Blog Prompt: What is the "End of Composition"? How do we get there? What are the principles of good writing instruction that will get us there?
Hhhmmmm...Good Question! I find myself in the process of re-evaluating some of the things I thought about teaching composition, but I will try to address this as well as I can as of today.
I think that the "end of composition" as it relates to Freshman Composition is an ability to effectively communicate through various types of written formats. I think that we should be teaching the students to be aware of audience, to be aware of the message, and to be aware of the "correctness" of the message. It would be nice if they all had critical thinking and critical reading skills coming into this class, but alas, I am finding that is not the case! Therefore, we also need to be sure that they acquire these skills.
How do we get there? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall--PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
The principles of good writing instruction that will get us there first of all involves an awareness of what is expected. We need to be sure that WE understand what is expected of the students, and then we need to be sure that we communicate those expectations to the students. There has been some confusion on the first few assignments, and I feel that the students are the ones who have suffered. I also feel that we need to give effective feedback to the students. How can we expect them to learn if we don't use every opportunity to "individualize" their experience? We also need to provide various chances for them to write. If they are able to write across the curriculum and get some feedback from us, then they will become better at it.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Philosophy
Twenty-three years ago I had to create a Teaching Philosophy for an education class. I remember working hard on it, and I remember making an "A" on it. I also remember the professor telling us how vital this was to our careers. It's funny, but I have no idea where that paper is, and no one in any of my teaching jobs has ever asked for it. Having said that, I do know that having a road map to follow is important when you start on the journey that you choose for your life. While I don't remember exactly what I said, I do remember having a plan for what I wanted to do in my classroom.
As all optimistic first-time teachers do, I filled my expectations with many aspirations that I realize now not even members of MENSA could fulfill. However, one thing did work. I found that if I had high expectations for myself and shared those with the students, they usually surpassed what THEY thought they could do. I also found that students "don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." If they know that you honestly want them to learn so that they will be successful in the path that they choose to follow, then they will learn. I have had welders and farmers that have seen me in town and asked if I had heard that there is a new Beowulf movie coming out. (Many years after they were in my class!) I received a graduation announcement last May from a student that was receiving his MA in Philosophy at the University of Texas. This student entered my English IV classroom believing that he could only go to a technical school because he didn't have the skills to write well enough for a university.
So, what is my philosophy of teaching and composition? Care about what YOU do. Let the students know you aren't in it for the millions of dollars you receive each month (LOL). Care enough about your job to study and to know your subject well. Prepare ahead of time. Believe in your "kids." Pad your criticism with enough "warm fuzzies" that they will walk on broken glass for you--or at least revise their drafts! Show them examples of how to "do it right." Take their sentences and work with their words instead of referring them to a page in the handbook. Have them write, write, and write some more. As I have said before, even Michael Jordan has to practice shooting free throws.
As all optimistic first-time teachers do, I filled my expectations with many aspirations that I realize now not even members of MENSA could fulfill. However, one thing did work. I found that if I had high expectations for myself and shared those with the students, they usually surpassed what THEY thought they could do. I also found that students "don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." If they know that you honestly want them to learn so that they will be successful in the path that they choose to follow, then they will learn. I have had welders and farmers that have seen me in town and asked if I had heard that there is a new Beowulf movie coming out. (Many years after they were in my class!) I received a graduation announcement last May from a student that was receiving his MA in Philosophy at the University of Texas. This student entered my English IV classroom believing that he could only go to a technical school because he didn't have the skills to write well enough for a university.
So, what is my philosophy of teaching and composition? Care about what YOU do. Let the students know you aren't in it for the millions of dollars you receive each month (LOL). Care enough about your job to study and to know your subject well. Prepare ahead of time. Believe in your "kids." Pad your criticism with enough "warm fuzzies" that they will walk on broken glass for you--or at least revise their drafts! Show them examples of how to "do it right." Take their sentences and work with their words instead of referring them to a page in the handbook. Have them write, write, and write some more. As I have said before, even Michael Jordan has to practice shooting free throws.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
ICON Part 2
We've talked some in class about how teachers in ICON are facilitators. What do they facilitate? How is what they're doing similar to writing center approaches to teaching writing?
Well, last week I apparently did a blog that we are skipping, so please don't think I am crazy!
This is a hard topic to address since I am not familiar with what the CI's are doing on a day-to-day basis in their classes. As all teachers do, they facilitate learning. I assume that they are teaching the concepts, then allowing the students to go home to practice these concepts through TOPIC. I am sure that they give specific examples to correlate with the assignment focus for the week. I have not yet visited the writing center, so I assume that it is set up much the same way, only on a one-on-one basis.
Well, last week I apparently did a blog that we are skipping, so please don't think I am crazy!
This is a hard topic to address since I am not familiar with what the CI's are doing on a day-to-day basis in their classes. As all teachers do, they facilitate learning. I assume that they are teaching the concepts, then allowing the students to go home to practice these concepts through TOPIC. I am sure that they give specific examples to correlate with the assignment focus for the week. I have not yet visited the writing center, so I assume that it is set up much the same way, only on a one-on-one basis.
Monday, September 10, 2007
ICON
How is ICON a system's approach to teaching composition? What are the benefits of this system? What are the limitations? What happens when the system gets behind?
So far, I see the ICON approach as something that "levels the playing field." By having all students complete the same assignments, there is a more consistent expectation of them. By having "anonymous" graders look at the students' work, it takes away the "she just doesn't like me" element that is so often a part of evaluation in the students' eyes.
I also see many limitations. First of all, a student's progress is not taken into consideration. When I grade a student's second assignment, I won't know if the student took the advice given on the first assignment. As graders, we can't tell if a mistake is a consistent one or not. Also, many grammatical mistakes that they are making are not in the drop-down menu, so I find myself spending a great amount of time trying to explain to the student WHY he/she made a mistake and HOW to correct it next time.
I hope the system never gets behind because I sense that it would create complete chaos! Actually, I am not sure what is meant by this question. Does it mean technically-speaking where the students can't access TOPIC, or manually-speaking where the DI's get too far behind in getting assignments back to the students?
~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, this is two days later and I have graded 13 papers. I do see a definite problem. Many of the papers I have graded have done the wrong assignment. In their defense, I was confused when I first read the instructions because the way it is set up, it appears to be referring to the information on the page, not the chart at the bottom of the previous page. After posting this question, several people replied that different instructors had allowed their students the freedom to choose which graphic to summarize. Unless the CI is sure that all graders know she/he changed the assignment, I foresee many problems with grades.
As for myself, I had a hard time failing a student when he/she did a tremendous job of summarizing the bar graph instead of the pie chart. Was the CONCEPT more important or the ASSIGNMENT? In my own classroom, I had the freedom to distinguish which (is that used correctly???) was more important in the long run.
So far, I see the ICON approach as something that "levels the playing field." By having all students complete the same assignments, there is a more consistent expectation of them. By having "anonymous" graders look at the students' work, it takes away the "she just doesn't like me" element that is so often a part of evaluation in the students' eyes.
I also see many limitations. First of all, a student's progress is not taken into consideration. When I grade a student's second assignment, I won't know if the student took the advice given on the first assignment. As graders, we can't tell if a mistake is a consistent one or not. Also, many grammatical mistakes that they are making are not in the drop-down menu, so I find myself spending a great amount of time trying to explain to the student WHY he/she made a mistake and HOW to correct it next time.
I hope the system never gets behind because I sense that it would create complete chaos! Actually, I am not sure what is meant by this question. Does it mean technically-speaking where the students can't access TOPIC, or manually-speaking where the DI's get too far behind in getting assignments back to the students?
~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, this is two days later and I have graded 13 papers. I do see a definite problem. Many of the papers I have graded have done the wrong assignment. In their defense, I was confused when I first read the instructions because the way it is set up, it appears to be referring to the information on the page, not the chart at the bottom of the previous page. After posting this question, several people replied that different instructors had allowed their students the freedom to choose which graphic to summarize. Unless the CI is sure that all graders know she/he changed the assignment, I foresee many problems with grades.
As for myself, I had a hard time failing a student when he/she did a tremendous job of summarizing the bar graph instead of the pie chart. Was the CONCEPT more important or the ASSIGNMENT? In my own classroom, I had the freedom to distinguish which (is that used correctly???) was more important in the long run.
~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, now for addition #2. I heard from my CI. She forgot to tell us that she allowed the students to do any of the charts/graphs. I am not happy because I have already broken the trust of some of the students. I feel that they have to be able to trust us to do our job correctly, but we have unknowingly let them down. Lack of communication between CI's and DI's could jeopardize this program.
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