplation. I watched seventeen puzzled little faces scrutinize the list of examples I had compiled on the board during our discussion. How could they take these crazy concrete examples of violence, vulnerability, and vegetarianism and synthesize them into a concise description? And yet, by the time class ended, we felt confident that we understood Beorn better.

I knew my students had all the information they needed by the time I assigned the writing. The hardest part of the assignment was something I challenged them to do by themselves. They needed to choose the most essential details, express the main conclusion in their own words, and write.

Here is what one of them came up with:

“Beorn is both great and terrible. He is a shapeshifter who turns into a ferocious bear every night. To friends, he offers food and protection. To enemies, he gives fierce combat. Beorn loves animals, so he only eats food like cream, honey, and dried fruit. Although Beorn can be terrifying, he is mostly like a misunderstood teddy bear.”

While there are certainly things that could be changed, this first shot is an excellent one. It synthesizes something complicated into something digestible for a 4th grader. And, we are not done. Not only will they edit this assignment (and re-write it if necessary), they will continue answering questions like this multiple times per week for the rest of the year.

Through their writing work, students are encouraged to take something abstract and difficult and force it into their own words. In doing so, confusion changes into clarity, and a big, scary beast changes into a protective, sensitive friend.