In a high school writing workshop, students frequently would go through multiple essay drafts and conferences with the teacher and fellow students before realizing that their theses were incorrect. A teacher devised the "lexivision" to address this problem. Students used Venn diagrams, graphs, or flow charts to represent concepts in the texts they read. The students were to indicate quotations from the text to support their representations and to include their own or others' ideas that they felt related to the topic. A teacher-prepared diagram based upon Milton's "Paradise Lost" served as a model. As other students observed the work of the junior honors English class, they asked to undertake similar assignments. A college preparatory writing class prepared lexivisions as small group projects. The collaboration involved in lexivisions seems to be the key to successful, well thought out work. The real strength of the assignment is drawing out student explanations of why they have portrayed their interpretations of a given text in particular ways. Lexivisions encourage students to interact with new knowledge and to relate old and new knowledge in a creative synthesis, instead of emphasizing mere recall or analysis. Such creativity can help students address future problems, envision solutions, and dream undreamed ideas. (SG)