From Gilles "The Departmental Perspective"
"The key is regular, informal practicer at writing." (5)
"Our service courses should provide students with the oppotunity to practice the craft of writing." (5)
Wow, I can't agree more.
He tells students that conventions have to be learned, they can't be taught.
Cites Carolyn T. Adams presidential address in 1998 to the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences about the three abilities that a liberal education must develop:
1. make meaning from information
2. know how to learn (makes me think of metacognition)
3. develop the capacity to see adn understand the perspectives of people different from ourselves.
"The skills include grammar and punctuation, but they also include teh foundational skills of democratic citizenship" (8). --Friere anyone?
Chase's "Composition, Community, and Curriculum: A Letter to New Composition Teachers"
This article made me think that really I should be allowing them to work on their writing from other classes in our workshop--so maybe one paper could be from another class that they are working on. I need to quiz them in class tomorrow about a paper that they are writing for another class.
Chase writes, "It is critically important, then, that all composition teachers stop from time to time to consider the ends of the course they are taching in relation to the ends suggested by the composition program as a whole, the general education or liberal studies ...." (14).
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Post from 1/30 to Kristen
Who the hell is Fred? Anyway. I choose to ignore him for now. One of Kristen's comments made me think of Foucault. Who decides what information is on that list?. Kristen writes that everyone has their niche. That statement makes me think of Foucault's "Correct training." Foucault might say that the people in power would much prefer for you to think there was some list of information that you need to know to become "part" of society. The cultural elite can marginalize you by saying "you don't know what is on that list?" although you may know a lot of other stuff. The power comes from the list maker. The person who decides what you should know, i.e. what is on the list, has the power. The list disciplines people, keeps them in line, shows them their place. I had a very weak analogy about banana shopping, but I decided to delete it or your sakes.
Comments to posts after class #2
I feel like Russell's cultural literacy questions are outdated. I don't know if anyone needs to know, anymore, about who invented the cotton gin. I think they might need to know who invented hypertext before they need to know that.
A point from class: I do not think that Friere--because who encourages democratizing education--means that content should not be taught. No where does he say that.
And I agree with Kristen, who decides what information is on that list. I also liked how she said everyone has their niche. That statements makes me think of Foucault's the correct training. Because the people in power would much prefer for you to think there was some list of information that you need to know before you are part of society. The cultural elite can marginalize you by saying "you don't know what is on that list" although you may know a lot of other stuff. The power comes from the list maker. Whomever decides what is on the list has the power. The list can discipline people and keep them in line. Well, I don't know about bananas so I better not go to the fruit department in the grocery store (or some example like that).
Kristen writes:
"I think that oftentimes, students feel that paper-writing is an extremely solitary experience, one in which they are left all alone to produce something provocative and informative and intelligent -- and so they forget that eveything they've been doing in class is supposed to help them with the daunting paper-writing task."
I totally agree. Somehow they have the idea that writing is easy for everybody except them and that writing is solitary--no talking, working alone in a room for hours, and writing for this person--the teacher--who they don't really know and don't know what or how to say. Maybe teachers don't do a very good idea of explicitly explaining how the assignments in class go together--maybe those teachers aren't making the goals explicit and saying "okay, we did this assignment because it should help you do this--or maybe know the next step is to...
So, I think teachers need to do a better job explaining how what they have been doing in class is supposed to help them with the "daunting paper-writing task" at hand.
Volcanoes, frogs, and lucid dreaming are topics that students say that they write about in science class as purely informational papers with no real argument. I also recently received a paper about lucid dreaming with no argument--just information on Tibetan dream yoga and lucid dreaming. It was just plagiarized mostly--source after source after source without really saying anything or making any argument.
From Kristina's post:
"We have to assign them a specific topic. It would be great if we could let them write about a topic of their choice, but plagiarism and time restraints being what they are, a set topic is necessary."
I have found that plagiarism is much more prevalent if you are assigning a specific topic. We (us in the class) rarely are asked to write on a specific topic, especially for research. If students choose the topic, they are more likely to have a personal investment and not plagiarize. But it isn't as easy as saying, well pick a topic on your own. Their first choices many times will be common topics that everyone would pick. My first car wreck. My first date. My vacation. Especially in composition, I believe it is important to help students dig down below the surface, wallow in complexity, and find out what they really need to know. You would think that students would not need help in that, but I think in high school many times students are not asked to wallow in complexity and find a topic that means something. They look for the topic that they think teachers want them to write about.
I think you will see better writing if they choose the topic and if you guide them to find a topic that asks the hard question. There is this awesome video that the class should see--Donna might have it, and they talk with Harvard students after they graduate and they discuss freshman composition and how much it helped them. One student on the video says, write what is hard. Write about the most difficult thing. Don't pick the easy thing." That is great advice.
A point from class: I do not think that Friere--because who encourages democratizing education--means that content should not be taught. No where does he say that.
And I agree with Kristen, who decides what information is on that list. I also liked how she said everyone has their niche. That statements makes me think of Foucault's the correct training. Because the people in power would much prefer for you to think there was some list of information that you need to know before you are part of society. The cultural elite can marginalize you by saying "you don't know what is on that list" although you may know a lot of other stuff. The power comes from the list maker. Whomever decides what is on the list has the power. The list can discipline people and keep them in line. Well, I don't know about bananas so I better not go to the fruit department in the grocery store (or some example like that).
Kristen writes:
"I think that oftentimes, students feel that paper-writing is an extremely solitary experience, one in which they are left all alone to produce something provocative and informative and intelligent -- and so they forget that eveything they've been doing in class is supposed to help them with the daunting paper-writing task."
I totally agree. Somehow they have the idea that writing is easy for everybody except them and that writing is solitary--no talking, working alone in a room for hours, and writing for this person--the teacher--who they don't really know and don't know what or how to say. Maybe teachers don't do a very good idea of explicitly explaining how the assignments in class go together--maybe those teachers aren't making the goals explicit and saying "okay, we did this assignment because it should help you do this--or maybe know the next step is to...
So, I think teachers need to do a better job explaining how what they have been doing in class is supposed to help them with the "daunting paper-writing task" at hand.
Volcanoes, frogs, and lucid dreaming are topics that students say that they write about in science class as purely informational papers with no real argument. I also recently received a paper about lucid dreaming with no argument--just information on Tibetan dream yoga and lucid dreaming. It was just plagiarized mostly--source after source after source without really saying anything or making any argument.
From Kristina's post:
"We have to assign them a specific topic. It would be great if we could let them write about a topic of their choice, but plagiarism and time restraints being what they are, a set topic is necessary."
I have found that plagiarism is much more prevalent if you are assigning a specific topic. We (us in the class) rarely are asked to write on a specific topic, especially for research. If students choose the topic, they are more likely to have a personal investment and not plagiarize. But it isn't as easy as saying, well pick a topic on your own. Their first choices many times will be common topics that everyone would pick. My first car wreck. My first date. My vacation. Especially in composition, I believe it is important to help students dig down below the surface, wallow in complexity, and find out what they really need to know. You would think that students would not need help in that, but I think in high school many times students are not asked to wallow in complexity and find a topic that means something. They look for the topic that they think teachers want them to write about.
I think you will see better writing if they choose the topic and if you guide them to find a topic that asks the hard question. There is this awesome video that the class should see--Donna might have it, and they talk with Harvard students after they graduate and they discuss freshman composition and how much it helped them. One student on the video says, write what is hard. Write about the most difficult thing. Don't pick the easy thing." That is great advice.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Lesson for Wednesday
Goals for the lesson.
I want students to generate a lot of ideas quickly, especially in the early stages of their writing.
The lesson includes a handout about generating ideas. I will focus on the private freewriting as warm-up, the public freewrite (share without response or share and respond without criticism or evaluation, and the collaborative freewrite. Over the weekend, students could try the other ways to generate ideas and then do a "quick and dirty" writing--a collage. In a collage, they will pick the best parts from the writing they have done and patch it together. They don't need transitions--this is more like a collection of ideas. They will have met the goal of putting a lot of words down on paper and thinking about how they can relate their own experiences to what they have been reading. These informal writings could be used for a more formal writing later.
The reason why it is important to distinguish between private and public is because it gives students a comfort level as they write. We write differently when we know we have to read it aloud. I think this is a nice cushion that lets the students know that you won't surprise them. I find that after having introduced this that students will ask me--is this private or public?--if I forget to mention it. I also think that this satisfies the requirement that we teach them that there are different audiences and purposes for writing.
So this is my plan:
private freewriting--what that means--a warm-up for a few minutes
public focused freewriting--what that means and give them the prompt
collaborative writing--with a prompt
hand out the collage assignment--due on Monday--show class some samples--the topic I used was writing or writer and the collage showed a picture of them as a writer--the topic for these writings with be about education--the autobiography of your education--power structures and hierarchies in classroom where you have been a student--maybe discussions about grades and their place as discipline in a classroom.
I want students to generate a lot of ideas quickly, especially in the early stages of their writing.
The lesson includes a handout about generating ideas. I will focus on the private freewriting as warm-up, the public freewrite (share without response or share and respond without criticism or evaluation, and the collaborative freewrite. Over the weekend, students could try the other ways to generate ideas and then do a "quick and dirty" writing--a collage. In a collage, they will pick the best parts from the writing they have done and patch it together. They don't need transitions--this is more like a collection of ideas. They will have met the goal of putting a lot of words down on paper and thinking about how they can relate their own experiences to what they have been reading. These informal writings could be used for a more formal writing later.
The reason why it is important to distinguish between private and public is because it gives students a comfort level as they write. We write differently when we know we have to read it aloud. I think this is a nice cushion that lets the students know that you won't surprise them. I find that after having introduced this that students will ask me--is this private or public?--if I forget to mention it. I also think that this satisfies the requirement that we teach them that there are different audiences and purposes for writing.
So this is my plan:
private freewriting--what that means--a warm-up for a few minutes
public focused freewriting--what that means and give them the prompt
collaborative writing--with a prompt
hand out the collage assignment--due on Monday--show class some samples--the topic I used was writing or writer and the collage showed a picture of them as a writer--the topic for these writings with be about education--the autobiography of your education--power structures and hierarchies in classroom where you have been a student--maybe discussions about grades and their place as discipline in a classroom.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
bell hooks
Talk of Friere makes me think of bell hooks. I used bell hooks and Friere and Foucault in my master's thesis.
I love her book Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.
"To teach in varied communities not only our paradigms must shift but also the way we think, write, speak. The engaged voice must never be fixzed and absolute but always changing, always evolving in dialogue with a world beyond itself. " (11)
"Teachers are not performers in the traditional sense of the word in that our work is not meant to be a spectacle. Yet it is meant to serve as a catalyst that calls everyone to become more and more engaged, to become active participants in learning." (11)
"Since the vast majority of students learn through conservative, traditional educational practices and concern themselves only with the presence of the professor, any radical pedagogy must insist that everyone's presence in acknowledged" (8).
"To begin, the professor must genuinely value everyone's presence. There must be an ongoing recognition that everyone influences the classroom dynamic, that everyone contribute" (8).
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I think Friere think that teachers need to grow with the students. I think students need to see
the teachers grow in their thinking and see that teachers are learning with the students.
I love her book Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.
"To teach in varied communities not only our paradigms must shift but also the way we think, write, speak. The engaged voice must never be fixzed and absolute but always changing, always evolving in dialogue with a world beyond itself. " (11)
"Teachers are not performers in the traditional sense of the word in that our work is not meant to be a spectacle. Yet it is meant to serve as a catalyst that calls everyone to become more and more engaged, to become active participants in learning." (11)
"Since the vast majority of students learn through conservative, traditional educational practices and concern themselves only with the presence of the professor, any radical pedagogy must insist that everyone's presence in acknowledged" (8).
"To begin, the professor must genuinely value everyone's presence. There must be an ongoing recognition that everyone influences the classroom dynamic, that everyone contribute" (8).
********************************************************************************
I think Friere think that teachers need to grow with the students. I think students need to see
the teachers grow in their thinking and see that teachers are learning with the students.
Russell's post and my response
Russell here. I?m in Group A, so here?s a posting. Theissues raised by Freire/Searle/Graff et al. are quiteprovocative. Notice the way academics can snipe at eachother and resort to name calling: ?loony,? ?bad argument,??hostile.? I?m used to telling my composition students thatif you can?t make a point without making an enemy, youdon?t know jack squat about rhetoric. I?ve seen a video ofa lecture by Freire. He first had the lectern taken down sohe would not be looking down at the audience. A teacher ata conference presumably once told Freire that she tried totake a social activist role in her classroom but ended upgetting fired for being controversial. His response??We dowhat we can, not what we want.? If you instill a liberationideology in your students, what happens when your students?conception of social transformation is to work for suchnon-progressive causes as the enshrinement of anti-gaybigotry in the state constitution via an anti-gay marriageamendment (passed overwhelmingly in Missouri), or givingCreationism equal time in public school science classrooms(e.g., Evangelicals were the majority of the Board ofEducation in Kansas recently), or banning Huck Finn andCatcher in the Rye from English classrooms (petition driveunderway in two suburban Kansas City districts)? Would youregret having raised their revolutionary consciousness andwish they would go back to being docile?When the current Iraq war started, I was at the 4 C?sConference in New York City. One 4 C?s officeholder spokeat a general session and delivered a blisteringdenunciation of Bush and the war. (He had taken part instreet protests the day before and had an unhappy encounterwith law enforcement.) That?s interesting for two reasons:He knew he could safely assume that this ballroom ofEnglish teachers agreed with him, and he knew they wouldnot be satisfied to just oppose the war philosophically, sospecial sessions were created to mobilize against the war.That was teachers. Now let?s look at students. One of myCMSU colleagues does a unit on protest writing in her compclasses. One requirement is that each student mustactually, in some form or another, protest something. Shetold me she often has students who swear they can?t thinkof a single thing to protest about. I was walking down thehall once, and when I passed her classroom, I heard hersaying, ?Protest me! Protest this class! Protest myrequirement that you protest! But protest something!? Seemy point? If Freire was writing to teachers, he waspreaching to the choir. It is students who will dig intheir heels at the thought that education should be arevolutionary act. If you doubt that, ask your femalestudents for their reaction to the word ?feminist.? Thatwill depress you for days.
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MY REPLY
Have you been in a school lately, Russell? I don't see how Friere was preaching to the choir. That means to me that all teachers already understand Friere's point, and teachers do not see themselves as bankers ready to fill the students with knowledge. Generally, teachers like students who sit passively and do exactly what the teacher says. Teachers want control. Teachers want to lecture. It seems like all Friere wants is chance for students to be active learners and learn from inquiry rather than only learning from what the teacher tells them and then being quizzed and tested on that information.
What I think you say in this email is that students should only be given the opportunity (by teachers presumably, from what you say) to be revolutionary only if they espouse ideals that you support. Friere would never support that in a million years. I don't think he would make judgements about what is okay for students to support. No one that steps in my classroom will agree with all of my thoughts. I don't feel like the classroom is my place to share all of my thoughts and opinions on politics. Being a teacher in a classroom is powerful position. I don't want to sway any student to think like I think. I just want them to think. I'm bothered that you may think it is only okay for students to think one way--your way.
Is it okay for a teacher to share his ideology and then silence or mock any students in the class that don't support his view? For Friere, it does not matter what students support as long as they have ideas and think and interact instead of sitting passively and taking in a lecture by the know-it-all teacher filled with knowledge and truth.
I want some clarifications on your point. Because when you said, "see my point" I wasn't exactly sure what you meant.
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MY REPLY
Have you been in a school lately, Russell? I don't see how Friere was preaching to the choir. That means to me that all teachers already understand Friere's point, and teachers do not see themselves as bankers ready to fill the students with knowledge. Generally, teachers like students who sit passively and do exactly what the teacher says. Teachers want control. Teachers want to lecture. It seems like all Friere wants is chance for students to be active learners and learn from inquiry rather than only learning from what the teacher tells them and then being quizzed and tested on that information.
What I think you say in this email is that students should only be given the opportunity (by teachers presumably, from what you say) to be revolutionary only if they espouse ideals that you support. Friere would never support that in a million years. I don't think he would make judgements about what is okay for students to support. No one that steps in my classroom will agree with all of my thoughts. I don't feel like the classroom is my place to share all of my thoughts and opinions on politics. Being a teacher in a classroom is powerful position. I don't want to sway any student to think like I think. I just want them to think. I'm bothered that you may think it is only okay for students to think one way--your way.
Is it okay for a teacher to share his ideology and then silence or mock any students in the class that don't support his view? For Friere, it does not matter what students support as long as they have ideas and think and interact instead of sitting passively and taking in a lecture by the know-it-all teacher filled with knowledge and truth.
I want some clarifications on your point. Because when you said, "see my point" I wasn't exactly sure what you meant.
Chapters 2 and 6 of ABGW
This book is really helpful. All of those quotes at the beginning of Chapter 2 are just like my own experiences with freshman composition. And those are the stories that I tell my students. I don't want them to have the same experience as I did. Composition--especially academic writing--is about solving problems.
I guess the contrast that I notice is that high school writing many times is not about solving problems; it is merely about regurgitating content. I even hate the term "research paper" because it connotes topics such as volcanoes, frogs, and lucid dreaming. These papers they get assigned in science where they just plagiarize the encyclopedia. There is no thesis, no argument, no thinking, just information.
Inquiry learning is not a mystery. It is nothing new, but it may not always be considered. If you want to talk about Foucault or Friere, they might say that many teachers fear opening the door to inquiry because it is something that they [necrophilist?] cannot control. And I knok those teachers. I also think Friere is correct. These can be good people who don't even realize that they are strangling the creativity and thinking out of their students.
Perry's hierarchy of intellectual development is very interesting. I think I will present this to my classes. I see this thinking all of the time. The dualists: right/wrong, black/white. When I read about the multiplists, it reminds me of students who might read Foucault for the first time or read about deconstruction and immediately think that there is no answer. A common reaction from students to grades is the "you just don't like what I wrote." I heard that recently from a father whose daughter only turned in one paper in 16 weeks. But what we live for as composition teachers is that students who becomes a relativist. Who jumps in and struggles and comes out of the class a changed writer. That's what I love about composition. Sometimes that realization that composition has helped them as writers does not come until later--maybe even years.
I love the analogy that writing is wading in and working your way back out because that is really what I love about writing. Interestingly enough, chapter two reflects what I do in my own classes in the beginning weeks. Most students have never had the opportunity to write like this. I think it is because many of them have never had a class where they focused solely on writing. Unfortunately, many literature classes where they could be writing become more like quiz-taking classes.
It would be a good idea to play the believing and doubting game with Friere's Ch. 2. I think she may have that on the syllabus already.
Chapter 6 is an important chapter. I think time needs to be taken to teach students how to interact with a text. They are definitely passive readers. That has to be changed quickly in college. I really got a lot out of these two chapters, but as I read I couldn't help but wonder how many students in Donna's class are actually reading this. Many students aren't readers. Now, in order to combat the non-reading, you could very easily turn a composition class into a quiz-taking class where you begin the class every day with a quiz over the reading. I don't think that's a good idea. They need to be writing--even more than you could possibly grade--rather than wasting valuable time by taking a quiz every day.
Actually, I'm going to use some points in this chapter with the English II class I'm teaching now. We were just last week talking about the differences between summary and response. I need to be more explicit about how to do this. I also plan on using these strategies with my comp class. One important thing to remember. If you really want them to interact with a text, they need to be able to write on the text. So, make copies to give to them if you can or make sure they print the article and bring it to class.
I guess the contrast that I notice is that high school writing many times is not about solving problems; it is merely about regurgitating content. I even hate the term "research paper" because it connotes topics such as volcanoes, frogs, and lucid dreaming. These papers they get assigned in science where they just plagiarize the encyclopedia. There is no thesis, no argument, no thinking, just information.
Inquiry learning is not a mystery. It is nothing new, but it may not always be considered. If you want to talk about Foucault or Friere, they might say that many teachers fear opening the door to inquiry because it is something that they [necrophilist?] cannot control. And I knok those teachers. I also think Friere is correct. These can be good people who don't even realize that they are strangling the creativity and thinking out of their students.
Perry's hierarchy of intellectual development is very interesting. I think I will present this to my classes. I see this thinking all of the time. The dualists: right/wrong, black/white. When I read about the multiplists, it reminds me of students who might read Foucault for the first time or read about deconstruction and immediately think that there is no answer. A common reaction from students to grades is the "you just don't like what I wrote." I heard that recently from a father whose daughter only turned in one paper in 16 weeks. But what we live for as composition teachers is that students who becomes a relativist. Who jumps in and struggles and comes out of the class a changed writer. That's what I love about composition. Sometimes that realization that composition has helped them as writers does not come until later--maybe even years.
I love the analogy that writing is wading in and working your way back out because that is really what I love about writing. Interestingly enough, chapter two reflects what I do in my own classes in the beginning weeks. Most students have never had the opportunity to write like this. I think it is because many of them have never had a class where they focused solely on writing. Unfortunately, many literature classes where they could be writing become more like quiz-taking classes.
It would be a good idea to play the believing and doubting game with Friere's Ch. 2. I think she may have that on the syllabus already.
Chapter 6 is an important chapter. I think time needs to be taken to teach students how to interact with a text. They are definitely passive readers. That has to be changed quickly in college. I really got a lot out of these two chapters, but as I read I couldn't help but wonder how many students in Donna's class are actually reading this. Many students aren't readers. Now, in order to combat the non-reading, you could very easily turn a composition class into a quiz-taking class where you begin the class every day with a quiz over the reading. I don't think that's a good idea. They need to be writing--even more than you could possibly grade--rather than wasting valuable time by taking a quiz every day.
Actually, I'm going to use some points in this chapter with the English II class I'm teaching now. We were just last week talking about the differences between summary and response. I need to be more explicit about how to do this. I also plan on using these strategies with my comp class. One important thing to remember. If you really want them to interact with a text, they need to be able to write on the text. So, make copies to give to them if you can or make sure they print the article and bring it to class.
thinking about the lesson for Wed.
So, I need a lesson which I will present about a 10-15 minute segment for the class. I was wondering if it should be--well, actually I wasn't sure what it should be. How different is it than what I already do in class? I looked through the websites she provided.
http://web.indstate.edu/ctl/tips/tips.html
http://writing2.richmond.edu/wac/wtl.html
http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop5.cfm
I saw lists of most everything that I do in class. Cooperative/collaborative learning. Exit passes. Writing to learn. Even icebreakers. But I fear that if I use the icebreaker that I use with my classes they will think that is juvenile. I don't know why I think that because I used it with the writing project people last summer, and I think it worked well.
They are reading Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Ch. 2). Early in the semester, all I care about is helping the students to quickly generate lots of ideas. I wondered about doing loop writing. And after viewing the websites, I thought loop writing might not be a bad idea.
Here's a general brainstorming of my thoughts at this point:
Five minutes: write a short introduction. Share with a partner. Introduce each other to the class.
20-25 minutes: do a loop writing about your educational experience
0r
Private freewrite--explain--try it
Focused freewrite over educational experiences--this would probably be better and try the loop writing later when they have built up their writing endurance
Public freewrite--share with partner--share with a group of four--volunteers to share with the class
Collaborative writing
*all of these writings should be centered around education
Exit Pass: What ideas or thoughts did you come up with today that were new? Process writing over freewriting. Or--Compare your educational experiences with what Friere discusses in Chapter 2.
For homework--the would be easy--you could have them create a collage of their writings from class--no transitions--just pick out the best of what they wrote--add to it--revise negatively, as Elbow and Belanoff say, and turn that in, typed, during the next class period--on Monday you could have them share what they wrote--with different partners--at the beginning of class for about five minutes and then have them turn those in to you. They could use these papers as brainstorming for the more formal essay they will write you. I think this may help them find their voice a little bit before you throw them into writing more formally.
That's where I am so far.
http://web.indstate.edu/ctl/tips/tips.html
http://writing2.richmond.edu/wac/wtl.html
http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop5.cfm
I saw lists of most everything that I do in class. Cooperative/collaborative learning. Exit passes. Writing to learn. Even icebreakers. But I fear that if I use the icebreaker that I use with my classes they will think that is juvenile. I don't know why I think that because I used it with the writing project people last summer, and I think it worked well.
They are reading Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Ch. 2). Early in the semester, all I care about is helping the students to quickly generate lots of ideas. I wondered about doing loop writing. And after viewing the websites, I thought loop writing might not be a bad idea.
Here's a general brainstorming of my thoughts at this point:
Five minutes: write a short introduction. Share with a partner. Introduce each other to the class.
20-25 minutes: do a loop writing about your educational experience
0r
Private freewrite--explain--try it
Focused freewrite over educational experiences--this would probably be better and try the loop writing later when they have built up their writing endurance
Public freewrite--share with partner--share with a group of four--volunteers to share with the class
Collaborative writing
*all of these writings should be centered around education
Exit Pass: What ideas or thoughts did you come up with today that were new? Process writing over freewriting. Or--Compare your educational experiences with what Friere discusses in Chapter 2.
For homework--the would be easy--you could have them create a collage of their writings from class--no transitions--just pick out the best of what they wrote--add to it--revise negatively, as Elbow and Belanoff say, and turn that in, typed, during the next class period--on Monday you could have them share what they wrote--with different partners--at the beginning of class for about five minutes and then have them turn those in to you. They could use these papers as brainstorming for the more formal essay they will write you. I think this may help them find their voice a little bit before you throw them into writing more formally.
That's where I am so far.
How would you currently characterize the fx of a first year comp class?
I teach a dual-enrolled composition course at the high school where I work, and I taught comp for two years in grad school. I've spent some time thinking about this question. One of the first things I want to do is to help students see themselves as writers. A lot of them don't realize that they can write. They write for tests, but they don't spend much time writing to learn or writing to think. Especially early on, I want them to learn how to generate ideas quickly and easily and to identify their own process as writers.
Writing is so personal to students, so it is easy to scare them off and intimidate them. I do want to ease their fears about writing. I really do want to be a coach or facilitator. I want to cheer them on to a point, but I also want to push them so that they can see the potential in what they can write. I'm really one of their first critical audiences with the purpose of helping them to improve their writing and not just grading it and being done with the assignment. I feel pretty cliche here, but I do feel that building a community in the class is really important.
By that I mean, in a writing classroom everyone should know each other. Everyone should have to read each other's writing, know each other by name, and talk. Russell many times misinterprets me on this point--I don't want to get in a debate about this, but I want to mention this--I have to, especially in the early days, build a safe writing environment. Not "comfortable," Russell, but safe (there is a big difference). I do that by offering them a variety of audiences and responses. Everything we do is not evaluative. I just think you can strangle a writer by immediately criticizing his or her writing on the very first day. I've had that done to myself in a freshman comp class, and I think the purpose of comp is that we are trying to help the students join the writing community--writing for themselves, writing for academia, writing for thinking. I think the purpose of comp is that we are trying to help them improve. Way over 250 words.
Writing is so personal to students, so it is easy to scare them off and intimidate them. I do want to ease their fears about writing. I really do want to be a coach or facilitator. I want to cheer them on to a point, but I also want to push them so that they can see the potential in what they can write. I'm really one of their first critical audiences with the purpose of helping them to improve their writing and not just grading it and being done with the assignment. I feel pretty cliche here, but I do feel that building a community in the class is really important.
By that I mean, in a writing classroom everyone should know each other. Everyone should have to read each other's writing, know each other by name, and talk. Russell many times misinterprets me on this point--I don't want to get in a debate about this, but I want to mention this--I have to, especially in the early days, build a safe writing environment. Not "comfortable," Russell, but safe (there is a big difference). I do that by offering them a variety of audiences and responses. Everything we do is not evaluative. I just think you can strangle a writer by immediately criticizing his or her writing on the very first day. I've had that done to myself in a freshman comp class, and I think the purpose of comp is that we are trying to help the students join the writing community--writing for themselves, writing for academia, writing for thinking. I think the purpose of comp is that we are trying to help them improve. Way over 250 words.
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