What is the "End of Composition"? How do we get there? What are the principles of good writing instruction that will get us there?
Students should leave the classroom with newfound confidence in their ability to write. It is difficult to track what students have learned in a writing class, because there's no reliable or legitimate method of harvesting future work for evaluation. The instructor must learn to teach skills and not assignments, or continue to do so. In other words, students should leave composition not simply knowing how to summarize or paraphrase, but knowing what situations they should / could be used in. Students should feel confident, not necessarily comfortable when applying the methods they learned in class to more complex articles / works of literature.
Formative commentary is a step in the right direction. The ideal teacher / student learning situation would be an independent study. Since this is not possible in every situation for obvious reasons, then teachers can do their best to teach general skills as opposed to specific assignments. Teaching mechanics can be very helpful. Skills that are "universally transferrable" should be taught as opposed to something for a grade.
I'm not sure how it is possible to track student progress after the classroom experience ends. Voluntary communication on the student's part is the only solution I see as viable.
2 comments:
I would argue that a student who leaves the composition course with the knowledge of when to use a paraphrase or summary has still only learned a skill. If they have developed an interest in a specific type of writing they have gained something else. While learning the rules for usage in addition to those of format may make a knowledge of a procedure more transferable, it is still a formulaic process. I don't think that teaching skills and procedures is bad or unproductive but rather that time might be better spent trying to develop student interest
I think I see the beginnings of your student tracking program at the start of your first paragraph. You should have talked about it; your post could've read more like a sci-fi story.
Brian makes a good point, but the practicality of it leaves something to be desired. Student interest is pretty much the hardest thing to acquire in the world. Try asking a question to a group of freshman in a classroom setting. You'll be able to hear their collective heart beat for lack of any other noise. Ask the same question to a group of seniors and you'll have nearly the same response (more often than not). Breaking this silence is the big hurdle, and I think that teaching transferable skills is a good compromise until you're actually able to stir up interest in composition. Let's face it: most of the time, if someone doesn't want to care, they simply just won't care.
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