I have never taught in a classroom setting before so I can only theorize a top three list of important composition concepts. The most important would be for students to write logically. Secondly, they must practice the process of revision and prewriting. Lastly, they must have the ability to pull pertinent pieces of information from outside sources to bolster their own arguments without having such information speak for them within the paper.
In simpler terms, I value the ability of a student to articulate ideas, compose and fine tune the same ideas through revision, and to perform basic and effective research to support and develop those ideas. I have given a lot of thought to the practicality of these concepts given that I have yet to teach. However, I believe if you enter a classroom and set the bar at any certain level, you can encourage students to rise to your expectations. This may indeed be my naiveté on display.
As a document instructor, I plan to look for evidence of these three elements of composition within appropriate student assignments, in addition to any other information or grading criteria provided by my CI to arrive at a just and deserved grade.
I realize that my three concepts seem fairly cold but the last thing I want as a teacher is to be regarded as a pushover, whose ideas on teaching are so far from traditional that students do not take them seriously. On some level I understand that by emphasizing prewriting, revision, and research students might 'turn-off' their ability to enjoy the class. But with the new interdisciplinary approach to composition I don't think it would be hard to bring many of them back in with content as opposed to process. I think a teacher should try to meet each student's individual needs as a writer as best they can given the motivation of the individual student.
To me it is the student's responsibility to find their own authentic voice. A teacher's role in its formation should be to stimulate interest through heuristic questioning. The student should always approach the teacher wanting to improve. The teacher should not approach the student with suggested ways of becoming more authentic. I guess I place a lot of responsibility with the student.
6 comments:
James:
I don't think your concepts sound cold at all. I've approached the blog prompt as "what do I find important about writing?" than as "what do I want to teach students about writing?" In some ways it comes down to the same thing, although I find your entry to be far more complete than my own.
You are absolutely right: the ultimate responsibility rests with the student. What I've discovered from helping kids (and lawyers) write is how frightened many of them are by the prospect of actually doing it. When you become a CI, how will you work around that?
Cathy
Thanks Cathy.
Perhaps asking them about the types of writing they have done before would be helpful in combating their fright. If I could pinpoint the reason behind their fears then perhaps a more practical solution would present itself. For example, if a student felt that writing was pointless due to some sort of content conflict then perhaps some of the new content could be made to sound more appetizing?
Given I have yet to set foot in he classroom, I'm still a bit skeptical of the idea that freshman students actually fear writing. (Keep in mind that I was a student in freshman English a mere six years ago). I would be more inclined to say that they rather dread writing because it requires them to actually think, which is not something easy nor is it something they are accustomed to doing. I do agree that a shift in expectations can produce such a fear. College-level composing as compared to high school-level is a a pretty serious shift. So I guess our role as DIs or CIs is to try and balance our expectations with our understanding. Our expectations of what constitutes good writing, with our understanding that good writing comes from experience, experience a lot of incoming freshman lack.
I don't know, the more I think of it the more I realize the need for creative methods of teaching. There are many more distractions now than there were in the past but does that mean that we are forced to expect less? I don't think so at all. But I certainly don't think we should NOT expect more.
In either case what approaches do you take, or would you take given the same set of circumstances?
I have to agree with James that the majority of students don't necessarily fear writing, they just don't want to do the work that it requires to write effectively. However, there is a small percentage who really are afraid of writing, either because they really don't have the skills or because they are afraid of looking foolish.
You do have to walk in the door with high expectations and let your students know that immediately, but you can also make them realize that you are there to help them to be successful. That is also key.
I think that your concepts sound incredible and are much more complete than my own. They were not cold at all. Reading your post has helped me to rethink some things and complete some ideas.
I agree that the ultimate responsibility rests with the student. The teacher can be prepared and ready to teach, but if the student isn't a willing participant, it doesn't matter.
A number of my students have expressed what I would call fear: they look at the page, their minds go blank, and they "freak out." Many have been so hyper-graded for every tiny flaw that they truly are afraid of seeming foolish. Of course, there are also plenty who simply dread the work of thinking and composing.
The way I've handled it--in my two whole class sessions of actual "teaching"--is to try to make it fun. Yesterday was "summary review and practice," so I gave them two in-class exercises. The first was to summarize and then orally critique a rather dated essay extolling the many virtues of the Backstreet Boys. The second was the controversial graph summary. After having tossed around ideas in workshop about graphics for practice (cartoons, etc.), I decided that those sorts of things were really still narratives of a sort--not data charts. So I made a pie chart of my two sections' averages in each segment of the diagnostic, and had them summarize it.
Cathy
I agree with you, leadership seems to me extremely important. When I first started teaching one of the other teachers said don't smile until after christmas. A bit extreme I think but it was good advice because when I laid full responsibility on their shoulders I did see many of them step up to the plate. Besides, you can only take them so far before you end up doing everything for them. Sometimes its hard to determine that and I have no doubt that college freshmen/sophomores will try that at least once! I know I would have ;) Well good luck with your class! Thanks for your comments!
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