What is the most difficult thing about teaching writing, and how do you go about teaching that?
I find the most difficult thing about teaching writing to be convincing students of its inherent value. Many of my students think that bare communication is all that matters - as long as they get their point across, the beauty or precision of the method is not interesting. Especially in today’s digital world where students are constantly “writing” via text, email, and social media, it seems they have assimilated the idea of transmission but not literature. Particularly with students who are pursuing finance or engineering, it’s as if it’s “cooler” to be a stilted communicator. What they miss, then, is the profound world of true interaction, of using words to genuinely persuade, incite, and connect. Because they think the surface of the lake is earth, that the snow is hard when they go to step on it and are suddenly buried up to the hips.
How do I teach my students how important writing is? So far, I’ve been working to remind them about times they were moved by words. Even if it takes a minute, I have been able to get them to dig in and figure out what makes them feel, what changes their mind, what makes them attach. For some of them that has been music and film (which leads to an interesting discussion about images and melody and how they connect with words) whereas with others it’s been books - everything from The Fault in Our Stars to Twilight to the Bible. Once I remind them that they have been more influenced by literature than they might even realize, it is easier to get them excited to create their own. I also use an old yoga maxim that a great yoga teacher of mine once used: “You’re already here, in this room, for an hour and a half. Why not do the best you can do?”
Beyond that, I appeal to their sense of vanity and professionalism to some extent. Who wants to be the adult who cannot effectively communicate? I show them various tweets and emails and we discuss how the people come of, how even text language can be a rhetorical choice (trying to look as if one does not care, etc.). We talk about what’s appropriate and not, and instances in their lives (legal matters, job interviews) when precise, intelligent writing would be necessary.
I’m also always asking them why. Why do we read? Why are books banned more often than films, songs, and other media? Why are they, as students, resistant to things that make them feel uncomfortable or challenged? This conversation is always interesting, even when it veers into territory I do not expect.
"So far, I’ve been working to remind them about times they were moved by words."
ReplyDeleteThis is lovely--I want to try doing this in my own classroom. I agree that it seems like students are so used to written language being dry and kind of a necessary evil, rather than something to enjoy and joyfully contribute to in their own ways. But everyone has
moments (or at least one moment, I guess) when words sing and mean and change. Especially as a child, I think this is true: the magic of a lullaby, the strange lesson of a fairy tale, the voice of someone reading to you (an act of love). If students can get back in touch with some of that (usually much earlier) enchantment, then I think their writing or at least their reading will become more engaged, invested.
Why are they, as students, resistant to things that make them feel uncomfortable or challenged?
I think part of the reason here comes from the corporate model of education--if students are customers, then they can say they don't want the "product" we are offering them. But I don't think we are offering any product; we are offering some ways to navigate and grapple and yes, think. Without careful reflection, without asking difficult questions, how can students expect to really live in the world they are entering? I mean this goes back to a claim commonly attributed to Socrates: "The unexamined life is not worth living." Okay, we're not in philosophy, but that's basically the promise (and premise) of the whole humanities: you're not really living till you've done some close observing, considering, reading, rereading. Education ought to be uncomfortable--we are here to change and to be changed. /end pep talk
I definitely have to agree with you that this is something we should all be discussing with out students. Most kids expect the freshman level English class to be a breeze and a blow off and it is not at all. I did notice, though, that two of the books you mentioned were written primarily for a female audience (The Fault in Our Stars, Twilight). I was wondering what sort of books that the guys in your classes are saying moved them. Or do the men tend to pick movies and television shows instead? If so, I think that would prove an interesting dichotomy in the way you have to teach motivation in the classroom. This is certainly something that I will be talking about with my classes when I start teaching in a year.
ReplyDeleteI often find myself attracted to the blog posts of LCWL students versus TCR students - this week is no exception. I find your examples for motivating students really fascinating. "I’ve been working to remind them about times they were moved by words." Having no creative writing background, I can honestly say I would never think to motivate students in this way. In Technical Communication courses, we often revisit the Challenger Disaster as a motivating example of the importance of concise, ethical language. And now I'm sitting here thinking: as someone who's working toward her fifth year of primary writing courses, I don't think I've ever had an instructor speak about language the way that you do here.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I'll argue indefinitely for the merits of technical communication: for the ability to speak concisely, to consider your audience, to write for a given purpose. There's a need for both forms of writing: for the writing that exists to make you feel and for the writing that serves as a kind of tool (and for those in between).
Yogi to yogi - love the maxim. I'll be taking that mindset with me into my practices as well as the classroom.
Jess, I find this so interesting, and especially as I consider the question you asked as a response to my last blog post. I am not using (yet) fiction in 1301, though I have in the past, and I do find it worthwhile to tie fiction to motivation. While grading the pre-semester diagnostics, I am struck by the number of students who say that they are not very good writers but then admit to an interest in creative writing. What freedom are they finding in creative writing that they are not in academic writing, and how can we use it to motivate students in other writing? The question of why we need to know how to write isn't easily answered, but you've done a great job here enumerating reasons.
ReplyDeleteI agree--this conversation is very interesting. And I like the way you're thinking practically about what students need to know about writing. For me, at least in composition, what we teach isn't just writing--it's thinking. We teach students how to think critically, how to persuade and to see through persuasion, how to understand good research and problematic research, how to respect and understand others' perspectives. All of these things enable students to argue or at least come to a commonplace of understanding where they can begin to argue, for good reason.
ReplyDeleteI do not disagree that there is an extremely valuable place for all kinds of writing - technical, prosaic, poetic. I also love what you said, Dr. Rice, about teaching them to be better thinkers. That's what truly understanding a piece of writing is, correct? Being able to think critically about it, regardless of its genre or form?
ReplyDeleteI use poetry and short stories in 1301 to get them thinking critically about rhetoric & composition because I know that I am excited about it. When I am excited, they are more excited. And I do believe that poetry is an excellent genre to use when discussing rhetorical choices - you know you feel something, but why do you feel it?
Whether or not my students end up loving literature, I know that by using literature to teach them writing I am doing a better job than I would using only expository essay or the like. Not because one has inherent value over the other, but because my passion for the text is apparent to them.