To help me write my theory camp essay, I ended up reading quite a bit of James Berlin’s work. While I’m still not a huge fan of how Berlin writes, I feel that he offers some good suggestions on how to create a classroom that is conducive to active student participation. I feel that my greatest struggle throughout the semester was in trying to get my students to see themselves as active participants, what Berlin calls active “agents” (“Rhetoric and Ideology in the Writing Class” 491), within the class. I feel that this problem is created because of unequal power-relations within the classroom. As much as I tried to be more of a “mediator” (Berlin, “Poststructuralism and Cultural Studies” 32) than an authority-figure, the general assumption of the class seemed to be that I hold the secret for the desired “A” (or maybe just “passing”?) grade. Seeing restatements, or, even worse, misinterpretations, of things I had brought up during class present in papers was very disheartening. I know for a fact that they possess their own opinions, their own knowledge, and their own beliefs, but very few of my students seemed willing to “risk” presenting these ideas to me. However, those few students who did present their unique, personal beliefs tended to have the strongest papers for each batch of essays.
As such, I feel that Berlin’s belief that students are “transformative intellectuals” (26) is something that students need to know at the start of the semester (actually, I think they need to know this from day 1 of ENC 1101). I also feel that students need to be made aware that I am not only open to critique, but that they must question the validity of my ideas and opinions. To do so, I feel that having students first examine and discuss their own “[formative] personal experiences” (26) with their classmates, and figure out how these experiences interact with a reading, would help them to see that they are not just passive objects in the classroom.
I will probably end up rereading Berlin while planning my courses next semester. Although my inexperience with composition studies still leads to some difficulties in understanding, I’m starting to see some connections and allowing them to influence how I present myself as a teacher.