Open Post

During the beginning of this class, I was concerned that I might feel rather constricted by the discourse that the syllabus indicated we would engage in. As the course progressed, I began to realize, in light of the 1301 curriculum at Texas Tech, that the assignments and strategies for teaching first-year composition actually have more flexibility in them than I expected.  I discovered the value that, after producing a first draft of my article-length essay, creative writing, a craft that I hold dear to myself, can have within the composition classroom.  I have discovered that rhetoric might be best taught by having students first engage in writing as they have been taught to do prior to first-year composition; by having students engage in writing of their own choosing and that has less restrictions or expectations for a final product, I have discovered that it might be easier to teach students composition by illustrating to them that they already possess the necessary skills to communicate and to argue certain viewpoints.  I believe that teaching students from their own strengths and weaknesses greatly enhances all that they glean from the class, and I feel as if this is the best approach to teaching students rhetoric and how to translate their voices into different genres.

After critically engaging with a number of texts that discuss the theories and pedagogical practices of composition, I feel as if there is much more room for creative writing within the composition classroom.  I believe that it is imperative to first empower students by allowing them to realize the authority that they can give their words in mediums that are less critically or discursively motivated and then to illustrate to them how these skills can be applied within a variety of media.  This class has allowed me to understand the practicality of being able to recognize rhetorical situations, and I feel as if I am much better equipped to enter into the classroom for the first time. 

Thesis and Sources for my Article

What is the thesis to your article for this course? What support will you cite to help you make your case?

My thesis to the article this course focuses upon examining how teaching composition through creative writing is more effective for teaching audience awareness than teaching composition through rhetorical analysis. My thesis is, in its roughest stages: “Despite the contradicting views over the best methodology for teaching audience awareness in the composition classroom, utilizing methods that have their roots in teaching creative writing is more effective than teaching audience through how to construct a rhetorical analysis.” I believe that students are more likely to best understand how to appeal to a certain audience by engaging in creative writing than they are through writing an analysis of what rhetorical devices a particular author uses.

To support my claim, I will draw upon Will Hochman’s analysis of Richard Hugo’s performance in the composition classroom. Hugo’s pedagogy revolves around his ideas focused around teaching creative writing as a means of teaching students composition. Hochman’s review of Hugo’s performance in the composition classroom gives an in-depth account of specific techniques and strategies used by Hugo to teach his students all that they are expected to learn from engaging in composition. 

I will also use, to represent the alternative side of the argument, Bedford’s article, titled “A Brief History of Rhetoric and Composition” to indicate the method through which audience is taught through rhetoric. I also think that examining Ede and Lunsford’s “Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy” will be useful for indicating the importance that identifying audience in this classroom setting holds. In order to establish the importance of considering audience during the process of composition, I will use Ede and Lunsford’s article, and I will then make my argument by redirecting my focus around the best way to teach this to first-year students.  I think that this will be an excellent starting point for my essay, and that these article will give me solid ground upon which to begin my research and engagement with the topic that I’ve chosen.

Week 11: A Translated Learning Objective

Review the learning objectives for this course. What's one thing you've learned that connects to an objective and to your future job?

After taking into consideration the objectives for this course, I find that the objective titled “Audience Awareness” is most important to consider for my future job. I ultimately desire to write for a living, which is wonderfully idealistic and highly improbable; therefore, I wish to teach creative writing and literature courses to students while pursuing my own interests at a University somewhere (anywhere). With teaching college students as my professional goal, I think that maintaining an awareness of their age, learning methods, current skills, and knowledge of the world is of utmost importance when attempting to communicate with them. This means that I place a high value on the ability to understand the group of people to which I present information and on the ability to manipulate information in ways to appeal to different audiences. I find this consideration important within the classroom, and, even though I have written several posts regarding andragogy (which places a main emphasis upon the type of audience being taught), I think that it is one of the most important styles of teaching to consider when engaged in a college classroom. 

By being aware of the audience that we, as instructors, are given to teach, we allow ourselves to consider how to best present information and how to best go about teaching these students.  By being able to analyze the demographic composition of the audience, it is much easier to select contact zones through which this audience will learn.  Being aware of our audience within the classroom allows us to select topics that are most relevantly linked with the students, which will further allow us to best teach the topics required of us by the curriculum.  Without a thorough understanding of the audience and the issue that most closely relate to them, it is nearly impossible to engage in successfully teaching a class.

            The ideas supporting andragogy are grounded in the conception of the audience as group of adults. By taking this into careful consideration when approaching lesson plans and activities for my classes, I will try to make the purpose of the assignments clear and concise, and I will try to provide multiple options/prompts to which students can respond.  I believe that, without knowing the type of people within the audience to which texts are addressed or to which lesson plans are directed, neither teaching nor writing can be executed effectively. This is one of our learning objectives that I value and appreciate, allowing me to understand both the importance of applying it and the importance of teaching it as well.

Week 10: Expected Area of Weakness in an Assignment

Identify where you think students may fail in an assignment in your syllabus, and how you will use that as a teachable moment by design. 

I think that students are most likely to struggle with the group composition project, specifically in reaching a consensus of the most relevant sections and the most important devices at work within these sections. Although I will be actively mediating online discussion, I think that students will struggle with accepting others’ ideas as potentially better than their own. I hope to illustrate to students that collaboration is not always an easy process, and I hope to illustrate to them the most appropriate methods for going about refuting another’s idea.

I will stress the importance of maintaining an open mind and of providing an ample amount of evidence to back one’s claims.  I hope to teach students that clear communication and concise presentation of their thoughts is vital for reaching an agreement of this nature, and I wish to illustrate to them that an argument is not entirely valid until backed with substantial claims.  I expect there to be some difficulty among students in reaching an agreement and in supporting the claims that they make with solid evidence and appropriate sources.  I wish to use this assignment not only as a project through which to introduce the benefits and difficulties of collaboration, but also to show students how they should go about arguing.  I want them to understand, in the end, that arguing is a healthy, necessary part of academic discussion, and I want them to able to engage in this type of discussion appropriately and with the proper end goals in mind.

5 Terms Undefined

List 5 terms you don't quite know yet how to define from our final keywords list. Next identify three in other students' blog you do know how to define, and comment on them there in those blogs. 

Five terms/people I cannot yet define:

àLester Faigley

àWriting Assessment

àStephen North

àSusan Miller

àMaking of Knowledge

Three term's I've helped my peers define:

Authority

Collaboration

Critical Thinking

Week 8: Collaborative Syllabus Assignment

What is one assignment you will include in your syllabus assignment that uses collaboration and/or technology and/or other things Yancey, Selfe, Breuch, Bruffee, or Shaughnessey have discussed?

In class, we have recently discussed the concept of post-process learning as explored by Kastman-Breuch in her article “Post-Process ‘Pedagogy’: A Philosophical Exercise.” Kastman-Breuch suggests that teaching composition has become “another foundational example of writing” due to the emphasis that educators place upon the process of writing, traditionally defined as the prewriting, writing, and rewriting stages (97). Kastman-Breuch endorses Thomas Kent’s (another post-process scholar) idea that “teaching writing as a system is impossible,” which necessitates the search for and implementation of multimodal or collaborative learning opportunities, many of which we have discussed in class (101).

I believe that collaboration is essential for students to learn effectively and accurately, as it “requires two-way rather than one-way communication, suggesting that teachers move away from a transmission model of education and toward a transformative model that includes active participation” (Kastman-Breuch 102). I believe that it is imperative that students are actively engaged in their composition courses, both inside and outside of the classroom, which requires an active and open thread of communication be available for students to share thoughts, pose questions, or engage in discussion at any time. Although I indicate that this is important in order for students to learn, I maintain that instructor engagement is equally important, otherwise the effort is not collaborative.

In my syllabus, I will include an assignment that is designed to uphold Kastman-Breuch’s idea of post-process learning and to ensure student engagement inside and outside of the classroom. This assignment will be completed over the course of two days and will require that students communicate online during the week.  Students will be divided into two separate groups, each containing half of the class. The class as a whole will be asked to select a text (whether it be film, literature, artwork, etc.).  Once agreed upon, students in group one will be tasked with, on the first day of online communication, to select five of the most significant scenes/sections/aspects of the selected text.  In order to come to a consensus as to which portions of the selected text is the most important, students will have to engage in an online discussion, providing support for or arguments against the scenes that they believe should be included. Naturally, this discussion will be mediated by the instructor, whose job it is to direct students toward thinking about technique, strategy, and other elements that are pertinent to the text from a critical standpoint. After these five sections are agreed upon, group two will then be asked to identify and define three strategies of composition (or techniques) that the authors employ which students find the most relevant. They will be asked to defend their answers, and to agree upon three for each text. Afterward, the instructor should provide commentary that challenges each of these techniques as relevant selections.  The second day will consist of both groups of students working to compile a list of sources that support either their own claims or the claims of the teacher.  The results will be recorded by the instructor and brought to the next class meeting for discussion.

The purpose of this assignment is to illustrate the process of composition as an active, engaged process that requires a series of revisions to thought, and an intensive process of adequately supporting the claims that they make.  The design of this assignment mimics the process of composing a critical analysis of a text; however, the students are given the opportunity to engage in this process together, building on the blocks laid down by their peers.  The purpose of this assignment is to illustrate to students that engaging with a text is a highly interactive process, which their time spent online will show.  In class, the instructor will present the final product, a collaborative research paper, to the class; the instructor will engage students in a discussion the difficulties that arose during the process of completing the assignment, and he/she will offer more individualized strategies that may help in conducting future research endeavors.

Ultimately, the goal of this assignment is to teach students that actively participating with texts is crucial for their ability to adequately analyze a text and to draw conclusions from it.  I want students to understand that there is no simple way to go about composition, but that time and involvement are necessary for completing this task.  I also wish to provide students with a skeleton for how they might go about conducting an analysis, as the steps that are required of them are all necessary.

Week 7: A Return to Andragogy

 Engage in discussion about something that captured your attention over the past few weeks in the course. Relate it back to specific class discussions, readings, and your grading/teaching when possible.

Although there have been a number of aspects pertaining to the methodologies and focuses of teaching composition, all of which we have studied and addressed this semester, the idea of andragogy has struck me as one of the most valuable concepts.  In class, we continue to discuss the versatility of approaches for teaching first-year composition; in light of this wide variety of methodological practices in teaching this discipline, I think that it is of utmost important to acknowledge the adulthood that students enrolled in these classes are coming into.

Although many composition programs limit the agency of instructors through strict curricula and prefabricated syllabi, the concepts of andragogy can still be implemented within the classroom, allowing students to actively participate in the construction of the class itself.  Although I think that the entirety of andragogy, in terms of Knowles’ definition (which can be found further down on this blog page), is important in all of its ideas, I believe that there are two concepts which hold the most import in terms of a first-year composition class: students should be involved in the planning and should be given a certain degree of autonomy when it comes to assignments and scheduling, and learning should be problem-centered.

By giving students the ability to actively affect the syllabus and their assignments, I believe that they would engage with these assignments and readings with much more depth.  By allowing them to play a role in the development of the class, students feel as if their opinion in regards to what they learn truly matters; consequently, I believe that students would place a higher emphasis upon the quality of their work. As we have discussed in class, and I as I have observed within my own grading experience, students seem to be generally disinterested in the assignments they are given, resulting in work that is not inspired, to say the least, and that follows a formulaic pattern.  I find that students often repeat the same mistakes in different assignments, indicating the insignificance that these assignments seem to hold in their eyes.  I believe that we can overcome this disengaged writing by allowing students to select the readings (from a list of selected works) that they will engage in, as they will gather a sense of the true import that these assignments hold; students would see that, by being given the opportunity to aid in developing the course, their education is indeed important to those teaching them. This form of constructive and active engagement would allow for students to begin producing work that they find meaning in.  By engaging with the course materials in this way, students’ writing would indeed serve to teach them as they advance their skills in this discipline, leading to Nancy Sommers’s idea that good “writers recognize and resolve the dissonance they sense in their writing” (51).  I believe that this aspect of andragogy would set students in the direction of becoming experienced writers, as defined by Sommers, who “seek to discover (to create) meaning in the engagement with their writing” and  who “seek to emphasize and exploit the lack of clarity, the differences of meaning, [and] the dissonance…that writing…allows” (51-52).

Additionally, I believe that centering first-year composition courses around problem-based learning would greatly impact the amount that students actually learn and take away from assignments. In cadence with Bizzell’s idea of centering studies around contact zones, I believe that we should, indeed, arrange our courses “in terms of historically defined contact zones, [or] moments when different groups within the society contend for the power to interpret what is going on” (463).  I think that organizing first-year composition around these areas of conflict would result in a much higher participation rate within the classroom, and I believe that students’ writing would be much more engaged; as a result, it would make teaching them to express their ideas much easier, as they would have a desire to express with clarity their stances. Additionally, as Bizzell argues, this method would allow students to address the world in which they live in terms of power struggles and the inequities that effect their social lives (whether directly or indirectly), teaching them to argue for or against issues in appropriate manners.  I think Bizzell’s idea is powerful, in terms of andragogy, because, rather than having to engage with material from which students are generally detached, they would have to learn HOW to discuss these topics, how to consider a variety of perspectives, and how to recognize the ways in which these perspectives are presented (rhetoric). 

Personally, I believe that andragogy, more specifically the two aspects I have touched upon, is essential for successfully teaching students how to write and how to engage with the topics at hand.  Not only would these practices benefit students in terms of writing, but they would also teach students how to appropriate the incessant stream of information that our technologically-based society throws at them; this would provide them with the skills to determine the validity and importance of this information, and it would teach them HOW to actively engage with a society of which they are an integral part.

Bizzell, Patricia. “‘Contact Zones’ and English Studies.” Cross-Talk in Comp Theory. 3^rd ed. Eds. Victor Villanueva, Kristin L. Arola. Urbana: NCTE, 2011. 459-466. Print.

Sommers, Nancy. “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers.” Cross-Talk in Comp Theory. 3^rd ed. Eds. Victor Villanueva, Kristin L. Arola. Urbana: NCTE, 2011. 43-54. Print.

Week 6: Response to Travis's Extended Analysis

(Click for Travis's Extended Analysis)

Travis,

I find your research compelling, as I had never considered this aspect in terms of teaching or in terms of technology.  I think it would be excellent to implement the idea of usability into a composition class, because, as you observe, this would give students the opportunities to learn from a medium that they interact with on a daily basis.  I think you indicate a great point for consideration when you discuss the ease of digesting information in relation to the ways in which the texts are formatted.  I think, by teaching students to recognize these aspects of presentation, teachers would be able to make a strong connection back to literature.  I think it is very interesting that you mention chunking, as this is a technique that we use in poetry to delay or hasten thoughts/ ideas (you might check out Ellen Bryant Voigt’s The Art of Syntax).  By teaching students to recognize how web pages effectively communicate, capture attention, or set a tone, I agree that teaching composition would tie in nicely with this. You also mention that usability and user thinking are important aspects of constructing and conveying meaning; I wonder how we might alter some aspects of usability to cater more specifically to composition. I think that, taking it a step further, it would be interesting to have students read from a few web pages (each designed with different levels of effectiveness in terms of communication), and then to have them write a response (in which they identify audience and purpose or summarize) to the text.  Then, have students compare their responses directly with the web page’s design and have them note certain aspects that drew their attention, or made finding information easier.  I then think you could, easily enough, reapply this to literature.

Week 5: Andragogy

 What is andragogy, and how might the approach help in teaching FYC?

Andragogy is a term that refers to the processes and theories involved in the education of adult learners.  The concept of andragogy, often referred to as “adult learning practice,” was brought to the attention of the public in the United States by Malcolm Knowles, who approached the idea from a logical standpoint.  Knowles theorized his ideas behind adult learning, which he wanted to blatantly distinguish from pedagogy (the processes and methods of educating children), and asserted that andragogy should revolve around six basic assumptions; these assumptions operate around the concept that adults need motivation in order to learn efficiently.

Knowles argues that adults need to be given the rationale behind completing assignments or readings, otherwise they will not likely complete it, as their time can be better spent. He also suggests that learning should be problem-centered, an idea that gives adults ample opportunity to learn and build from their mistakes or errors. Knowles believes that experience is a tool that is essential for teaching adults.  Additionally, he asserts that, in order for adults to maximize their learning and retention of information, they need to be an active part in the scheduling and methods of evaluation used in the class.  Knowles argues that relevance also plays a big role in motivating adults to learn; it is important, he asserts, that adult students are interested in issues surrounding their immediate lives, making it important to establish a relevance between the students themselves and the topics of study. Lastly, Knowles asserts that it is important to recognize that adults respond best to external stimuli when it comes to becoming motivated, which places a great emphasis upon the teacher and his/her methodology.

I think that considering Knowles’s idea of andragogy could be incredibly useful if applied to First Year Composition.  Within these classes, the student demographic consists majorly freshmen, all of who are recent high school graduates.  These students, having been newly “freed” from the surveilling gaze of their parents, are truly beginning to come into the early stage of adulthood, learning how to take care of certain responsibilities that they’ve often never considered doing before.  By applying the ideas Knowles presents in his theory of andragogy, students might learn skills not only useful within the field of academia, but also practical skills that might aid them in the “real world.”

I believe that allowing students to participate in constructing a schedule might empower them.  By giving students a sense of agency over the material that they must read and over certain aspects of assignments, we, as teachers, would allow them to realize the importance of their roles within the classroom; students would feel as if they have voice within the classroom, which might aid their confidence in group discussion. I think, in order to execute this idea of students playing an active role in the creation of the class (to a degree, of course), it would be useful to design assignments that have several options.  By providing students with a variety of choices to choose from with the same learning outcomes, I believe that they would interact with the material with more depth, which would stimulate much more generative discussions within the classroom.

Additionally, I believe that the relevance of topics plays a paramount role in teaching and instruction. By implementing lessons that can be immediately applied to the students being taught, teachers can transcribe the learning points into the world that presents itself most obviously to the students.  In other words, by utilizing new forms of technology, new fads or fashions, contemporary music, current issues or debates, and many other topics within the classroom, teachers can show students the importance of learning the certain skill, while also teaching it in terms that they understand. 

Finally, I think it is vital to let students know the justification behind assignments, along with the projected learning outcomes. Throughout the majority of their high school careers, students are given tome-sized stacks of assignments, which they are expected to complete even though they do not often understand the purpose of the work.  By telling FYC students what the projected outcomes of the assignments are, students become motivated to achieve those goals, and it dictates to them what is expected of their work, in terms of quality and content.  This strategy would teach students the importance of completing work as the assignment dictates (a very beneficial skill to possess in the corporate and academic spheres), the importance of their role within the classroom, and the importance of communication between student and instructor.

I think that the concepts of andragogy could be directed very well within a FYC classroom, leading to more rounded learning outcomes and better engagement from both teachers and students.

Week 4: Teaching Philosophy

When undertaking the task of teaching students not how to write, but how to compose, it is imperative to understand the diverse demographic of the classroom and the multiple backgrounds from which students come. In order to reach the entirety of those being taught, it is necessary to consider that all students interpret things differently than others. It is also necessary to take into account the amount of effort that students put into completing assignments and into engaging within the class.  With these factors in mind, I believe that teaching should revolve around the following ideas, which cannot be neglected or dismissed at any point throughout the teaching process:

1. The classroom is a community comprised of teacher and students; without either half, the community is incomplete.

2. Students should be met with an empathy that allows teachers to understand and that keeps communication open on both ends.

3. Communication, both oral and written, should be placed at the forefront of the classroom, stressing the inability to compose without clarity in communication.

4. Creativity is the mind’s way of understanding and compartmentalizing ideas that are difficult to comprehend; room for creativity should exist within the classroom to ensure that students are given the utmost possibility of reaching their maximum potential as writers and readers.

5. Revision should be endless; without the opportunity to self-correct, or to rearrange thoughts, students would not understand why certain things do or do not work when composing.

By introducing the classroom as a communal setting, I allow my students to understand that they are just as much a part of the learning process as I am, as an instructor.  Getting students acknowledge their active role within the classroom frames the class itself around students’ engagement, which allows them to feel as if they get out of the class whatever they put into it.  I teach that, without communication regarding the assignments and the subject matter, students will not be able to portray their abilities accurately upon the page.  It is necessary to employ a method of immediate communication with students, inside and outside of class, to ensure that they understand what I am teaching, why I choose certain methods over others, and how they are developing under my instruction. 

I believe that it is vital for my own efficacy, as a teacher, to inform students that I am human, too.  By informing that I make mistakes and that I understand what it is like to be an undergraduate, I hope to establish a level of comfort within them when asking me questions or when approaching me with any concerns, school-related or not.  I desire for students to become empowered by words, as I once was, and I hope that I can motivate them toward viewing composition as an unadulterated form of communication.  I believe in assessing the ways in which students learn and in incorporating a variety of learning styles into the way I teach, with the hope of inspiring more students than before.

I assert that embracing creativity within the classroom is the key to students’ eventual understanding.  By providing them with a variety of methods through which to attain the same goal, whether it be rhetorical or literary analysis, I believe that students are more likely to grasp the concepts behind composition, along with the reasons behind its importance.  If a student is able to express him-/herself in a variety of genres and styles, I believe that their understanding of both rhetoric and composition as a discipline increases. In coincidence with my belief in embracing creativity, I also believe that revision should be consistently reaffirmed.  When students are given multiple chances to reorganize ideas, to rethink their diction, or to refocus a thesis, they have a much higher chance of both becoming stronger writers and of understanding the subject matter with clarity.

To teach is to connect language and ideas across a variety of media, to motivate students to express themselves clearly and without reservation, and to understand the mental gears that exist beyond language, culture, and history.  To teach is to inspire and, most importantly, to remind students that life exists apart from the immediate.

Week Three: Types of Assignments for FYC

Based on your teaching philosophy (which may change over time), what are types of assignments which you would include in a FYC syllabus?

Due to my belief that teaching should always involve an interaction between students and their instructors, rather than a time teachers devote to cramming information down uninterested students’ throats, I believe that it is necessary to have students engage with texts and with writing each class period.  Through a variety of writing and reading assignments and exercises, students learn to recognize their strengths and weaknesses within their own writing, which helps them avoid making the same mistakes in the future.  I do, however, believe that these assignments need to be carefully selected and molded to the specific class and their abilities to perform within the discipline of composition and rhetoric.  Activities of this nature that would prove to be the most beneficial would need to have a specific focus and learning outcome that the student could both perceive and attain through careful work.  These assignments need to be explained in class, with their purposes delineated (when necessary) and with examples that might guide the students while working.  I do acknowledge, in some cases, that it might be better to avoid providing an example, as doing so might limit the students’ potential.

            A type of assignment that would serve as a useful tool in the teaching of FYC might be, what I’ll term, a “Verb-Identifying” assignment.  Many students are not aware that strong, active verbs are indicative of strong writing.  By providing excerpts from a persuasive piece, a critical analysis, and a creative writing piece (say, a poem) and then having students identify the verbs within the excerpts, the subjects of the sentence, and the tenses of the verbs, students would understand the importance of utilizing strong, specific verbs in their writing.  This assignment would give students the opportunity to interact directly with a variety of different texts, and it would even be more beneficial if expanded past verb identification and were to include transition words and phrases as well. 

            Another assignment I think it would be useful for students to engage in is one in which students are provided with samples of writing that all exhibit a range of differing tones. They should then be asked to read the samples (which each should be 3-5 pages in length), after which they have to state the tone that they author (or speaker) adopts in his/her piece.  Following identification of the tone, students should be required to identify the audience of the piece and to indicate why the tone might have been used as it was.  Students should also identify certain rhetorical choices that the author makes in employing that specific tone and how those choices invoke the tone.  This activity would teach students how to identify an audience within a text, along with teaching them how to identify rhetorical choices; by focusing closely upon these devices within a few texts, students will hopefully begin to understand how authors employ rhetoric, which might aid them in their own writing. 

            Finally, I feel that the students should engage in some sort of writing activity a few times a week that will allow them, following their time spent in class, to trace the progress of their writing skills.  I think requiring two or three weekly blog posts would cause students to practice their skills throughout the week, allowing them to continually work on the craft.  Although I do not think that the blog prompts should be too prescriptive, I think they should set appropriate boundaries for the students. Each should include a minimum word count of 300 words, to ensure that students have to take the time to consider HOW they will craft a response of that length.  I also think that each post should have a different “theme” to it.  One post should be a thoughtful response to an assigned reading that other students might benefit from reading; a second post might be a persuasive piece, or an ad, in which students attempt to persuade the reader of something (which the student might choose as long as it is appropriate for the classroom).  The third blog should be open for the students to choose what genre of entry to submit.  This assignment would engage students in writing frequently, and would allow peers to interact with less restraints, which might work to benefit learning outcomes on a classroom, rather than individual, level. 

Week Two: The Most Difficult Thing to Teach

What is the most difficult thing to teach in the teaching of writing, and how do you go about teaching that?

Although I have never taught writing, as of this point in my life, it is obvious that I have been involved in the teaching process (as a student) for a number of years.  I recall that the act of writing always felt natural to me, which, in my younger years, I took for granted.  When thinking about the difficulties of composition that I did run into, those with which my peers struggled as well, I identify critical analysis as the area that caused the most trouble. It is for this reason that I maintain that critical analysis is, indeed, the most difficult aspect of teaching writing.

Although it would seem logical to have students read examples of critical analyses while pointing out characteristics and important aspects of the writing, this does not, in fact, teach them how to construct a cohesive argument centered on a central topic.  A critical analysis requires students to carefully read a text, to pick a focal point from that text which they will argue for or against, and to draft a cohesive response that thoroughly addresses the text and all aspects of the argument.  I believe the first two steps in this process are much easier to teach than the actual composition of the analysis.  To begin with, teachers can walk students through close-reading by taking the time to read a text aloud with them and by verbalizing the process.  After demonstrating the process of close-reading, teachers can provide an example of how to select an aspect of the text with which to argue for or against.  It is the act of composing the analysis that presents the greatest issue.

In order to teach the composition of a critical analysis, it is imperative that teachers stress the importance of developing critical thoughts, which can be supported by textual evidence, over opinion.  The distinction between opinion and analysis should be stressed from the beginning of the process, as should the distinction between summary and analysis.  In order to do this, teachers should prompt students to continually ask themselves, “How is what I am saying relevant to the text?” and, “Does this thought further my argument?” Teachers should provide examples of both summary and opinion, and they should juxtapose these examples with a good example of analysis.  Furthermore, teachers should require students to draft some form of a pre-writing exercise that illustrates how they will organize and transition between ideas.  An exemplary form of this exercise is the outline, which requires students to state their general argument, to select points of interest relevant to the argument, and to select specific textual examples that support these points of interest.

In order to ensure that students attempt to engage in critical analysis, teachers should provide a list of good transition words.  It is necessary for teachers to emphasize the importance of constructing fluidity within an argument, which providing a list of this nature might do.  Familiarizing students with a range of words designed to connect thoughts allows teachers to illustrate the level of cohesion that this type of writing requires, and it directs students’ thoughts toward furthering their argument, rather than restating it.  An additional resource that would be useful in teaching the composition of critical analysis could be a list of strong, active verbs.  It is important that the students’ claims are progressing that which they are arguing; by providing a list of strong verbs from which to choose, teachers might aid in eliminating many of the static statements that students make.

Another important aspect of teaching the composition of critical analysis is having students draft a series of interrelated questions that they intend to address, if not answer, in their analyses.  Students should be prompted to ask “how?” “why?” and “to what extent?” in order to ensure they address the important aspects of their arguments.  These questions would provide direction for them if they became stuck, or unsure of which direction to direct their thoughts; furthermore, this would help students develop their thoughts, which might aid them in arranging them logically.

30 August 2015: Week 1

What is rhetoric?  What is the history and theory of rhetoric? What do you want to do with the content from this course?

Rhetoric is an amalgamation of a variety of tools or techniques used strategically in a composition, whether it be written, visual, or oral, that ultimately serves to enact a persuasive argument.  Rhetoric, an idea initially introduced by Aristotle, necessitates that writers consider to whom they are writing, how they desire to influence, one way or another, their audience, and how they can achieve these goals within their texts.  Rhetoric works to appeal to the readers’ emotions (pathos), to logic (logos), and to ethics (ethos).  By utilizing and arranging these appeals throughout a text, a writer establishes a certain rhetorical context through which he/she attempts to persuade readers to adopt a certain perspective when considering a specific topic.

            Rhetoric’s origin branches, as aforementioned, back to the era of the ancient Greeks, during the time of Aristotle’s life.  Initially given form to by the Sophists, who saw a need for written trading laws as the Greek oligarchy declined, rhetoric and the components by which it is defined have grown, just as cultures and civilizations have.  By the time rhetoric met Cicero and the Romans, there existed a determined set of components by which writing was defined: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, and Delivery.  Cicero then re-developed the idea of “stasis theory,” which required a series of questions to be asked of the writer (or presenter) in order to understand both his aims and his definitive point of argumentation.  Following the Roman period, rhetoric continued to evolve in cadence with literacy rates, the consideration of composition as an applied practice, the development of different genres and sub-genres of texts, and the emergence of technologies within the printing and information fields. 

            The theory of rhetoric requires that one consider the historical and immediate contexts for socio-political human interaction.  How one employs him/herself within these contexts speaks to the topic being delivered, along with the message that the author intends to impart to the audience.  According to the theory of rhetoric, what hold importance in a composition (whether written or oral) are the unspoken implications and intentions behind the text itself; in short, rhetorical theory considers how individuals use certain signals in certain ways (whether consciously or not) to signify certain meanings or to evoke a desired response.  Furthermore, the theory of rhetoric suggests that any individual composer of texts can arrange his text and his ideas within in such a way that will produce an anticipated reaction or sentiment within readers; it is important to note that there are endless varieties of ways in which these arrangements can occur.

            By engaging with the content that we are learning, and that we will continue to learn, in this course, I hope to come to an understanding of composition as not a mere requirement, but as a discipline.  From my personal experience, composition has been relegated to the back-burner and often considered unimportant or a “necessary evil.”  Although my attitude toward composition is not of this nature, I hope to understand why it is as it is today, and how I, as a future educator, can contribute to it as a science.  I desire to familiarize myself with as many aspects as possible of composition, so that I might teach it effectively one day.