Narrative Inquiry: Measuring Student Progress Through Narrative Teaching-Focused Observation Being at the helm of a college classroom, especially an English classroom, affords teachers the unique opportunity to interact with varied personal narratives. As academia, and the world at large, strives, in the words of Sharon McGee, “to put front and center […]
Does oral narrative (storytelling and listening) in the classroom have psychosocial benefits for students?
Now that my first quarter teaching English 101 is over, and I have spent untold locate where my classroom seemed to get lost, disengaged, exceedingly quiet or when the room emitted at least a few reticent sparks— I believe I have come up with an idea of what was missing. Although the curriculum was […]
Emotional Literacy and Engagement
Introduction When approaching a curriculum for the first time, especially one designed by someone else, there are going to be things that don’t mesh with students, the rest of the curriculum, or an individual’s teaching style. Implementing the Fall 2018 English 101 curriculum at Western Washington University allowed me to deeply consider my own teaching […]
How Many Times Have I Told You This? Exploring Student’s Retention of Information Through Various Methods
Introduction and Overview of Research Plan: At this point in the quarter, patience is thin. It is getting harder and harder to calmly, and civilly reply to students when they ask where an assignment is posted, when something is due, or email me about their projects because ‘they don’t know where to turn it in’– […]
Lose the Lecture: Utilizing Active Learning Strategies to Disseminate Curriculum Requirements and Engage Students
Slow and Steady, Examining Peer Feedback
The Interest and Sources and Methods In my undergraduate at Western my largest frustration came from peer feedback days. I knew I was a good enough writer that most of my class would enjoy what I wrote, and so when it came time for my piece to be critiqued a got a chorus of “it […]
Effects of Intra-Genre Compositional Studies on Inter-Genre Writing Outcomes
Contents 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 […]
Feedback and Revision: Pedagogical Approaches to Advance Student Writing
The teaching-focused research question I propose to study next quarter is, “What type of teacher feedback generates substantial student revision?” For this study, I will require revision for two assignments: the literacy narrative and the research proposal. The literacy narrative provides an opportunity to dive deeper into creative writing and work on storytelling elements. The […]
Biweekly Game Based Learning in English 101
Biweekly Game Based Learning in English 101 Research Question: What is the effect of holding biweekly game-based learning activities in English 101 and what can these activities tell us about the comprehension levels and preferred learning methods of collegiate students? Scholarly Discourse in Writing Studies: Game Based Learning has recently made a come-back in academics. […]
The Audience Project
The Audience Project: Writing for readers rather than writing for teachers Research Question: Students are used to producing writing that will be evaluated by a teacher or other authority figure. My research design focuses on altering student perspective on writing by focusing on audience and response. Bluntly: Can focusing on audience help students free their […]
The Self and Writing: A Theoretical and Practical Examination of Identity in the First-Year Writing Classroom Through an Identity-Based Activity
Brugman, Destiny F2018 Pedagogy Research Project ENG 513
Your Story Matters: Bridging the Divide between Personal and Academic Writing
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 […]
Reading is a Fun Thing We Can Do: A Research Proposal
I believe in literature. My students, however, liken reading to working out, saying that while it might be good for you, it doesn’t feel good. I want to change their minds. Reading, I think, is an inherently pleasurable activity, and it is also good for us. For literature entertains, creates myth, increases our capacity for […]
Reevaluating the “Fair Classroom”
In the text “Becoming Visible,” the concept of “special treatment” and the idea of creating a “fair classroom” were both analyzed against the issues they cause when it comes to the cultivation of a respectful and accessible classroom. I think that the use of these terms or the implementation of actions in order to justify […]
Finale Slush Pile
Since I’ve done every other blog post, I’m going to write some of the leftover stuff I haven’t posted yet, or never got a chance to post. The Peter Elbow drinking game – drink anytime he is referenced – we would all be dead by now The great shift in education over the past thirty […]
Understanding Diverse Ideologies In and Out of the Classroom
I think oftentimes in writing classes, we’re very much concerned with responses to articles, books, and research without an emphasis on being a productive and empathetic citizen. That might sound a little broad, but one thing that I’ve learned how to navigate in my undergrad classes are social injustices that are woven through history and […]
Shifting Forms
If I am completely honest, I’m not sure exactly who I want to be as a teacher yet. It’s probably an unsatisfying answer, but it is the one that immediately rings true in my own mind. I feel as though I just haven’t had enough time in the classroom to get a grasp on the […]
The Other
In some ways, responding to this prompt seems like a conscious act of othering. What’s not being looked at? What needs to be visible? Is it something we have, or think about that we want others to see? Some way we are different that makes us into an other? Is it something that we identify […]
The End
I feel like saying writing studies as a whole is miss this is a complete lie, but I can’t help but feel nagged over and over again that I feel like the thing missing from this field, the thing that is not visible, is the people who exist within it. Writing center scholarship is taking […]
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 […]
El Aleph
I would like to see as close to a full spectrum of diversity represented in writing studies as possible. I don’t understand why monofocal teaching methods are acceptable since it is clear that no one learns exactly the same as anyone else. I recognize this is a huge change to pedagogy as it currently exists, […]
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. […]
Accountability is Never Out of Style
Citation: Takayoshi, Pamela, Elizabeth Tomlinson, and Jennifer Castillo. “The Construction of Research Problems and Methods.” Practicing Research in Writing Studies, ed. by Katrina M. Powell and Pamela Takayoshi, Hampton Press, 2012, pp. 97-121. Summary: In this chapter, Takayoshi, Tomlinson, and Castillo explore how researchers make decisions and how a practice of ongoing, guided, critical self-reflection can improve research processes in the field […]
The Construction of Research Problems and Methods
Citation: Takayoshi, Pamela, Tomlinson, Elizabeth, and Castillo, Jennifer. “The Construction of Research Problems and Methods.” Practicing Research in Writing Studies: Reflexive and Ethically Responsible Research. Hampton Press, 2012. 97-121. Summary: Takayoshi, Tomlinson and Castillo begin this essay by identifying, or perhaps constructing, an opening or gap in our understanding about writing research. They have noticed […]
Reflective Annotated Bibliography on “A Grounded Theory Approach for Studying Writing and Literacy.”
Farkas, Kerrir R.H., and Christina Haas. “A Grounded Theory Approach for Studying Writing and Literacy.” Practicing Research in Writing Studies: Reflexive and Ethically Responsible Research, by Katrina M. Powell and Pamela Takayoshi, Hampton Press, 2012, pp. 81–95. Summary of the article: In this article, authors Kerrie R.H. Farkas and Christina Haas, provide an overview of what […]
Narrative Turns in Writing Studies Research
Citation Journet, Debra. “Narrative Turns in Writing Studies Research.” Writing Studies Research in Practice: Methods and Methodologies. Eds. Lee Nickoson and Mary P. Sheridan. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2012. Pp. 13-24. Summary Debra Journet opens her article with a general definition of “narrative” as it is commonly accepted by current academic attitudes: a mode […]
Addison on Narrative Inquiry
Citation Addison, Joanne. “Narrative As Method and Methodology in Socially Progressive Research.” Practicing Research in Writing Studies: Reflexive and Ethically Responsible Research, edited by Katrina Powell and Pamela Takayoshi, Hampton Press Inc., 2012, 373-383 Summary Joanne Addison starts her article with a reflection on her experiences as a foster parent. This theme weaves throughout her […]
In the Absence of Grades: Dissonance and Desire in Course-Contract Classrooms
Citation: Inman, Olewski Joyce. “In the Absence of Grades: Dissonance and Desire in Course-Contract Classrooms.” College Composition and Communication, National Council of Teachers of English, 2018, Vol. 69 (4), pp.30-32. Summary: Joyce Olewski Inman and Rebecca A. Powell borrow from the pedogogies of Danielewicz, Elbow, Thelin, Shor and Inoue, in order to implement a study […]
Narrative Inquiries
Citation: Addison, Joanne. “Narrative As Method and Methodology in Socially Progressive Research.” Practicing Research in Writing Studies: Reflexive and Ethically Responsible Research, edited by Katrina Powell and Pamela Takayoshi, Hampton Press Inc., 2012, 373-383 Summary: Author Joanne Addison creates an interesting article by weaving together her personal story of fostering a severely abused child and […]