Introduction Studied and engaged reading practices can be a springboard for effective writing. Knowing how to read specifically as a writer can help to identify features and forms of new genres, to implement those features in writing, and to ultimately be a self-directed, adaptive, and successful writer of new genres. I believe that using reading […]
Author: Jo Hurt
Invisible Impacts on Identity
We know that writing is intimately connected with issues of authority, identity, power, and confidence, and that if students are to become more sophisticated thinkers and writers, they should be both challenged and taken seriously. (Brueggemann et al., 379, emphasis mine) While I would have to question some of the ethics and ideologies concerned with […]
Strategies and Passions in Empirical Qualitative Research
1. Citation Broad, Bob. “Strategies and Passions in Empirical Qualitative Research.” Writing Studies Research in Practice: Methods and Methodologies. Eds. Lee Nickoson and Mary P. Sheridan. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. pp 197-209. ProQuest EBook. 2. Summary Bob Broad begins this chapter from Writing Studies Research in Practice: Methods and Methodologies by beginning to […]
Inter-Genre Studies and Writing Outcomes
Research Motivation, Topic, and Question My interests for this pedagogical study started with personal concerns that we weren’t doing much reading in our English 101 classes. I believe that reading can be the cornerstone to good writing practices—it certainly is for me. Knowing how to read as a writer can help you identify features and […]
Conflicting Productively in the Classroom
“Adversarial” is a loaded term that bears frequently negative connotations of combative and even hateful contact. However, adversaries can also be simply any individuals, groups, or ideas that meet in active conflict with each other—and conflict can be productive. Thinking of the adversarial in terms of conflict and specifically addressing that conflict in the classroom, […]
from distracting to destructive: toxic classroom behaviors
There’s an important distinction to make between what toxic behaviors might arise in an English 101 classroom and what toxic behaviors have, in fact, come up in my class. In theory, one might find really alarming behaviors that would take taxonomic precedence: issues of immediate physical or emotional danger, such as violent behavior or language […]
Seen and Heard: Attempting to Personalize Feedback
(Student B, Project 2) You really got what this project was about! You center “gratention” around your own experiences, both through what you were taught in elementary school and in your writing experience as you grapple with your introductions. Not only is “gratention” a perfect word to relate to understanding you as a writer, you’ve […]
blog [blawg] n., 1. a website containing a writer’s own opinions
*Belief [bih-leef] n., 1. an opinion or conviction 2. confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof 3. confidence; faith; trust Are my students’ ideas about writing opinions? Convictions? Impressionable notions of truth that are susceptible to the influence of material proofs? Confidences that could be reinforced or shaken, faith […]
Struggling to Write = Writing Successfully?
The idea that my students “struggle as writers” implies that that there is an unproductive or, at the very least, less productive way to write. While in the wide world of academic writing at large—and certainly in my own experiences with procrastination and revision—this is almost certainly true…is it true in the environment of English […]
You Can Lead a Horse to Water but You Can’t Make Them Drink
When I think of the idealistic outcomes of the course, my mind immediate goes to the objectives I list in my syllabus: Learning to think about writing in terms of discourse Learning to see revision as the cornerstone of good writing Becoming self-motivated and self-directed learners Learning to identify the impact of and to effectively employ writing tools such […]
identity or performance?
There are a lot of elusive, moving parts to the question of students’ awareness, coherence, and worldviews. Are they aware? In as much as they seem cognizant, physically present, awake. Are they coherent? In as much as they’ve strung meaningful words in to meaningful sentences on every occasion I’ve given them to do so. Do […]
Perceived and Real Difference: How Do I Know What Sets Me Apart?
I could come up with a laundry list of ways that I’m different from my students, for instance: I’m in a different stage of life and with a longer experience of life from which to draw on As the instructor, I am in a role that is traditionally predicated more on “giving knowledge” than “receiving […]
Forget Formulas: Teaching Form through Function in Slow Writing and Reading as a Writer
1. Citation Tremmel, Michelle. “Forget Formulas: Teaching Form through Function in Slow Writing and Reading as a Writer.” Composition Studies, vol. 45, no. 2, Fall 2017, pp. 113–129. Web. 2. Summary In this article, Tremmel makes a case for a composition pedagogy that focuses on regular, slow writing practices that involve a reading component which she calls […]
Can a bad experience make me a good teacher?
Detached, but clearing the boredom from my eyes; indignant, but mentally rehearsing humility. As the bell for the end of the period rang out, I tucked away my notes and pulled out the objects of offense: four papers, each bearing a hastily scrawled condemnation of my hard work: B+ I approached the front of the […]
“Conversations with Texts: Reading in the Teaching of Composition” Mariolina Salvatori
Salvatori, Mariolina. “Conversations with Texts: Reading in the Teaching of Composition” College English 58:4: 4401-454. Web. Summary In this article, Mariolina Salvatori addresses the tendency of introductory college composition courses to minimize traditional literary readings and to focus on writing practices, and posits several alternative reading practices that she believes can do specific service to […]
Navigating Transition: Moving from Traditional to Useful
The physicality and corporeality of the classroom had never really crossed my mind in the lead up to teaching. Teaching was a mental exercise, learning a cognitive activity. Now, however, it’s the primary conflict in my classroom experience. The mental exertion of lesson planning, activity leading, or lesson planning is certainly present in my life, […]
Prescribed Experience and the Institution
There’s something of English 101 that reminds me of the Greek prescription of military service. There was, in ancient Greek culture, common ground between all people that could be drawn upon in politics, religion, philosophy and theater because every citizen male was required to serve time in the military. In an age and culture that […]
Criticizing Criticism: Finding Fresh Perspectives in Midst of Tired Conventions
Jacob Babb’s America is Facing a Literacy Crisis address the belief (i.e. “Why Johnny Can’t Write” Newsweek article, also referenced in Branson’s First-Year Composition Prepares Students for Academic Writing) that modern Americans are being failed by the education system and are accordingly becoming both ignorant of and resistant to traditional expectations/rules around literacy and composition. […]
Economy of Literacy
I have to start with something of an embarrassing confession: when I first read the prompt, I did read the word “ecosystem” as the word “economy.” I thought that was an oddly specific consideration, but by the time I realized my mistake I had sort of a hard time letting it go. I think it […]
Changing Perspective
I’ve been day-dreaming about teaching since I finished my undergrad degree 5+ years ago. I’ve mused on class activities, invented course descriptions, and framed my personal reading in the context of how I could teach it. From book clubs to rearing job trainees, I’ve tried to develop a methodology to my own reading and responding […]