Several ALP faculty members have been meeting with Andrew Tomko in order to begin forging a closer tie between writing assignments in ALP and in WRT 101. What follows is a conversation between Maria Kasparova, who has led the ALP faculty in this initiative, and Bonnie MacDougall about issues that came up at last week's meeting. Both Maria and I invite you to join our conversation with your own insights. Thanks.
From: Maria KasparovaSent: Thu 10/29/2009 12:30 AMTo: Andrew Tomko; Bonnie MacDougall; Gail Fernandez; Milena Christov; Bruce Gospin; Lori Talarico; Caroline Kelley; Gemma Figaro; Margarita Bernstein; Roya Kowsary; AMER LANG PROGCc: William Jiang; Carol MieleSubject: RE: WRT-101 and ALP Meeting Minutes
Dear all, attached are minutes of today's meeting. If you have any questions or suggestions, let me or Andrew know.ThanksMaria
To: Maria Kasparova; Andrew Tomko; Gail Fernandez; Milena Christov; Bruce Gospin; Lori Talarico; Caroline Kelley; Gemma Figaro; Margarita Bernstein; Roya Kowsary; AMER LANG PROGCc: William Jiang; Carol MieleSubject: RE: WRT-101 and ALP Meeting Minutes
I'd like to add to and clarify some of my thoughts about the discussion yesterday.
* the rhetorical patterns we teach are certainly artificial in that most good writing blends them; however, each pattern has associated language [comparison/contrast: ~er than/ as....as/ more.....than/ the most.../the same/similar,etc] and we can't expect second language learners to intuit this language; it must be taught, used by students in a thoughtful context and then used again more accurately in thoughtful contexts.
* it is all too easy to teach the rhetorical patterns and associated language simplistically;therefore, let's choose three, any three, patterns for each level so that we can teach them at some depth, i.e. with texts that we ask students to interpret and use as a major or minor point in their essays.
* although I think narration is difficult, the point I was making is that the language used to manage time is difficult--it could be taught through analysis of a historical event just as well as through ficitonal story--but that it should be taught at a level that incorporates text and allows time for revision.
* it makes sense to me to teach reasons/comparison and contrast/cause and effect together either in Level 2 or Level 3 because some of the same language can be used in all [because/ in order to/ so...that,etc.] and would give students several chances to use and therefore truly comprehend that language.
* it makes sense to me to teach some form of managing time and process together because both deal with forms of chronology. Perhaps along with those patterns, we could present the importance of minor support [summary/paraphrase/description, etc.] and give more time to the development of minor support.
Bonnie,
Thank you for taking time to clarify some points in our Wednesday’s discussion.You made some interesting suggestions which I understand come from your personal experience in the classroom, and I’d like to respond to some of your thoughts.
First, I like your idea of introducing text and analysis of a historical event or a fiction story when teaching a narrative. It would expose students to other forms/genres of narrative in addition to the personal narrative which most ESL books already teach.I agree with you that narrative is difficult for students to master but in my opinion not only and not as much because of “the difficulties of introducing the language used to manage time” as you stated as because a narrative especially a personal narrative is closest to creative writing in a way.When you tell a story to your audience, you go through some unique creative process and the way you tell your story seems to be more important than what happens in the story. The challenges associated with using rich expressive idiomatic vocabulary such as action verbs and image nouns are obvious for ESL students.That’s why we should try to introduce those points in the earlier levels of the program, so that students can build up language tools such as vocabulary and learn to handle verb forms and verb tenses (as well as less standard means of expressing time) starting from beginning levels.
Next, I understand your concern and I agree that there isn’t enough time to teach several rhetorical patterns in depth at each level of the program. The question is then what patterns should we choose to cover and what should we base our choices on? What do we prepare our students for after the ALP? How do we measure their success in mastering all those patterns, etc? I think all those questions should be addressed in the program review and during our ALP meetings.
At our Wednesday meeting it came up that argument and comparison-contrast are given most attention in composition 1 courses for the reason that students will inevitably need to do argumentation and comparison-contrast at some point in their college courses.I make an effort of introducing cause-effect and then move on to argument in level 2.My students love it (even the weak ones) because it allows them access to many interesting and controversial topics of the day and social issues where they can express their opinion and analyze the opponent’s point of view when building their argument.Of course, they don’t do it at the same level of complexity as composition students or native speakers do. For that we don’t have enough time or language skills in the ALP, but I still think that it’s worth exposing students to it even if just for making them think critically and for heightening their interest. Our students are intelligent and educated people and we should try to expose them to more challenging topics and assignments.I hope that our conversation will continue and more people will participate.Maria
Maria,
I enjoyed thinking about all of your thoughtful comments and will continue to mull them; on first reading what struck me more than anything was your comment about using argument in Level 2:
"My students love it (even the weak ones) because it allows them access to many interesting and controversial topics of the day and social issues where they can express their opinion and analyze the opponent’s point of view when building their argument."
I, too, find that students relish times to express and debate opinions at Level 2, I think because Level 2 marks the beginning of fluency for most students and therefore marks one of the first times they are thinking in English. It was your parenthetical comment (even the weak ones) that really got to me. I think you're right, and that convinces me that we should teach argument at Level 2 because if we can strengthen the weaker ones at Level 2, then we'll be strengthening the whole Program. Also I can so easily see areas where Grammar 2 and Writing 2 enforce one another if we teach argument in Level 2.
If we teach argument at Level 2, it is a natural progression to build in a unit on minor support at Level 2 where we focus on summary/paraphrase/description/tiny narratives as the fodder for minor support in arguments. I think they need such training and at present we have no designated place for it; treatment of minor support is more or less willy-nilly mixed in with overall points about writing essays. If we teach argument and minor support, then the next logical progession for me would be comparison/contrast, which is a layered way of making an argument, and we need more time to work with the layers. By layers I mean that students must hold two subjects, an A to be compared with a B, rather than just one subject/topic as in arguemnt. Beyond that, they must make sure the two subjects are in the same category (critical thinking); then, too, they have to weigh the way(s) in which they will compare (or contrast) A and B, and they have to decide (critical thiking) if it makes more sense to emphasize comparison or contrast of A and B. I can easily see a Level 2 Writing syllabus that offers these three units. By units, I mean study of these rhetorical models and parts using texts and requiring that reference to those texts be part of minor support. As you say, such ideas can be further discussed and teased out at both our regular Department meetings and during our Program Review.
I, too, hope others will join our conversation here. I find this forum extremely helpful in sharpening my ideas about changes we will be making in the Program.
Bonnie
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
What Goes on in ALP?
Contrastive analysis and forging a fusion of syntactical mastery and semantic precision are two of the things that go on in ALP.
Members of the ALP faculty had requested, been granted, scheduled, and twice rehearsed for our eventually cancelled half- hour ‘slot’ on the agenda for the Fall Faculty Conference. We had wanted to tell all of you what we do because we have a very definite impression that you might not know.
When we meet non-ALP colleagues, the conversation almost always moves to “ERRORS,” so let me say a few words about them.
Here is the scenario: you are in Poland, and you do not speak a word of Polish. In four semesters you will be expected to take 20th Century Polish History, Business Law, Human Anatomy, and 19th Century Polish Literature at the college level, and all of these courses will be taught only in Polish. By then you will have long since put away your childish toy, the bi-lingual dictionary. Let’s say Polish has about the same number of words as English, which is not true, but for the sake of argument, let’s say Polish has 600,000 words. You are on your own, and that means in four skill areas: listening, speaking, reading, and writing at the college level. This is not survival Polish; this is academic Polish. Of course you will make errors as you continually use, abuse, and slowly master the Polish language.
Contrastive analysis is “the systematic study of a pair of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities” (Wikipedia). We could mark a paper with “run-on,” by which we mean ‘major syntactical ERROR,’ or we could explain to our student that Spanish and English overlay one another awkwardly as regards the use of commas and periods. In Spanish, commas are used to separate units of language--we call these sentences-- that are about the same thought. Once the thought is fully expressed, a period is placed to end that thought whereas in English a thought may well travel among a grouping of sentences, but each sentence is nevertheless ended with a period. (I think Spanish is far more logical in distributing commas and periods in this case.) Knowing something about how English overlays another language makes a conversation about the correct use of periods in English more effective than marking up “R/O” sentences.
Forging a fusion of correct syntax and semantics is very difficult. Syntax is “the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages” (Wikepedia). Semantics is “is the study of meaning” (Wikepedia). My training is in English Renaissance Literature, not in TESOL or Applied Linguistics, and that is why I am not attempting to define these terms (though I figure Wikepedia paid a linguist to define these terms for them); however, to a grand-mothered but rather experienced lay person like myself, forging a fusion of correct syntax and semantics means helping students begin to think in this language and therefore in its many structures, all of which have a rather specific purpose. We eschew developing a thought in one language and then translating it because we end up with English sentences like: “To my house went after his working my friend and his hungrys dogs.” Instead, we present common sentence patterns “[subject-verb-object-prepositional place explaining where, prepositional phrase explaining when],” as in “My friend and his hungry dogs went to my house before dinner.” We ask students to write grammar journals about their lives and times (authentic thoughts instead of Dick and Jane, and this is in the Grammar not the Writing class) using English structures that they have learned to write correctly. In time, we extend these structures to contain more thoughts. For example, what was the purpose of your friend’s visit to your house? In order to answer these sorts of questions, my students learn that their sentences have “legs,” as in, “My friend and his hungry dogs went to my house before dinner in order to share my dinner with me.” There are more questions to ask, such as, how often do they come, what are his dogs like, do you like this friend who sponges off you, etc.? Often it is in ‘answering’ those questions by writing related sentences that we start to get tonal and semantic authenticity, as in: “I have been living alone in an apartment in Hackensack since I arrived in the United States a year ago. I have to keep two jobs in order to pay for my rent and food. That means I don’t have enough time to study, but I am taking English at Bergen Community College anyway. I have a lazy and selfish friend, and he and his hungry dogs come to my house before dinner twice a week in order to share my dinner with me. I do not like this. Sometimes I don’t have enough dinner to serve them. I can’t even serve myself. I don’t know how to tell this man to stay home and keep his dogs home, too. I want to eat alone in order to get enough food and enough time to do my English homework.”
The above statement is written entirely in grammatical structures that are demonstrated at Level 2. In Level 2, students make the transition from writing paragraphs to writing essays, and if the Grammar teacher as well as the Writing teacher requires journals, students write about forty journals in a semester. They also write more structured essays in class. In Level 2, students focus a great deal on controlling the structure and meaning at the phrase, clause and sentence level. In Level 2, they use subordination primarily through time clauses, and they write about what is real; in Level 3 students focus a great deal on subordination through clauses that give, among other things, reason, result, purpose, and condition. They engage in writing about the real, but also about the unreal such as what could have, but did not happen, or what they would do if only, and like patterns.
My purpose in writing this is to start a conversation about what we do in ALP among all of us who teach English, with the hope that we will enter these discussions at levels other than ERRORS.
Members of the ALP faculty had requested, been granted, scheduled, and twice rehearsed for our eventually cancelled half- hour ‘slot’ on the agenda for the Fall Faculty Conference. We had wanted to tell all of you what we do because we have a very definite impression that you might not know.
When we meet non-ALP colleagues, the conversation almost always moves to “ERRORS,” so let me say a few words about them.
Here is the scenario: you are in Poland, and you do not speak a word of Polish. In four semesters you will be expected to take 20th Century Polish History, Business Law, Human Anatomy, and 19th Century Polish Literature at the college level, and all of these courses will be taught only in Polish. By then you will have long since put away your childish toy, the bi-lingual dictionary. Let’s say Polish has about the same number of words as English, which is not true, but for the sake of argument, let’s say Polish has 600,000 words. You are on your own, and that means in four skill areas: listening, speaking, reading, and writing at the college level. This is not survival Polish; this is academic Polish. Of course you will make errors as you continually use, abuse, and slowly master the Polish language.
Contrastive analysis is “the systematic study of a pair of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities” (Wikipedia). We could mark a paper with “run-on,” by which we mean ‘major syntactical ERROR,’ or we could explain to our student that Spanish and English overlay one another awkwardly as regards the use of commas and periods. In Spanish, commas are used to separate units of language--we call these sentences-- that are about the same thought. Once the thought is fully expressed, a period is placed to end that thought whereas in English a thought may well travel among a grouping of sentences, but each sentence is nevertheless ended with a period. (I think Spanish is far more logical in distributing commas and periods in this case.) Knowing something about how English overlays another language makes a conversation about the correct use of periods in English more effective than marking up “R/O” sentences.
Forging a fusion of correct syntax and semantics is very difficult. Syntax is “the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages” (Wikepedia). Semantics is “is the study of meaning” (Wikepedia). My training is in English Renaissance Literature, not in TESOL or Applied Linguistics, and that is why I am not attempting to define these terms (though I figure Wikepedia paid a linguist to define these terms for them); however, to a grand-mothered but rather experienced lay person like myself, forging a fusion of correct syntax and semantics means helping students begin to think in this language and therefore in its many structures, all of which have a rather specific purpose. We eschew developing a thought in one language and then translating it because we end up with English sentences like: “To my house went after his working my friend and his hungrys dogs.” Instead, we present common sentence patterns “[subject-verb-object-prepositional place explaining where, prepositional phrase explaining when],” as in “My friend and his hungry dogs went to my house before dinner.” We ask students to write grammar journals about their lives and times (authentic thoughts instead of Dick and Jane, and this is in the Grammar not the Writing class) using English structures that they have learned to write correctly. In time, we extend these structures to contain more thoughts. For example, what was the purpose of your friend’s visit to your house? In order to answer these sorts of questions, my students learn that their sentences have “legs,” as in, “My friend and his hungry dogs went to my house before dinner in order to share my dinner with me.” There are more questions to ask, such as, how often do they come, what are his dogs like, do you like this friend who sponges off you, etc.? Often it is in ‘answering’ those questions by writing related sentences that we start to get tonal and semantic authenticity, as in: “I have been living alone in an apartment in Hackensack since I arrived in the United States a year ago. I have to keep two jobs in order to pay for my rent and food. That means I don’t have enough time to study, but I am taking English at Bergen Community College anyway. I have a lazy and selfish friend, and he and his hungry dogs come to my house before dinner twice a week in order to share my dinner with me. I do not like this. Sometimes I don’t have enough dinner to serve them. I can’t even serve myself. I don’t know how to tell this man to stay home and keep his dogs home, too. I want to eat alone in order to get enough food and enough time to do my English homework.”
The above statement is written entirely in grammatical structures that are demonstrated at Level 2. In Level 2, students make the transition from writing paragraphs to writing essays, and if the Grammar teacher as well as the Writing teacher requires journals, students write about forty journals in a semester. They also write more structured essays in class. In Level 2, students focus a great deal on controlling the structure and meaning at the phrase, clause and sentence level. In Level 2, they use subordination primarily through time clauses, and they write about what is real; in Level 3 students focus a great deal on subordination through clauses that give, among other things, reason, result, purpose, and condition. They engage in writing about the real, but also about the unreal such as what could have, but did not happen, or what they would do if only, and like patterns.
My purpose in writing this is to start a conversation about what we do in ALP among all of us who teach English, with the hope that we will enter these discussions at levels other than ERRORS.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Narrow Parameters of the HSPA Exam
“What kind of English/writing instruction have our students received in the state’s public high schools prior to coming here?”
I imagine we’ve all wondered this on occasion while grading a stack of Comp I papers at half past midnight on a Tuesday.
Kelly recently presented on the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) at The Teaching of Writing Circle (PowerPoint below) and I must admit that it was the first time I’ve really been informed by any actual research into the above question.
For one, as should come as no surprise, it seems that a lot of class time is spent preparing for this test. Furthermore, the test is concentrated on one narrative essay and a first-person letter-to-the editor style persuasion piece (with probably lots of room for uninformed opinion).
Obviously, the value of those two types of writing as preparation for the demands of college is debatable in itself. Yet, more interestingly to me is how presumably wide-spread the preparation of this test must have been for the students in our writing classes. Considering that the vast majority of our student populace has attended a state public school (and has done so since 2002 when the test was first administered), it is staggering how the preparation for these two types of writing functions - squeezed into the exact parameters of this assessment - must have dominated the last three years of writing instruction they’ve received prior to coming to Bergen.
Perhaps my ignorance of this is an anomaly amongst most of us (especially amongst those who have children in the schools) - hence my reaction seems a bit naïve. However, if this uniform experience is truly this wide-spread, I really think we all would benefit from engaging in more discussion on how to address the narrowness of this instruction and find ways to push our students in new directions that they will most certainly need to have experienced for the 300-level courses many of them wish to take in the future.
Adam
I imagine we’ve all wondered this on occasion while grading a stack of Comp I papers at half past midnight on a Tuesday.
Kelly recently presented on the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) at The Teaching of Writing Circle (PowerPoint below) and I must admit that it was the first time I’ve really been informed by any actual research into the above question.
For one, as should come as no surprise, it seems that a lot of class time is spent preparing for this test. Furthermore, the test is concentrated on one narrative essay and a first-person letter-to-the editor style persuasion piece (with probably lots of room for uninformed opinion).
Obviously, the value of those two types of writing as preparation for the demands of college is debatable in itself. Yet, more interestingly to me is how presumably wide-spread the preparation of this test must have been for the students in our writing classes. Considering that the vast majority of our student populace has attended a state public school (and has done so since 2002 when the test was first administered), it is staggering how the preparation for these two types of writing functions - squeezed into the exact parameters of this assessment - must have dominated the last three years of writing instruction they’ve received prior to coming to Bergen.
Perhaps my ignorance of this is an anomaly amongst most of us (especially amongst those who have children in the schools) - hence my reaction seems a bit naïve. However, if this uniform experience is truly this wide-spread, I really think we all would benefit from engaging in more discussion on how to address the narrowness of this instruction and find ways to push our students in new directions that they will most certainly need to have experienced for the 300-level courses many of them wish to take in the future.
Adam
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Second Life and the Classroom
In the online world of Second Life, virtual residents known as avatars can move through life-like situations including creating and maintaining businesses, friendships and social situations. Companies like Coca-Cola sponsor concerts and Reuters has actual correspondents who report on Second Life news. Recognizing that this virtual world lends itself perfectly to education, more and more college professors are using Second Life in online and classroom teaching. According to CNN, over sixty universities and colleges have set up classrooms in this online world where professors deliver lectures, oversee classroom discussions and hold office hours.
So how does this work? Any one can go on to the site at www.secondlife.com and download the software. Once downloaded, you create your own avatar and then decide which area of the site you would like to enter. Linden Labs, creator of the program, has worked with educators to set up classroom portals where students can enter (as their avatars) and interact with other students and the instructor. Currently, these portals cost $1000. for initial set-up and approximately $150. a month to maintain. However, one does not necessarily need their own portal or world in order to use all that Second Life has to offer. The tools available through the program allow one to move their avatar through the virtual world and to chat with others through a text based program. In addition, educators can develop unique content for the site which can be read by the entire community.
For many online instructors, Second Life adds an element of "real-time interaction." While online learning is the wave of the future, many students and professors miss the face to face interaction that comes with classroom learning. Avatars in Second Life act as "virtual" stand-ins and can replicate the characteristics of the person allowing for a more personal experience.
If you are interested in learning more about this virtual world, check out www.classroom20.com/group/secondlife.
Ellen Feig
So how does this work? Any one can go on to the site at www.secondlife.com and download the software. Once downloaded, you create your own avatar and then decide which area of the site you would like to enter. Linden Labs, creator of the program, has worked with educators to set up classroom portals where students can enter (as their avatars) and interact with other students and the instructor. Currently, these portals cost $1000. for initial set-up and approximately $150. a month to maintain. However, one does not necessarily need their own portal or world in order to use all that Second Life has to offer. The tools available through the program allow one to move their avatar through the virtual world and to chat with others through a text based program. In addition, educators can develop unique content for the site which can be read by the entire community.
For many online instructors, Second Life adds an element of "real-time interaction." While online learning is the wave of the future, many students and professors miss the face to face interaction that comes with classroom learning. Avatars in Second Life act as "virtual" stand-ins and can replicate the characteristics of the person allowing for a more personal experience.
If you are interested in learning more about this virtual world, check out www.classroom20.com/group/secondlife.
Ellen Feig
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
PTSD Teaching: Trauma in the Classroom
Shakespeare 3, This is Shakespeare 6 —over
Shakespeare 6, This is Shakespeare 3 —over
Shakespeare 3, Give me a sitrep when you have the enemy in sight—OVER
THE ENEMY IS IN SIGHT—over
Wilco—OUT
This is a passage from the pedagogical memoir, Soldier’s Heart by Elizabeth Samet, about a Yale PhD teaching literature to West Point cadets. It brings up some important issues regarding everyday trauma and the classroom. First of all, there’s the challenge of teaching people exposed to trauma, accident, and death. The term PTSD was first diagnosed after soldier’s returned from Vietnam to describe a malady of the heart (hence the book title) : Happy are these who lose imagination: They have enough to carry with ammunition. Their hearts remain small drawn. Their senses in some scorching cautery of battle Wilfred Owen “Insensibility” . Here’s a link to the book: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_S/soldiers_heart1.asp
Now while BCC is not West Point, the community college is still a place of much accident and trauma. There is not a semester gone by that I do not hear horrible stories about someone’s father shooting their brother, soldiers back from Iraq, death, and foreclosure. Moreover, as the President said in our last Spring conference there are more vets at the school than ever. How much of this trauma is just made up by students is debatable. This doesn’t diminish the fact that trauma presents a real pedagogical challenge to the community college professor in just as profound a sense, as that experienced by a professor at West Point. And these phenomena have increased after 9/11. That is what the memoir “Soldier’s Heart” is about. But they increase or decrease during any time of war or recession. As we can see from the cars on the lawn at BCC, a lot of people are enrolled, many due to traumatic life circumstances.
PTSD is an imaginative and mental “insensibility.” This raises the question how might literature and the humanities be involved in the expansion or recovery of a sense and imagination that gets shut down due to traumatic circumstances? Battles that rage in Afghanistan and Iraq end up being battles that rage within us. Thus, I’ve been considering a renewed pedagogical perspective on PTSD in the classroom (not just war and the recession but the traumatic things that students bring into the classroom). This doesn’t have anything to do with “psychology” or “counseling” but it does mean using literature to address the deepest forms of mental and psychological blocks that our society meets out. This means listening or expanding their imagination with, for example, hard-boiled heroic models of men and women who manage to act honorably even when society seems senseless and dishonorable. While we may begin with discussions of “imprisonment” as a material condition, the traumatic fact is that there are greater threats in terms of imaginative incarceration through routine and duty.
This thinking about the classroom as a site for regaining our “sensibilities”, ultimately leads to another conversation about the tense relation between liberty and obedience that society demands. The “market” into which we are sending our students begs us to prepare them for societal conformity— the demands of business, employment, and the government— but also requires that we teach them how to innovate. How do we use the classroom to alternately serve or undermine the fact of societal conformity, obedience, and its often incongruity with innovative thinking? The humanities classroom may provide the imagination and fortitude required to face such everyday traumas depending on its own tendencies toward conformity. Now our only challenge is how to replace wounds with words.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Teaching of Writing Circles
The first Teaching of Writing Circle was held today, and it was a great success! Thank you to everyone who attended. Kelly began by providing an overview of the HSPA (High School Proficiency Assessment) as well as some sample writing prompts. We then began a discussion about expectations of student writing at the secondary level and how such writing is largely driven by the test. There was so much to discuss--an hour simply doesn't feel like enough time.
Here is the information on the rest of this semester's Teaching of Writing Circles:
9.22 How does assessment impact our students’ writing abilities on the high school and college levels?
Prof. Kelly Keane will initiate the discussion through a brief presentation on the HSPA and preparation for college.
10.13 How do we establish objectivity in the writing classroom?
Prof. Stacey Balkan, Prof. Adam Goodell, and Dr. Alan Kaufman will initiate a discussion on failed methodologies that ultimately posit topic and not process as their locus of discussion; and they will likewise make a plea for alienation as a means of engendering critical reflection.
11.3 How do we make writing assignments relevant to students’ lives?
Dr. Jon Yasin will initiate a discussion on using hip hop generally and emcees more specifically to teach the writing process, academic dishonesty, and the importance of research.
11.24 How do we teach students to use detail in their writing to capture their audience?
Dr. Maria Makowiecka will initiate the discussion on using vivid detail in “Painting Pictures With Words.”
12.15 How political do we get in the writing classroom?
Prof. Laurie Lieberman will initiate the discussion of how she uses current politics and the voting process to address such issues as organizational skills, critical thinking skills, and various types of essay writing.
Here is the information on the rest of this semester's Teaching of Writing Circles:
Teaching of Writing Circles: Fall 2009
12:30-1:30 in C-325
12:30-1:30 in C-325
9.22 How does assessment impact our students’ writing abilities on the high school and college levels?
Prof. Kelly Keane will initiate the discussion through a brief presentation on the HSPA and preparation for college.
10.13 How do we establish objectivity in the writing classroom?
Prof. Stacey Balkan, Prof. Adam Goodell, and Dr. Alan Kaufman will initiate a discussion on failed methodologies that ultimately posit topic and not process as their locus of discussion; and they will likewise make a plea for alienation as a means of engendering critical reflection.
11.3 How do we make writing assignments relevant to students’ lives?
Dr. Jon Yasin will initiate a discussion on using hip hop generally and emcees more specifically to teach the writing process, academic dishonesty, and the importance of research.
11.24 How do we teach students to use detail in their writing to capture their audience?
Dr. Maria Makowiecka will initiate the discussion on using vivid detail in “Painting Pictures With Words.”
12.15 How political do we get in the writing classroom?
Prof. Laurie Lieberman will initiate the discussion of how she uses current politics and the voting process to address such issues as organizational skills, critical thinking skills, and various types of essay writing.
Using WebQuest in the Composition and Literature Classroom
WebQuests, while traditionally used in middle and high school settings, can be a wonderful tool in a composition and literature classroom. Recently, I created a WebQuest based upon Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey. Students were assigned the task of becoming a specific literary figure, writing a daily journal in the voice of that figure and analyzing whether or not the character moved through the steps of the hero's journey. As a final assignment, the students were required to draft and revise a two part essay that looked at the character's journey through the steps and looked at their own personal journey. Sources were cited in MLA format.
The quest (created using Zunal.com) required the students to research, analyze websites for their worth, keep written notes, draft and revise an essay - learning objectives for the particular lesson were achieved.
For more information on WebQuests, visit webquest.org.
The quest (created using Zunal.com) required the students to research, analyze websites for their worth, keep written notes, draft and revise an essay - learning objectives for the particular lesson were achieved.
For more information on WebQuests, visit webquest.org.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Alienation and Critical Pedagogy: An Unorthodox Approach to Composition Theory
In what has been an important and earnest effort to recognize the wholesale negation of our students’ collective agency vis-à-vis their academic and socioeconomic disenfranchisement, we seem to have likewise ascribed an epidemic of internalized inferiority to them when in reality they are intensely narcissistic. They not only feel confident in their dismissal of primary texts—i.e., “Ginsberg was merely a raving drunk”—they also feel rather confident dismissing any and all secondary scholarship—i.e., “Harold Bloom is an idiot.” A tragic consequence of our efforts to engender intellectual confidence in our students via a barrage of initiatives that displace their accountability is the false notion (on the part of our students) that their personal experiences are somehow relevant to all texts (regardless of national, cultural, and perhaps even disciplinary context). Thus, they are often incapable of engaging with texts critically, because they immediately flee after the first line—of, e.g., a poem or story—immediately citing a seemingly relevant anecdote. For example, when scrutinizing the plight of a child soldier in the Sierra Leone, several of my students gleefully offered what they deemed similarly horrific moments at the local mall, etc. On the contrary, when they feel completely alienated from a text and are thus forced to meaningfully parse sentences, stanzas, whole pages, they seem more apt to really scrutinize said texts while simultaneously employing those same analytical tools that are otherwise so quickly cast aside. While alienation as a basis for pedagogical practice may sound strange, we should remember our first day in a theory class when poststructuralist jargon danced on a chalkboard before our numbed expressions and we quickly sought any and all available references and attempted to keep from drowning. This is precisely what my students do when they arrive at Borges in the fourth unit of my current incarnation of WRT201—they squirm at first, and then suddenly (and rather magically) begin to read, really read…underlining, commenting in the margins, etc. Thus, while it always seemed more logical to assume that familiar topics would be somehow “easier,” this is in fact true only as a means of initiating the writing process, but not as a means of producing critical writing or even cogent exposition.
Likewise, I begin the writing course with a unit on the “self”—or more specifically, rather existentialist notions of the self courtesy of Wislawa Szymborska’s “Negative,” Allen Ginsberg’s “Sunflower Sutra,” and Albert Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus.” Previously—i.e., this past summer when I had this epiphany about alienation after years of starting with “easier” units—I only used Ginsberg and Camus; honestly, Szymborska was a completely random idea that was the serendipitous consequence of a bookstore fiasco! So, while it may seem that a discussion of post-industrial malaise and existential crises may be a bit much for our first unit, it has been far more productive than former assignments that featured Hughes and Ginsberg, and that basically functioned as a springboard for all sorts of absurd tangents. However ironically, this unit on the “self” has simultaneously catalyzed a discussion in which students are able to celebrate their narcissism and at the same time to meaningfully parse what are somewhat knotty texts, because they are desperately looking for connections! In short, I am (somewhat apologetically) exploiting this narcissism for the higher purpose of teaching literature! For example, in attempting to deconstruct Camus’s notion that the “myth is not tragic [unless] the hero is conscious,” they sought desperately to find like scenarios in their own lives—“selling out” for a position at “the Gap,” etc; but all the while (and perhaps because the language and context are less accessible) they didn’t stray from the text. They were actually doing close readings—a task that I had long since abandoned after successive bouts of depression…I did, however, offer more palpable narratives, which I do believe is a necessary component of teaching our student population, many of whom have been subjected to a paltry secondary curricula that covered virtually nothing in the Humanities! Toward that end, we discussed more popular illustrations of this theme in films like “Office Space” and also in David Foster Wallace’s recent (and completely tragic, albeit hilarious) story “Wiggle Room,” which was featured in The New Yorker last year.
So, my students began with Szymborska’s “Negative,” a poem that interrogates the binary nature of our lives and the ameliorative narratives of life and death—i.e., those embedded in the Judeo-Christian tradition—and they were able to use a poem (rife with examples of myriad literary tropes including elaborate uses of imagery) to make sense of the “negative” or inverse realities that delimit our experiences, etc. Anyway, this led to a rich discussion of their perceptions of and perspectives on life and death, which led rather logically into a discussion of Ginsberg’s “Sunflower Sutra,” a poem that directly antagonizes the deification of industry and beseeches a dying sunflower for an explanation of how “she” let “all that civilization” destroy her “soul.” This, of course, led us back to “Office Space” and again rather logically into a discussion of Sisyphus and his futile rock. The unit was appended with Robert Frost’s “Design,” a poem that conveys Frost’s more pragmatic approach to nature—the antithesis of the rather romantic pastorals that pedestalize and thus render nature a mythical and mysterious place to which we—humanity—have no practical connection. Inclusion of the Frost poem in their first process essay was optional, but many students this semester have opted to try…we’ll see how that goes when they submit final drafts on Friday!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Interactive Fiction and Composition
How do we engage our tech savvy students who see reading and writing as a chore? Think outside of the box and make technology work for us in the classroom! Interactive fiction (or narrative) combines literary narrative with interactive video gaming creating a true multimedia experience for the student. While most video games use graphics and fixed sequences that challenge the player, interactive fiction is text based gaming that requires the user to actually craft the story or narrative. There are two inputs - the game input and the player input. The game input appears in second person point of view, present tense whereas the player must input text using imperative command. Students are in control of character actions and plot development and learn quickly that they must be concise and complete when inputting text. In addition, students learn the importance of voice, grammar, mechanics and tone.
Interactive fiction is easy to use in the classroom as there are many downloadable games online. In addition, those who are tech savvy can use Inform 7 (a free downloadable program) to create their own interactive fiction adventures in class. I have used games by Will Crowther (the father of interactive fiction) and Emily Short in my classroom with great success. Throughout the class, I remind my students that each time they play a video game, participate in an interactive XBox 360 game or chat they write. I then commend them for creating a new language with its own terms and rules.
Should you have any questions about IF, feel free to contact me.
Ellen Feig
Interactive fiction is easy to use in the classroom as there are many downloadable games online. In addition, those who are tech savvy can use Inform 7 (a free downloadable program) to create their own interactive fiction adventures in class. I have used games by Will Crowther (the father of interactive fiction) and Emily Short in my classroom with great success. Throughout the class, I remind my students that each time they play a video game, participate in an interactive XBox 360 game or chat they write. I then commend them for creating a new language with its own terms and rules.
Should you have any questions about IF, feel free to contact me.
Ellen Feig
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Broader Research Assignments in the Writing Classroom
In her video spotlight interview, Bonnie stresses the importance of an embedded research element throughout a writing course (in any level - from ALP to Comp), instead of saving it exclusively for the obligatory research paper. I find this an interesting idea because I often wonder how effective it is to teach research only in one isolated assignment. As most of us know, our students' view of research, avenues of searching, and the authority of sources has changed dramatically with the world of internet dominance where in many cases source hierarchy has been destroyed. Certainly a few weeks of limited instruction on Academic research - much of it spent teaching (ever-changing) MLA formalities - can't be enough. What are some ways we can engender research elements in our writing assignments throughout the semester - outside of the traditional research paper?
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