I think the main problem students face in any FYC course is a lack of critical reading skills, which results in the inability to format critical responses. I would have us read and discuss multiple texts in class - both as a full class and in small groups - so that they begin to understand why certain texts make them emote. Are they angry at a polemic? Why? Are they moved by a love poem? What did the author do to move them? Why do we laugh, cry, glaze over at different kinds of writing and how did the writer accomplish that? Even in my limited experience teaching 1301 here at Tech, this kind of discussion is always lively and sets a good foundation for further critical thinking.
I would then assign them texts that were different but similar in tone and style to what we discussed in class. I usually think Op-Ed articles are an excellent place to start because students can take a stance (agree/disagree). Once their critical minds start working then we can move further into analysis, which is much more difficult than basic response. At this point in the course, I'd assign short stories and poems that engage the students on an emotional level, helping them to familiarize themselves with literature and feel that it is not some distant, dull genre. They'd have to write reports on rhetorical aspects of these pieces (hearkening back to our in-class discussions of why they feel the way they feel after reading a text and how the author achieved that).
I would also like to allow them to write creatively at this point in the course. I've noticed in many of their BA1s that multiple students indicated an interest in creative expression but felt they were not good enough writers to do so. I think creative writing is an excellent developer for imagination, discussion, and critical thinking skills, so I would allow them the choice between crafting a poem or a flash fiction piece and introduce them to the workshop format. I think workshop is another way to develop critical thinking and discussion skills while also teaching revision skills, kindness in feedback, and community.
The final assignment would be a longer essay on a topic of their choosing, to be selected from the texts we've used in class. They would be able to write a more scholarly paper on one of the Op-Eds we wrote or they could choose a deeper analysis of one of the creative pieces assigned. The ultimate focus would be on their revision of their first drafts (Did they incorporate the feedback intelligently?) and on their ability to be clear.
Lastly, the course would have a consistent focus on grammar. I believe one cannot effectively communicate if the foundations of that communication are ruptured. We would do at least one grammar exercise per class and have grammar quizzes. I think students are resistant to this because of the nature of modern-day communication (texting, Twitter, valuing visual-over-written-communication) but I believe that they actually want to be well-spoken, especially as they move out into the world and the job force.
I really like and agree with your post here. I first want to comment about the creative expression of students. I think you're absolutely right, a lot of students want to create, but they either are too afraid, or don't know how necessarily. In a world where everything we say, post, or do is critically judged and critiqued by others, I think this causes a lot of fear in our students. "I'm not a good writer." "What if it sucks?" "I don't want other people to see this." These attitudes are something I think we all have and/or have had before. I don't exactly know the best way to conquer such fears in the classroom other than simply letting other people read and comment on your work. We typically have a fear of rejection, so we tend to not want to write or want others to read our writing. But allowing our students to write creatively, and freely, I think will help settle these fears. Everyone has something to say, so we should definitely let them say it in any way (appropriately) they want.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I LOVE Op-Ed pieces. I love love love them. I love them not only because they're typically current and deal with things our students are likely interested in, but because as you said, it allows our students to share their opinions and have a voice, particularly in a world where most freshmen think they're unheard, unseen, and invisible.
Lastly, your focus on grammar, I agree it is vital, especially when students want to move into the world and out into the work-force. I think I said this in one of my previous posts, that if we can get students to write well, read well, and speak well informally, such as on social media, and while texting, they will be infinitely more well-prepared to move out into the world and work-force than if they hadn't read well, wrote well, spoke well in their informal conversations. Using proper grammar and syntax in an informal setting will make using it in a formal setting less awkward, less unreal, and less "not me".
The way you incorporate creative writing into your classroom assignments is fantastic. Your rationale for doing so is quite good, and I wish I would have thought of it two years ago. The administration for the FYC program I taught at during my MA program was convinced that creative writing had no place in the FYC classroom, and they went to great lengths to explain to us why this was the case. Your focus on initial response, followed by an analysis of how the writer creates that response is relevant to all types of writing from creative to Op-Ed.
ReplyDeleteI also like how you give students the choice to analyze a creative work or write a more scholarly essay on a topic from an Op-Ed. Giving students choices will get them more invested in the assignment because they can choose something that will interest them. I have some students who would love writing on a creative piece and others that would complain about how irrelevant that writing would be to their majors/future careers.
Would you require students to write creatively, or would you give them a choice to write in a different genre (although this would be a bad choice, right?).
I think we share similar teaching philosophies. Even though I am in the Tech. Comm. program, I agree very much with your creative writing assignments. My undergraduate degree was in creative writing, so I highly value artistic expression as a learning tool. I think students can engage with rhetoric much more easily through expressionist assignments, and I think emulating those creative writing pieces will give students a much more authentic writing experience than a critical analysis essay.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a graduate writing tutor at my previous university, I noticed that so many students would come to a tutoring session so frustrated that they didn't know what was going wrong with their essay. Most of the time, these students were able to clearly communicate their ideas if I flipped the essay over and had them explain their argument to me. The problem was that these students didn't know how to write for a particular audience. Their ideas were almost always great, but they would shut down when writing a high-stakes assignment to an evaluative authority. Peter Elbow came up with a nifty chart that can help navigate the different kinds of audiences (link to follow), and your assignments take advantage of almost all of these types of responses to teach students to write effectively to a variety of audiences. Link: https://www.marist.edu/writingcenter/pdfs/twelve.pdf
However, I do have one point of contention with your approach. Your assignments accomplish a number of learning goals very well, but students may not know how to apply those analytical skills to the kinds of documents and situations they are likely to encounter in the business world. I think those analytical skills would certainly be there, but analyzing the rhetoric of a business document, a memo for example, is a significantly different writing situation. A professional writing style often removes those artistic colors of emotion and subjectivity from workplace prose, but it is a critical skill for students to learn. I don't want to be misunderstood; the creativity developed from creative writing is a highly valuable and marketable skill in any job market, but I think students also need to develop the ability to apply that creativity within these workplace environments. This can be a difficult goal to accomplish, but that's actually why I decided to go into the TC field. You could give students some experience with this by analyzing one or two types of business documents in class and discussing how these documents require different rhetorical approaches than a creative writing piece.
Thanks guys! I'm glad y'all are all into the idea of incorporating a creative writing assignment.
ReplyDeleteAnd Justin - I think you're correct that I am not as well-versed or comfortable with teaching memo, legalese, and other more business-oriented texts. And I know that being able to parse the rhetoric of these is just as integral to a student's future success as being able to explicate a poem is...!
Nice post, Jess. I agree with you with the idea that what is important to teach, ultimately, is critical thinking. And there are a variety of ways to teach thinking: reading, writing, discussion, interaction, collaboration, any form of transaction or dialectical engagement. Tapping into contemporary op-ed pieces is useful as it says to students, hey look, what we're learning here is relevant, and you should be practicing it outside of class all the time. Good thinking doesn't just happen within the walls of a classroom, as Bruffee reminds us. And there's critical thinking over something relatively general, and then there's sustained critical thinking over something more complex (like an essay can begin to address), with many perspectives and positions. Good thinking. I like the interaction here in this blog and response between views and perspectives across fields of English and TC.
ReplyDeleteJessica,
ReplyDeleteYou make several excellent points here. Although being able to "compose" is the ultimate goal of FYC, students often are not given the chance to engage in multiple modes of writing. In the first place, placing an emphasis on grammar and syntax is imperative for students to begin engaging in writing. I think, by asking students to pay close attention to this aspect of writing and reading, their voices, as you mention, would have much more room to grow. Additionally, I, too, believe that students should be given the opportunity to engage in creative writing exercises, which could help them understand rhetoric from an entirely different perspective. Having students engage in varying modes of composition would allow them to better understand the "hows" behind formulating arguments, which your two longer assignments seem to encompass. I think the sequencing of these assignments is very beneficial, as they all build off of one another and lead toward the next "goal" in being able to read and write proficiently.