In reading the articles assigned for this week, I found myself viewing the texts through my experiences thus far with my class. I identified three central problems to address in my class regarding invention and revision.
First, my students have struggled narrowing down questions or topics to write about. Many of them commented that they are accustomed to having topics assigned to them by their teachers, and so the invention process was like pulling teeth. I also wonder if my students' ages are a factor in the difficulty of the invention process: though everyone has opinions, perhaps self-knowledge is less developed. As Trim and Isaac remark, “discovery... is a singular experience since it depends on what writers already know about themselves. In other words, when we discover an idea that we want to explore further, what we are really discovering is our interest in that idea—not the subject matter itself” (114).
As I was reading Bamberg's account of the changing notions of revision through history, I was reminded of my students' often less than helpful comments for their partners in pair conferences. The few students who said more than “I liked your paper, it was good,” paid attention to the tiniest punctuation errors and missed the huge organizational problems, or the lack of a coherent argument. I found myself growing frustrated by this more mechanical understanding of revision, but realized that my students probably don't have the resources to draw upon in order to offer substantial feedback to their peers. In the upcoming unit, I included a session on workshopping, as per Bamberg's suggestion, during which I will ask for student feedback on how to create more effective and useful workshop criteria. I hope that if my class is involved in the process of designing their own workshops, they will have a higher stake in making them work.
The final and most serious problem is that I have the sense that my class is not invested in their writing, except in as much as it will earn them grades. I feel this is linked to Bamberg's assessment of school writing assignments, which “often don't give students an opportunity to write for real audiences or purposes” (115). This is where I think the emphasis on students' experiences and stories is key, as “connecting personal identity and purpose to more public contexts and subjects can play a significant role in helping people to write confidently” (Antlitz 82). I feel that the personal academic argument was a good foundation for this goal. I think this class will be a continual search to find a way to engage my students, both in their writing and in the class itself.
Beth,
ReplyDeleteI'm really intrigued by the idea of letting your students contribute to the design of workshop! I agree that this could make them more engaged. I'm also having trouble with some students not responding thoughtfully or thoroughly in peer workshop sessions--I'm hoping that by modeling productive workshop sessions, as Bamberg notes that Hacker did, I'll illicit more in-depth responses from my students. I think peer workshops are an especially important exercise for our students, since they help them with the "three major obstacles for beginning writers" as identified by Flower, Hayes, Carey, Schriver, and Stratman (1986)--"detecting problems in the text, diagnosing the problems, and choosing a strategy to remedy the problems" (Bamberg 115). By having our students analyze & evaluate problems and strengths in a peer's text (detection & diagnosis) and asking them to offer suggestions and solutions (the remedies), we're cultivating revision skills that they can apply to their own work.
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ReplyDeleteI expect that all of us are having some issues with regard to our students developing quality questions, offering thorough and thoughtful feedback, and demonstrating a personal investment in their writing (outside from the potential grade they may receive). However, I think the solution to all three issues is one and the same. I agree with Beth when she says, "I think the emphasis on students' experiences and stories is key." In other words, it ought to be our aim to draw out those voices that already exist in our students. Although this can be rather difficult in the context of the classroom, I believe we can tailor almost everything we do to each individual student. That is to say, we must foster a sense of community in the classroom and encourage students to see the value in having a voice in the broader context of society. One may ask, "How exactly do we do this?"
ReplyDeleteWe, as teachers, have to show students why their voice is valuable and draw it out to be shaped, refined, and effective (in both written and spoken word). As Antlitz writes, "When you are doing the invention work for writing, you need to be who you are" (88). Revision, for Donald Murray, is "everything writers do to discover and develop what they have to say" (Bamberg, 110). This may possibly the first time many of our students have had the opportunity to write for a real purpose (Bamberg, 115). Through our feedback, conferences, and in-class instruction, it is our responsibility to show them that the whole point of writing as inquiry is to further develop the person they already are. After reading through the Reflective Essays, I have several examples that I can share with regard to how this is taking place in my course. Although several students mentioned that they "hated" writing, they said that finding a topic that they had a personal connection to and a passion for allowed them to write more "confidently" (as suggested by Antlitz 83). In the same respect, students who had feared having others read their papers, are now very appreciative of feedback from their peers. Although I am sure that neither of these examples is universal to all of my students, I am excited to see that they are beginning to see my class as a personal development tool. As such, they have that much more at stake in each activity they participate in. I encourage all of you to reflect on the Reflective Essays to get a sense of what your course has covered and where it will go from here.
Beth, I think you’ve chosen a very effective lens through which to discuss the reading as well as apply its theoretical content to the real needs our students have. At least in my experience/imagination, these struggles you suggest in your post are areas of hunger for my students. Discovery/invention, revision, and investment are issues in class because many of our students are not a) comfortable or familiar enough with the concept, b) equipped with strategies and the confidence required to fully carry out the task, and c) capable of managing timelines that would allow them to devote the energy each step requires. And this is where we come in. We have the opportunity to actively discuss and illustrate concepts with them, bolster their confidence, fill their tool box, and walk them through the process of an assignment, as we did with our PAA, so they have hands-on experience an alternative way to manage time and break up large assignments. That’s a tall order, but it is also useful to look at these issues as cues for change (detection, diagnosis, and remedies, all—thanks to Bamberg and Brittany for highlighting the terms) that can be made and ensure that they are intricately involved in each step.
ReplyDeleteAnd in addition to allowing our students to find their own topic (which is simultaneously inspiring and horrifying for many students) as a means of writing more confidently, as Nic and Antlitz suggest, I liked how Antlitz reconnected this back to a braoder, social context (83). Writing is a social act and I think it is important that we keep reminding ourselves and our students that it provides them with power not only in academics, but also as a world citizen.
I think that the Op-Ed unit is a great opportunity to really make students aware of audiences beyond the classroom. Op-Eds have an immediate and easily discernible audience-- the local community in which our students are engaged every day. In my class, to try and drive this point home a bit, I am going to encourage my students to work towards creating a publishable piece. That way, they will be required to remember that a real audience awaits as they invent and revise.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Beth that getting our students to respond critically during peer reviews is an issue. One of the first peer reviews I did in class I was concerned by the lack of detail or depth they were using to assess each other, even when given direct prompt. Just like Betty Bamberg points out in her essay I knew that I wasn’t the only one who saw a problem with the peer edits because my students also were “[complaining] about the comments made by peers, describing them as too limiting, general, or nice and not always based on a careful reading of the paper.” (Bamberg 121) After that I started using handouts with questions for them follow and answer. I don’t know what it is about worksheets, but it seems to trigger some sort of “inner scholar” in their heads. The worksheets seemed to give them a focus that writing questions on the board didn’t, also the worksheets asked for specific examples and even to rewrite sentences from their peer’s papers and this worked amazingly well to evoke critical response from them. I guess what this shows is that another way the worksheet worked was that I gave it more direction and this transferred over to my students. I like that the Bamberg essay identifies one of the crucial elements to having successful peer reviews is that “Teachers must… give students a language for discussing their work and assign concrete, manageable tasks.” (Bamberg 124) I feel like this can make the difference between successful peer reviews and ineffectual ones. This highlights the responsibility we have as facilitators in their writing process to try several methods to figure out what is the best way to give them the skills they need and improve upon the skills they already have.
ReplyDeleteYes! I am so excited about the Op-Ed assignment because it is, in its nature, a public genre. I too am pushing my students to create a publishable piece. We are working in collaboration with the Clark Fork Coalition to write Op-Eds about two of their current issue areas. While the CFC is an advocacy organization with specific political goals, I am encouraging my students to form their own opinions about the issues. I am now wondering how I am going to teach the idea of audience to my students.
ReplyDeleteI know workshop is a great tool in introducing the idea of audience. Not only are the students learning to detect, diagnose and remedy a piece of writing, as Bamberg and Brittany pointed out, they are also learning how to be an aware audience. We are asking students to respond critically and constructively to their classmates, and through this process they are becoming aware that their own writing will be received in a similar manner. Building off of this workshop groundwork, how are you all teaching students to consider audience in their writing?
I actually have a surprising number of students in my class who are quite engaged with their writing, and I’m still not sure if I’m just lucky or if I’ve said or done something to make this happen (this is generally how I feel about every little success in my class – was it me? was it them? was it karma?). But I have been talking about writing as a social activity and an act of citizenship quite a bit – almost as often as it’s relevant – and my students are very responsive to this idea that they do not have to “write alone” and their writing matters outside the classroom. It definitely empowers them, and I hope the op-ed will provide even more opportunity for the empowerment to grow.
ReplyDeleteTo answer Laurel’s question about teaching audience: The lack of a specific awareness of audience is something I see in most of my students’ personal academic arguments, though we talked about it quite a bit, discussing how Rick Bass, for example, engages audience, etc. For the op-ed, I think I’m going to try something similar to the topic “statement of purpose” that I used for the personal academic argument and ask my students to tell me exactly who they will be speaking to through their op-ed, why they think this audience will be receptive to their issue, and what challenges they anticipate in engaging this audience. (This is entirely an improvisation; I’m still working out the details.) Certainly looking at sample op-eds and asking the students to think about what appeals are being made to them as an audience will be helpful, but I hope asking them to then critically and specifically think about their own audience will help that understanding come full circle.
It's hard recognizing that perhaps most of the acadmeic writing students will do in their college careers, indeed do not offer "real audiences or real purposes." Why is this? Can we change this? I love the idea of a "statement of purpose," that moves beyond what they plan to simply research and compose, but seeks to engage them in the thought process that requires some kind of personal connection or meaning.
ReplyDeleteWhile I like to think each and every assignment does offer some kind of 'real purpose', it seems there is a disconnect between the agency these students have and their willingness to understand that this course does have a purpose. I'm wondering if many of these attitudes and beliefs are gradually changed by the end of the semester, as participating in the groundwork that it takes to become a better writer - can perhaps only be recognized by the individual writer?
The times I found my writing has changed, was when I knew my audience was going to be offered to more than just my professor. I can't help but wonder if this would have the same effect on student's writing if they were asked to share their writing with someone other than their peers and instructor?
What a balancing act a teacher is required to preform?! Especially during the invention process. You want to give guidance, but not too much.
ReplyDeleteI found that on the PAA that I let some have too much leeway in the beginning. A few that really reached out there for a new and interesting topic really hit a wall later on because they didn't research well. While for others it was the right call.
I'm trying a different approach with the Op-ed, A little more guided, but with a lot of choices involved as far as topics, and I think these recursive invention strategies are going to come in handy.
I loved Antlitz chapter section on making connections. It kind of a hard thing to teach sometimes because you don't know each student's story. I always try to make connections with everything I do. In fact I've come to learn that is what is expected of you in Grad school. Synthesis is what we do with this class.
One thing about making connection is that sometimes i'm wrong. sometimes I try to bridge too big of a gap. or the connections are too abstract to make. But sometimes this practice has surprised me. I always want to be that teachers that encourages students to make connection even if they are wrong sometimes. After they get better at it, they will start making good connections that are relevant. At least that has been my experience.
Beth
ReplyDeleteYou make a valid case for the classroom out of the readings. A great amount of teaching at the WRIT 101 level seems dedicated to the act of undoing or deconstructing habits of mind and practices that students believed would be bridged from High School onto College. If your students had the same faces my students had in receiving their grades for their PAA papers, they physically validated the claim that “discovery... is a singular experience since it depends on what writers already know about themselves."
I think the element of personal discovery goes beyond what students perhaps know about themselves for those who learn all to realistically that their practices and habits that earned them exemplary marks at the secondary level become trivial in the arena of higher education. In a way it is an all too visceral awakening to the idea that learning is a recursive process, and thus the catharsis students are allotted for not being "capable of managing timelines that would allow them to devote the energy each step requires," as Grace stated, is that students get a chance to revise their work for a redemptive grade. We can only hope they trust in the process to make a difference with what they have.
I really like Laurel's idea of having students focus on a few issues with the Clark Fork Coalition. It allows students a very real concept of audience (although Laurel, you say you're wondering how to introduce this still...) while also involving them in very real local issues that the entire class will now be informed about. This last part may be particularly helpful since some of my students have claimed that during peer workshops they didn't feel knowledgeable about the other person's topic to give effective feedback (despite my attempt to emphasize that this was irrelevant). I think I may borrow your idea, Laurel, and choose another organization in town that has several projects underway that could be debatable...
ReplyDeleteBeth, after the readings this week and after going through a few rounds of workshop with my students, I share your second problem: students often respond to workshop with "less than helpful comments" and the comments they do share are focused on small issues of grammar/punctuation. Bamberg's narrative of rhetorical and compositional history show the seesaw pattern in our development, how the workshop can be too peer-focused or too teacher-focused. How do we balance the instructional with the student's growing experience of revision? I think Beth has some strong ideas about workshoping the workshop, receiving peer feedback from how the workshops have gone. I also plan to use the technique Bamberg writes about where we use cross-class essays in order to practice revision. What is this paper (from a person we've never met) doing right? What is wrong about it? Bamberg addresses Connors and Glenn's idea: "Suggest an alternate approach that uses an anonymous draft on the same or a similar assignment written by a student in another class" (122). Would anyone be interested in this? I think I'll use the Whole-Class Workshop idea at least once on the Op-ed unit, as I see this being a good remedy for workshops that result in small, unimportant grammatical changes and revisions.
ReplyDeleteBeth, I'm glad you addressed some of the concerns that we, as teachers, are experiencing. Your post touched on some of the problems that many of us have discussed in hallways and offices.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm thankful to you other bloggers, who, through your posts, have contributed to my new conviction. I have, at times, become a bit frustrated that I have not been able to completely overcome the apathy that still dominates my classroom.
Somehow, you've helped me find renewed conviction. I am pissed off frankly, and have decided that with enough creativity, support, and effort, I can shift the environment in my classroom to one of enthusiasm and interest.
I know that not all students will buy in, but I am intent on tilting the balance in a positive direction.
Thanks all, for you many suggestions and ideas.