Wexler and Franklin's Writing Revolution: Key Takeaways

Wexler and Franklin's Writing Revolution: Key Takeaways

A comparison of key points between Natalie Wexler's "The Writing Revolution" approach and Benjamin Franklin's writing method:

- Natalie Wexler emphasizes the importance of building knowledge through content-rich instruction in her book Revolution. This aligns with Franklin's focus on self-education through voracious reading across many disciplines.

- Both value a clear, direct writing style. Wexler advocates for exposing students to complex texts to develop their vocabulary and ability to understand sophisticated writing. Franklin pushed for brevity and simplicity in writing.

- Franklin diligently sought feedback from others to improve his writing. Wexler also stresses the need for students to share their writing with peers and teachers frequently to get constructive criticism.

- While Wexler promotes more explicit writing instruction in schools today, Franklin was largely self-taught. However, he set rigorous goals and timelines for himself to become a better writer and thinker.

- Franklin prioritized organizing and outlining his thoughts before writing. Wexler would likely approve of this as an important part of the writing process for students to master.

- Both see reading, writing and knowledge acquisition as integrally connected. Wexler argues that building knowledge is essential for reading comprehension and writing ability. Franklin's lifelong quest for learning informed his writing and publishing endeavors.

Key commonalities are the emphasis on developing knowledge, seeking feedback, clear writing, and the interrelationship between reading, writing and learning. 

Both provide insights into how to improve student literacy and writing skills.

Similarities:
- Support frequent modeled writing practice across all subjects
- Advocate close reading and analysis of texts prior to writing
- Emphasize developing and communicating conceptual understanding over formulaic writing
- Value concise, clear communication that demonstrates comprehension
- Recognize writing as a deliberate practice-oriented skill

Differences:
- Wexler focuses on a specific formulaic approach for analytical writing justified by cognitive science while Franklin does not prescribe an overarching structured framework
- Wexler sees her method as teacher-directed in scaffolding core academic skills; Franklin promotes self-directed reading, writing, and learning
- Wexler concentrates relatively more on building knowledge, vocabulary and background schemata to enable complex writing whereas Franklin starts from engaging with "books" texts fully
- Franklin breaks down texts through keyword notetaking; Wexler builds up to interpretive writing through multiple drafts
- Wexler offers more concrete instructional strategies and concept scaffolds aimed at secondary literacy; Franklin gives general techniques and advice

In essence, while both support improving thinking and knowledge through writing, Wexler's approach is more systematic, academic and teacher-driven especially for adolescent literacy development whereas Franklin provides flexible scaffolded methods for self-directed general learning.

You're right, Benjamin Franklin's determined efforts to improve his writing and reading abilities as a young man paved the way for him to become one of the most erudite and influential Founding Fathers. Here's a quick summary of key points about Franklin's intellectual development:

- Had little formal education growing up as a child, only going to school for 2 years. He was mostly self-taught through voracious reading as a teenager and young man.

- Realized his writing skills were deficient, so systematically set out to improve through deliberate practice exercises like re-writing passages from great authors.

- Devoted himself to self-education, spending hours every day reading history, philosophy, science, literature and other subjects. 

- Developed rigorous habits of studying vocabulary lists, taking extensive notes, and summarizing key learnings.

- Read widely in Enlightenment philosophy and political thought, influencing his ideas about government and human nature. 

- Mastered the art of rhetorical persuasion in his prolific political writings and pamphlets prior to the Revolutionary era. 

- Combined his learning with keen observation of human behavior and the world around him.

- Emerged as a leading voice for independence and democracy, helping to shape the intellectual foundations of the American Revolution and U.S. constitutional system.

Through self-discipline and determined effort as a lifelong learner, Franklin exemplified the enlightened, engaged citizen he believed all Americans should aspire to be. His intellectual and literary talents were crucial to the founding of America.

Road to cowriting the US Constitution.

Franklin realized that his writing skills were deficient, so he set out to improve them through deliberate practice. He would take passages from writers he admired, make short notes summarizing the main ideas, then set the passage aside. Days later he would try to re-write the passage in his own words from just the short hints he had made. This exercise forced him to think through the ideas more thoroughly and express them clearly on the page.

 

Franklin also worked to improve his vocabulary through focused study of word lists and concentrating on using more precise language. He developed a system of marking words he encountered in reading that were new to him, looking them up in a dictionary, and recording short definitions in a notebook. He would review these lists frequently. 

Through his program of targeted reading, taking extensive notes, summarizing key words and ideas, and re-writing passages in his own words, Franklin taught himself to write with clarity and precision. His autobiography outlines this process as being central to his self-education and personal improvement.