Learning to Write: Quantity or Quality?

 News Item  No Responses »
Dec 092015
 

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/04/writing-study-finds-quality-assignment-and-instruction-not-quantity-matters

Author: Colleen Flaherty

Date: December 4, 2015

This article summarizes a study titled “The Contributions of Writing to Learning Development: Results from a Large-Scale Multi-Institutional Study,” which set out to find whether less, but highly focused, essay writing is more effective in terms of  writer-ly growth than constant writing and multiplicity of assignments.

Statistics were gathered through 70,000 freshman and senior surveys across 80 institutions. The survey “examin[ed] the relationship between the responses to the 27 writing practice-based questions and questions on the standard questionnaire regarding two sets of established survey constructs: participation in ‘deep approaches to learning,’ or more-than-surface-level understanding of content, and ‘perceived gains in learning and development.’ The latter means students’ self-reported intellectual growth and personal satisfaction over time.” Results were somewhat marginal–but the lean was decidely towards quality:

How many pages students were asked to write appeared to have minimal impact. The bivariate correlations between writing quantity and deep approaches — meaning the relationship gets stronger as the value approaches 1, from 0 — was 0.15 to 0.27 for first-year students, and 0.11 to 0.22 for seniors.

The correlations between effective interventions and deep approaches, meanwhile, were 0.20 to 0.42 for first years and 0.19 to 0.41 for seniors. Meaning-making assignments seemed to have the biggest positive impact. The authors call the correlations “moderate,” but meaningful.

What does this mean when you have Gordon breathing down your neck? Not a lot. But certainly something to consider when he’s not around.

When Being “Lazy” Begot Better Results

 News Item  No Responses »
Dec 082015
 
6700 teacher

Nicole Matos, Associate Professor of English, at the College of DuPage wrote “Why I Allow Writing on Abortion, Marijuana, and The Big Game.” In the article she writes that the,”…purpose of teaching is for the growth of the student, not for the entertainment of the teacher.” Her article explores the the idea by allowing students to write about controversial or “easy” topics, you can encourage critical thinking/stronger writing. An example of the kind  of topics she’s referring to are:

The Best Friend/Boyfriend/Girlfriend and/or The Bad Breakup: What could be more important to any of us than writing about our loves and our losses — all the more so because many traditional college-aged students are living these narratives for the very first time? Many of our favorite novels, plays, and poems are some version of love/breakup stories.

In this example, Matos notes to the familiarity of this theme to traditional literary themes. Allowing this type of writing in the classroom along with an assignment designed to elicit a connection to another story would make for a great writing exercise.

In our writing program, the topics are already prepared, but a journal activity like this may be really useful to students. Matos says that, They are doing what David Bartholomae and other writing theorists call “joining the conversation.” It is my task to alert students to that and urge them to acknowledge that conversation in their writing.” I agree with her stance, that its the role of the educator to help the students join in and yet create a new conversation. My first is encouraging priority is always critical thinking, and what better way to encourage that than by allowing students to use their own ideas?

Seriously, is there a better way? Let me know in the comments if you think so.

 Posted by at 11:41 pm

Cellphone English Course

 News Item  No Responses »
Dec 082015
 

This article is about a new English course that is being taught in New York. Spanish-speaking students learn English through text messaging and phone calls with instructors. No phone application is needed and the course is free to all who would like to learn English, as it is funded by the New York state government. About 300 students are currently enrolled in the course. The program, called Cell-Ed progresses through several levels; the ultimate goal is to be able to pass the English proficiency exam for American citizenship.

This is a low-stakes, yet effective English course that I think is great and could be potentially incorporated into composition courses. The course matches what is needed in a modern world. Traditional English classes, in my opinion, are on their way out, and classes such as this will take their place. Though I would never encourage “text talk” like “lol” and “omg” in formal writing, I think modern tools like cell phones have value and can be used in an academic setting.

 

 Posted by at 7:57 pm

Reporting To Administration

 News Item  No Responses »
Dec 082015
 

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/02/04/faculty-members-object-new-policies-making-all-professors-mandatory-reporters-sexual

 

So, I assume everybody remembers the Title IX training we all went through in order to be hired here with their interactive little game/map/thing. In that information, we are required to report any sort of sexual misconduct or abuse to a Title IX employee. This can come up when we employ personal writing or discuss topics in which sex is a prominent point (i.e. LGBTQ+ issues). Seeing as I also employ personal writing in my class, it’s a double whammy. Some of my students did mention things that happened to them a long time ago and have been resolved, thankfully. Nothing recent has occurred…yet. When we use personal writing as a tool, we are always open to the possibility that our students will disclose some sort of information to us that we are required to report. However, what if the student is not ready to report it? Talking about it to a single trusted person is not the same as reporting it to an entire staff of strangers.

The news article here showcases that mandatory reporting can be detrimental to research in areas where students tell the researchers what has happened to them. One person even posits that mandatory reporting of researchers and composition course instructors does more to hurt the cause because it creates an atmosphere where nothing is sacrosanct. It’s something to think about nonetheless. What if you use personal writing and a student mentions a recent sexual abuse or misconduct? Would you feel comfortable about reporting it or then telling the student that you reported his or her personal information to some strangers?

I’m not exactly sure of a solution to this issue, but it’s something to think about.

 Posted by at 5:18 pm

The Death of Pedagogical Social Epistemic Rhetoric Coupled with the Death of Verbal Discourse?

 News Item  No Responses »
Dec 082015
 

I have long noticed a wholesale erosion in the ability of many people to hold conversations. This is particularly true of digital natives though by no means limited to them. This opinion piece in the Washington Post reminded me that the pace of technology in general vs. the pace of study into how and when technology should be disseminated presents immense lopsidedness.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-gave-my-students-ipads–then-wished-i-could-take-them-back/2015/12/02/a1bc8272-818f-11e5-a7ca-6ab6ec20f839_story.html

 

 

If children increasingly become bewitched by internet-channeling gadgets and therefore develop cerebral architecture predominately conducive to interacting with schoolwork in a digital medium, as opposed to physical and verbal mediums, you could not only argue children may then develop lifelong handicaps but that they may become a poisoned pill for human interaction via conversation. Though teacher-centrism is by no means the only component of social epistemic rhetoric, it seems an essential component. Will a significant rise in classroom tech devices erode the value of the teacher? Will the teacher ultimately become a troubleshooter for whatever the publishing company or software company feeds into the devices they’ve doled out? Will the students listen to anything a teacher says? Will a student be able to respond verbally to a question?

 

It seems to me it’s time for a new variety of ideology or at least an ideological augmentation: techno-transitional rhetoric. In this ideology or rhetorical enhancement, hypothetically, the teacher formulates and executes curriculum designed to bridge classroom oral discourse and learning with all manner of digital learning. I need to give the idea more thought as to whether it could stand on its own or just bolster an existing ideology.

 

Anyway, not that my tech tool presentation showcased this, but I love to talk. I love conversation. In light of this, some of my favorite movie lines–Kasper Gutman and Sam Spade talking in John Houston’s adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon–are here below (taken from the International Movie Database):

 

Kasper Gutman: Here’s to plain speaking and clear understanding.
Kasper Gutman: You’re a close-mouthed man?
Sam Spade: Nah, I like to talk.
Kasper Gutman: Better and better. I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking’s something you can’t do judiciously, unless you keep in practice.
[sits back]
Kasper Gutman: Now, sir. We’ll talk, if you like. I’ll tell you right out, I am a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk.

Twenty years from now, adults whose educations have left them in possession of digitally-oriented grey matter, adults who perhaps struggle to speak in sentences, may consider these lines to weird to contemplate.

 

 

Hey Teachers, It’s Okay to Cry in Your Car

 News Item  No Responses »
Dec 082015
 

This NPR Article talks about something called the Disilusionment Phase. That is to say, the time of year where most teachers decide they can’t take it anymore. The endless pit of despair that is october and november.

And for me, that phase hit pretty hard. I am a ball of anxiety. I constantly worry I’m letting my students down. My feedback has been painfully slow. I feel as though my students aren’t engaged enough. I feel, at times, like I might not be able to do this.

That’s normal, and it never goes away. It’s like an educators version of imposter syndrome. That feeling that you’re not really sure how you got to your current position.

…This article helped show me that I’m not alone. That, for whatever reason, was more effective than any of the encouragement I recieved all year. Yes, everything is going to be okay. Yes, you might feel like a stressful mess right now. But it’s okay to cry about it. It’s okay to bitch about it, at least in private. Things suck sometimes. But you’re doing it for a reason.

Even if that reason is a paycheck and a tuition remission. Educators have to eat too, you know.

 Posted by at 12:26 am

Freshmen comp in 140 characters or less!

 News Item  No Responses »
Dec 042015
 

I found this really interesting article on Freshmen comp. It breaks down what we do over one semester into twenty tweets. I appreciate the humour of the article greatly but I feel it discounts the effort that is put in; even by us GTAs. The author does realize that towards the end, “Have I just tweeted myself out of a job? I don’t think so. Because although these tweets cover the key lessons of the course, learning how to be a better writer takes more: it takes practice and understanding and repetition. It takes time. And Twitter isn’t about taking one’s time.”

That being said, I think I will be using some of these tweets in my class/syllabus next semester.

Title: First Year Composition in Twenty Tweets

Author: Christine Brandel

Publication: Huff Post College

Date of Publication: 8th December 2010

Click here for the article.

 

 

 Posted by at 2:21 pm

Show or Tell: An old ass article addressing the Unteachable Dark.

 News Item  No Responses »
Nov 132015
 

Show or Tell by Louis Menand

-The New Yorker

My news item post is about an article in The New Yorker called “Show or Tell”. I’m not sure this is technically “news” per se, but it is definitely a valuable read for anyone who plans to take a workshop in the MFA program. I’d argue that it is worth reading for MA students as well, considering the conversation on the teachability of creativity (ie The Unteachable Dark).

To summarize: Menand poses the question “Should creative writing be taught?” Not exactly a new question, but absolutely a pertinent one. He traces the lineage and growth of MFA programs from the 1960’s and essentially shows that although writing programs seem self-serving, they give writers a context and exposure to their audience. This is a good article for anyone who isn’t exactly sure what they are trying to get out of their MFA/MA experience and I think it addresses “The Unteachable Dark” issue quite nicely.

I have spoken to a few other MFA students in the program about this in various forms, but basically I think we are here more for the exposure to each other rather than the exposure to specific material in the classroom – which opens up some interesting conversation on the way we view/approach Freshman writing.

 

Below are some notable excerpts. Enjoy!

“Workshop protocol requires the instructor to shepherd the discussion, not to lead it, and in any case the instructor is either a product of the same process—a person with an academic degree in creative writing—or a successful writer who has had no training as a teacher of anything, and who is probably grimly or jovially skeptical of the premise on which the whole enterprise is based: that creative writing is something that can be taught.”

“Academic creative-writing programs are, as McGurl puts it, examples of ‘the institutionalization of anti-institutionality.’ That’s why institutions love them. They are the outside contained on the inside.”

“University creative-writing courses situate writers in the world that most of their readers inhabit—the world of mass higher education and the white-collar workplace.”

On Revision: “It’s a method that generates copy for a class to chew on, but writing that way is like throwing a lot of bricks on a pile and then being asked to organize them into a house. Surely the goal should be to get people to learn to think while they’re writing, not after they have written.”

Classroom Distractions

 News Item  No Responses »
Nov 132015
 

How To Get Students To Stop Using Their Cellphones In Class by Anya Kamenetz, NPR’s lead education blogger.
Published November 10, 2015

This news item discusses something I see every time, seriously, every time I teach. The cell phone.

Cue the dramatic sound clip.

I haven’t found it to be a problem, per say, students using their cellphones during my class, but it isn’t exactly encouraging either. Last Tuesday I saw one of my students drawing the Eiffel Tower on her phone—something she could very well have been doing on paper. Would I care any more or less if she were to doodle in a notebook? Probably not. The question posed by the article, though, is, would she engage more if the cell phone doodle was not an option?

I sort of like the idea posed by Professor Duncan of the University of Colorado Boulder:
“I asked them to vote if I should offer one participation point for taking out their cell phone, turning it off and leaving it out on my desk. To my amazement the vote was unanimous. 100% voted yes. So they all took out their phones, put them on the desk, and we had an exceptionally engaged class.”

I could see myself trying something along these lines, offering the promise of class participation credit for the sacrifice of a single distraction. At the same time, I could see that not working at all, as certain students seem just as willing to tune me out for the attention of their own thoughts as they are to substitute class discussion for digital distractions.

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/11/10/453986816/how-to-get-students-to-stop-using-their-cellphones-in-class

WashPo/ASU prof byline: Helicopter Universities

 News Item  No Responses »
Nov 092015
 

I’m whacking out post categories by posting another news item, but this was right on the money…

Helicopter parents are not the only problem. Colleges coddle students, too.

from the Washington Post, October 21, 2015

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/10/21/helicopter-parents-are-not-the-only-problem-colleges-coddle-students-too/

Highlights:

  1. Written as a byline by Grade Point contributor Jeffrey J. Selingo… former editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education, higher ed author, prof. of practice at Arizona State University.
  2. “A handful of big public universities, including Georgia State, Virginia Commonwealth, and Arizona State (where I’m a professor of practice), have adopted computerized advising systems that track students’ progress in classes and mine data on tens of thousands of grades to make suggestions about what courses should come next for them.” (para. 5)
  3. Obama also says liberal arts students shouldn’t be coddled (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/15/obama-says-liberal-college-students-should-not-be-coddled-are-we-really-surprised/)
  4. Professors are encouraged to provide “trigger warnings,” advance notices to students that instructional material might elicit a troubling emotional response from them, and on some campuses report “microaggressions.”
  5. Students are never exposed, for instance, to the feedback process that is the hallmark of most jobs today.
  6. The A is the most common grade given out on college campuses nationwide, accounting for 43 percent of all grades. (In 1988, the A represented less than one-third of all grades.)

I think the concept of this is legit, but some of these points aren’t really hitting home for me. My gut reaction is that I agree that universities are coddling students, but I think it’s in part a byproduct of universities trying to look out for themselves (i.e. not just related to helicopter parenting.) Examples: High overall grade norming and delayed withdrawal deadlines allow for better university numbers, leading to more impressive parent/curb appeal, more enrollment, more money.

Point 2… does FAU use this? I don’t think so, but wasn’t sure. I wonder if more will adapt it.

Point 4… is this the same as our weird notification system where you can “flag” a student to the Dean’s office? Otherwise I’d be interested to hear if the Emerging readings ever cause issues with students… I know one GTA mentioned that a student tried to refuse to write a paper because s/he disagreed with the essay content. (Spoiler alert: the student had to write it anyway.)

Point 5… disagree! At our program here, at least, it seems like there’s room for this (peer review, rough drafts, argue your grade, etc.)

Point 6… not sure where this came from (he doesn’t cite it), but always wonder about this. I was surprised in the workforce that so many employers lauded applicants with 4.0s. To me it was usually a red flag.

I think the true negative effect of helicopter universities is that graduates are steamrolled by the workforce and life-after-college. I for one felt like an idiot after I graduated and got my butt handed to me in the real world (and I know many friends who felt the same.) I had a cushy college experience and didn’t realize how much work was really coming to me. But maybe that’s just part of growing up.

Overall, wish he would’ve baked this out a bit more. But, imagine he’s bylining this sucker alongside 500 hours of student grading, teaching, publishing, etc. Time for a reporter to pick it up…?

 

Bonus: This is also a really interesting follow-up piece he did that looks at Georgia State, and shows that their algorithm software actually seemed to work surprisingly well… https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/10/30/are-colleges-coddling-students-or-just-leveling-the-playing-field/

 Older Entries
scroll to top