While I really like the idea of approaching writing as something that shouldn’t be “mastered” (Breuch 98), the fact that these authors not only don’t offer much by way of practical application, they actively state that a “[description of] a course [they] have taught” (Arroyo 707) would go against their stance on teaching has me somewhat angry. While I am certain that  post-process theory can be useful in the classroom, as I am almost positive that one of my old instructors (for ENC1102) successfully used this approach, the fact that both Susan J. Arroyo (with the previous quote) and Lee-Ann M. Eastman Breuch (with her comment that she “[doesn’t] believe such an agenda [of pedagogical practice] is compatible with [post-process] theory” [118]) seem to be deliberately esoteric, I feel, is counterproductive to successful, efficient teaching.

That being said, much of what is actually discussed is quite enlightening. The focus on “dialogue” (118), between the student and his/her peers, mentor, and world, over a “monologue” (118) in which the teacher attempts to force knowledge onto the student seems to be a practice that would be much more beneficial to the classroom environment. I’ve noticed that on those rare occasions where student apathy (or maybe exhaustion?) forces me to provide an interpretation of the article, the students view my personal interpretation as a “secret formula” for gaining a passing grade. The problem with this is that, due to the fact that this interpretation isn’t found within the student, he/she has no idea how to approach writing an essay based around that interpretation.

This failure reminds me of my time during ENC1102. My instructor, as opposed to having us read articles, came in every class with a different “discussion prompt” (usually related to a current event). He would briefly introduce the prompt, but that was the extent of his leadership. After our instructor sat down, we were forced to discuss the issue amongst ourselves (or sit in awkward silence for 90-minutes). While my writing that coming from this class was not of the highest quality, many of the ideas that I was able to explore made me decide to switch my major from Political Science (is anyone surprised?) to English. I’m not certain how well this will work for me, but it is an approach I believe I will attempt next semester. If it doesn’t work, I can always shift back to teaching as I do now.

One strategy that I [attempted to] adopt in my classroom was that we are all, including myself, engaged in a communal form of learning. One way I did this was by creating assigned groups for the semester, so that students had a small group of people to rely on and engage with on an individual level, in addition to the community of the classroom. In all honesty, one reason I adopted this approach is because I am fully aware that I could easily pass as a college freshmen. When reflecting on Bartholomae’s “Inventing the University” I suppose that I am using his ideas as a cautionary tale, so that I know how to navigate the fine line of fully immersing my students into the format of academia. Rather than having them invent the university, I imagine that we are integrating ourselves into it together, or rather, we are inventing a mini university within the classroom.

I continuously reinforce the ideas that what they are doing in class is much like what academics do, and that the things they are learning in this class will relate to their upper division discipline courses and their future careers. For example, I like to bring up the fact that even PhD’s rely on peer review, and after counting attendance and a reflection paper at the EGSS conference for extra credit, I saw many of my students begin to internalize this idea. They were baffled by the audience members’ abilities to ask questions after listening to a 15 minute paper, so I used it as an opportunity to discuss the value in our own paper discussions. I also reinforce the fact that our academic community includes our classmates and myself, therefore they should not fall into the traps of using the thesaurus or constructing long, complicated sentences. Whether or not my strategy is effective in avoiding the conflicts that Bartholomae proposes is difficult to determine, but I would argue that my students appreciate the way I have framed the class.