The impetus for the observational study I will be carrying out is rooted in what I perceive as a divide created within academia between personal and academic writing. I wish to help close this artificial divide as I do not see it as altogether necessary or natural. The question I aim to answer is […]
Author: masterk
Understanding the Process
What value, perspective or concern would you like to become visible in writing studies? This may sound strange but the value I would like to see become more visible/prized would be that of understanding of and by the white male. I think marginalized people sometimes simultaneously underestimate how deeply toxic masculinity runs through white-male culture […]
Narrative as Construct
Citation: Journet, Debra. “Narrative Turns in Writing Studies Research.” Writing Studies Research in Practice: Methods and Methodologies. Edited by Lee Nickoson and Mary P. Sheridan. Southern Illinois University Press, 2012, pp. 13-24 Summary: In “Narrative Turns in Writing Studies Research” Debra Journet exposes what she views as assumptions made within the composition field concerning narratives. […]
Personalizing the Curriculum
A page of freewriting about your research topic/question/motivation: After reading Debra Journet’s chapter, “Narrative Turns in Writing Studies Research,” from Writing Studies Research in Practice: Methods and Methodologies and Joanne Addison’s chapter, “Narratives as Method and Methodology in Socially Progressive Research” from Practicing Research in Writing Studies: Reflexive and Ethically Responsible Research I have decided […]
Control Often Means Not Exerting It
I have been fortunate in my time as both student and instructor to never have an adversarial relationship with a teacher or student. When I think of truly adversarial relationships, I think back to substitute teachers I had between 7th and 9th grade. More often than not, my fellow students and I collectively made an […]
What About the Toxic Teacher?
Today’s prompt is a little funny because as I read the first question, I was already thinking of dividing into two parts: toxic student behavior and toxic teacher behavior. Then I read the second question that prioritizes toxic student behavior with no mention of toxic teacher behavior and I had to laugh as I think […]
Apprehenzled Instructor
Feedback: Dear Student A, Your second paragraph is pure gold. I love how you set yourself up in contrast to those writers who love their craft and appear to be effortless in their production. At the end of that paragraph you give a succinct definition of “apprehenzled” and the emotional state that it entails. With […]
Inside the Mind of a Eng 101 Student
The simple answer to today’s prompt would be to say that students’ perceptions of themselves as writers varies from student to student. If I was to generalize them into one average student I would imagine that they feel they are functional writers and that all writing, particularly academic writing, is a means to an end. […]
The Struggle is Real
My student’s struggle with writing is the struggle of all writers against that eternal fiend which is ever present: Apathy. I could talk about sentence structure, transitions, reading drafts aloud and so on, but I find these deficiencies all pale in comparison to people’s ability to give a crap about what they are doing beyond […]
Best Case Scenario
At its best English 101 can serve students like a reset button of sorts, providing a space where they are encouraged to rethink the meaning and structure of writing. Throughout elementary, middle and high school writing is relegated to English classes and within those classes it is further constricted in terms of how it should […]
Worldview or Lack Thereof
The prompt is a strange one today as I feel it implies that I am deeply connected with my students and their writing and that out of their writing I can draw some kind of meaning beyond the superficial. What does it even mean to have a coherent worldview? This a vague phrase if there […]
I’m different, I’m different…
Superficially, I could not be much more different than my students and while I would love to be their age again I would not want to their age or anywhere close to it and attempt to teach English 101. While being a male surely gives me some unwarranted authority in the classroom my age also […]
Read, Read, Read!!!
Hallstead, Tracy, and Glenda Pritchett. “Reading: The Bridge to Everywhere.” Double Helix, vol. 1, 2013, pp. 1-12 Summary of the article In “Reading: The Bridge to Everwhere” Tracy Hallstead and Glenda Pritchett start with the premise that students and composition teachers alike see reading as a “waste of time” (1). They go on to argue […]
Worship at the Altar of Criticality
The fostering of critical thought in my students is far and away the aspect of my classroom that I guard most closely. If they leave my class remembering nothing but to ask why, why are we reading/writing this, why did the author make that choice, why is this a requirement, why am I attending school […]
Nurturing Critical Thought in the Classroom
Abegglen, Sandra, and Tom Burns, Sandra Sinfield. “Utilizing Critical Writing Exercises to Foster Critical Thinking in Diverse First-Year Undergraduate Students and Prepare Them for Life Outside University.” Double Helix, vol. 4, 2016, pp. 1-11. Summary In “Utilizing Critical Writing Exercises to Foster Critical Thinking in Diverse First-Year Undergraduate Students and Prepare Them for Life Outside […]
Is English 101 useful?
English 101 is perceived primarily by students and faculty as a box to check like many other GURs and not much more. Some do harbor hopes that the course will be helpful to students and if students internalize this positive mindset, as with any other course, will help them to glean whatever is useful in […]
Chapter Teacher HO!
The two chapters I chose were EXCELLENT ACADEMIC WRITING MUST BE SERIOUS by Michael Theune and ANYONE CAN TEACH WRITING by Seth Kahn. In his chapter, Theune laments that academic writing is so unbearably serious, as dry and dead as the falling leaves outside our classroom. The solution he insists to the inherently boring nature […]
The Classroom as a Constitutional Monarchy
My classroom currently is a constitutional monarchy with me as the prime minister, Andrew as the ceremonial figurehead, the curriculum as a constitution and the students as both parliament and general populace. Andrew’s presence, felt more so through the curriculum than his actual physical self, provides the foundational materials that the class is based around […]
Being at Peace with Not Knowing
Before I got thrown in the deep end last winter quarter, I did not know what to expect as far as teaching any kind of academic class. The confident, even arrogant, side of me thought it couldn’t be that hard; the old adage of “Those who can’t work, teach” bouncing around with its comforting dismissiveness. […]