“ I hated in high school when I would get my writing back from my teacher, and they would edit it and make me take stuff out, and at the end it didn’t even sound like me. The thing I turned in wasn’t my writing”. That is a quote from one of my student’s letters […]
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Articulation
From what I’ve witnessed in my classroom, the main struggle comes down to a lack of vocabulary [defined as broadly as possible]. My students have ideas in their head of what they want to say, but they struggle with the transformation of ideas to text. This problem manifested itself in a different way with the […]
“It’s Okay, I’ll Just Finish it at Home”:
“I’ll do it at home, I can’t concentrate in a classroom.” The excuses are endless— “It’s too loud to write,” “it’s too quiet and I work better at home,” or my personal favorite—” I work better under pressure, so I’ll wait until the night before.” Regardless of the amount of rigor required to complete […]
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 […]
Teaching Lazily Efficient Writers
If I could classify my students with a few words, it would probably be “lazily efficient.” My students always try to accomplish their assignments, homework, and class activities as quickly as possible, and this might be a projection of my efficiency, but nonetheless they tend to finish their work so quickly that they neglect to […]
Towards De-mystifying Writing
Many students in their original letters stated they weren’t good writers or that writing wasn’t their strong suite. I’ve tried to revisit this notion in mid-term conferences and gauge how students feel about their original statement. While I haven’t gotten through many mid-term conferences yet, many students have said that they simply have not had […]
The Secret is Writing is as important as Math
I think Shaughnessy’s concern about the rules is a huge part of what makes students struggle as writers. Reading it, I wondered what the advantages of learning how to teach ESL courses and applying those strategies to teaching English composition. So much of the English language and the linguistic rules hide in the background that […]
Belief in Transformation; Agency & “Liberation as praxis”
I can imagine the most powerful impact of teaching first-year writing being inciting a curiosity and drive related to reading and writing; one that is both connected to one’s own voice and self-discovery as well as rising from the work of other authors. This would mean creating a classroom for students that supports an increased […]
Solidarity
I keep coming back to the same idea: each person as the expert of their own life. Only the individual can say what they feel, want, need, what’s best for them, why, and who they are. To apply this to the question of the most powerful impact of a first-year writing course (or any course, […]
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 […]
What it do
This class can… um… Maybe at its best, it teaches students a method of interaction. A way of being. Maybe it empowers them to speak and write in their own voice. To pursue what they care about. These are good things. It’s also a place for students to get personal attention they may need. Many […]
O Captain, my Captain!
Didn’t John Keating – Robin Williams’s character in Dead Poet Society – inspire a generation of teachers who believe that they’re sole purpose is to free students from the conformist bonds of the classroom? Who are we to say that a teacher can’t inspire? And boiling teaching down to a transactional, capitalist enterprise of toil […]
A Wise Chef Once Told Me: “Everything needs salt, especially your English 101 pedagogical ideals”
It’s funny timing to ask about the ideal outcome of this class right around conferences. In my meetings with students they’ve given me a better picture of how 101 fits into their lives, but this window undermines any perfect world scenarios I could dream up. I don’t think that this class is really blowing open […]
Aint No Dead Poets Society
I am a very romantic person. I got totally swept away by Dead Poets Society as a kid because it wasn’t about “school” it seemed to be about freedom. Looking back, I’m sure it was so appealing to me because it was the antithesis of my experience in English class. I have wanted to be […]
An (Idealistic?) Outlet
Because the structure and content of first-year writing varies so much depending on institutional philosophy and “ambition” of outcome, this question is fairly difficult to conceptualize as a generality. In my experience of undergraduate first-year writing, I found inspiration via discovery and promotion of scholarly research. Though that was something I was aware of before […]
An Idealistic Microcosm
Many possibilities present themselves as I consider an idealistic imagination of the impact of a first-year writing course on any given student. I think, necessarily, my ideals will differ from others in my position, and I am constantly reminded of the various issues present when labeling anything as “good” or “bad”, especially, when it comes […]
Why do we have an Ideal?
I imagine that a class like this can teach intersectionality and critical thinking. One of my cheesiest undergrad instructors would say that every day he comes to class he teachings “life and truth.” That idea, like imagining an ideal for English 101, seems sweetly arrogant because it assumes that we understand the ideal situation or […]
Prompt 9: Teaching Impacts
I feel uncomfortable with narratives of inspirational teachers and life-changing classes. Certainly education has the possibility of granting a student new abilities, new worldviews. But teaching is also a job, a craft you exercise for a few hours a week in exchange for pay. I think that sanctifying the inspirational quality of teaching/learning draws attention […]
Prompt 8: Worldviews
As teachers and academics, we often spend a lot of time cultivating our worldviews. We refine a distinct and justifiable sense of how the world works, be that politically, historically, experientially, or physically. This level of complex perception, refined over time, motivates our thinking and our actions. When we teach students, we use the term […]
From a Strict Authority Figure to a Mentor
From what I’ve gathered from the very first day of teaching—very few freshmen want to take English 101. It’s a requirement, a GUR, and a five-credit course that must be taken in the first year of college. For my class especially, it’s extremely hard to get them motivated to do assignments, and I’m often greeted […]
Realistic Expectations
Instead of focusing on the idealistic facets of this class, I think it might be more sensible for me to root the goals and the mile-markers of this class firmly within the realistic. This class and its curriculum were not created, from how I interpret everything, with idealistic successes in mind, but instead determined how […]
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 […]
Idealistic? I don’t know her.
I don’t believe in being idealistic. I think it’s silly. I live for the chaos, the mess, the stress, the disaster—at least when it comes to writing, teaching, etc.. As far as my ENG 101 class is concerned, I want them to start learning about themselves. I want them to start learning about writing and […]
Passions First, Writing Second
For first year writing courses, I don’t care if my students leave with a love of English. I want my students to leave impassioned by something, impassioned by anything that they care about. The first step in enjoying reading and writing, in my opinion, is finding a topic or interest that one is invested in. […]
More Thoughts on Teaching Thinking
This post has a strong connection to my previous post. Durring my most ideological meditations about the impacts this class could have on one of my students, my thoughts turn more often towards thinking rather than writing. I want my students to leave my classroom with strong skills for critical thinking. As I said in […]
“Everyone in your generation is depressed.”
It is hard to gauge my students’ worldviews within a classroom setting. Despite the encouraging language on the syllabus and my own openness in talking with my students, the classroom still feels like a somewhat official setting where success is tied to behavior in the classroom (subconsciously). I think this atmosphere is inherent in the […]
Reframing Knowledge
I don’t believe many of the students I have worked with have much of a coherent worldview. Most of them seem to have white neoliberal leanings, with some of the more cynical ones appearing to be more set in their ways. I notice that when someone does not have a solidified view on a topic, […]
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 […]
What’s a coherent worldview anyways?
Honestly, I have very little idea of how my students perceive themselves in the greater context of the world around them. On the one hand, there is the student who says Disney princesses and the portrayal of women in media “doesn’t have anything to do with him,” which shows me at the very least a […]
Beans: Spilled & Withheld
I think my students, like me, are selectively aware and unaware of the goings on of the world around us. I think they also, (like I do in my relationship with them) selectively (or strategically) let on how aware they are. On one of the first days of class I asked them if they knew […]