tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54381307666629330042024-03-13T18:51:56.937-04:00comPOSITIONA New FYW Professor/Doctoral Student/Writing Center Tutor's Experience with Composition from Multiple PerspectivesAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-85015892022503005252017-05-16T14:47:00.000-04:002017-05-16T14:47:16.218-04:00Contextual Growth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Growth mindset</i> is a concept coined by Carole S. Dweck of Standford University's Psychology department. Essentially, it's the idea that a mind is capable of developing new skills or improving old ones without limitation. This stands in contrast to a <i>fixed mindset</i> that believes the mind has finite limitations for learning.<br />
<br />
Dweck argues that a growth mindset is essential to deep learning. When a student has decided, they are just not capable, but they lose motivation to learn. On the flip side, when a student believes they have learned everything about a subject, they also stop learning.<br />
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Of course, that is the simplified explanation-- not everyone has the fixed or growth mindset all the time and the growth mindset can be developed. Context is important.<br />
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The concept is appealing to educators because it means, in the right conditions, students can flourish. They can become learners.<br />
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Unfortunately, some educators bought into the "cliff notes" version of the growth mindset, focusing their energies on praising effort. In an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/12/how-praise-became-a-consolation-prize/510845/">interview </a>with Christine Gross-Loh, Dweck explains:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lyon Text", Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">Yes, another misunderstanding [of growth mindset] that might apply to lower-achieving children is the oversimplification of growth mindset into just [being about] effort. Teachers were just praising effort that was not effective, saying “Wow, you tried really hard!” But students know that if they didn’t make progress and you’re praising them, it’s a consolation prize. They also know you think they can’t do any better. So this kind of growth-mindset idea was misappropriated to try to make kids feel good when they were not achieving.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Lyon Text", Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 18px;">The mindset ideas were developed as a counter to the self-esteem movement of blanketing everyone with praise, whether deserved or not. To find out that teachers were using it in the same way was of great concern to me. The whole idea of growth-mindset praise is to focus on the learning process. When you focus on effort, [you have to] show how effort created learning progress or success.</span> </blockquote>
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Writing my dissertation about student engagement, I've definitely been interested in what Dweck has to say about mindsets. I also think back to my own education as a "terrible math student."<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Math + Me = X</h4>
I wasn't particularly bad at math until 10th grade. I had suffered through two years of the same teacher whose teaching methods were dry and difficult to follow. Sometimes, she even incorrectly solved problems on the board. By the time I got to my junior year Algebra II class, I was convinced I was just bad at Math-- the fixed mindset. I was pulling in Cs on my report card, and on my mid-term, I got an F. I had never seen an F on my report card in my life, and it was startling.<br />
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My math teacher gave me some tough love. She would start swinging by my desk and asking me about what I was doing, not just seeing if I had any questions (students never want to ask questions). She walked me through complex equations step-by-step. She encouraged me to just practice lots of problems, saying that would be the only thing that would help me learn it. She didn't falsely praise me or make a big deal out when I did get things right. She didn't coddle me. The week before the final exam, I crammed. I did pages and pages of practice problems on my own.<br />
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Last day of school, final grades were posted outside the classroom. I got a 96! I gave her a hug and teared up a little. She didn't take any credit. She said I worked for it and praised my process.<br />
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The next year, I opted out of math. They put me in Pre-Calculus anyway. I was saddled up with another "lecture while staring at the board" teacher. I didn't understand anything she was explaining. I told her I hadn't expected to be put in the class. After a few days, she told me to "go down to the guidance office and change classes because you're wasting both of our time." And I did. I took one semester of simple math in college, and that was the last of my formal education in mathematics.<br />
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I still don't particularly like doing complex math. I often get answers wrong. But thanks to Mrs. Lenihan, I know it's not because I'm just "bad at math," but because I'm out of practice and because I chose to stop learning more.<br />
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As an educator, I also now know that those teachers need to improve their practice if they want to engage students, but they were operating from a <b>fixed mindset</b>:<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Some students will get it; some students are just not cut out for it</li>
<li>This is my method, and it either works for you or it doesn't</li>
</ul>
<br />
Despite this, I also realize that sometimes, I have a fixed mindset. It's not something that just magically disappears all together. I can be stubborn at work. I get fixated on specific ways of doing things that work for me. I am afraid to try new challenges, so I do the same things over and over again (rereading the same introductory paragraph and rewrite it 16 times instead of finishing the chapter).<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<br /></h4>
<h4>
Some simple ways to foster growth mindset</h4>
<div>
Through leading professional development and teaching, I've stumbled upon some methods of teaching that foster growth mindset. They're not perfect, and they don't work for every one in every context, but here they are anyway:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>Feedback that focuses on specific actions</b> rather than "good" or "bad." EX: Instead of "Much better!" explain, "You included a lot of specific detail in your description that helps me to understand the character's motivations."</li>
<li><b>Low-stakes assignments and time for practice</b>. Imagine if professional teams only ever played in big games and never had time to practice their skills?! That's what it's like when students only get to demonstrate their abilities on exams or large end-of-term papers.</li>
<li><b>Talk to students about their process.</b> Ask a lot of "how did you come to that conclusion?" and "why did you make that decision?" Too many students are afraid of asking questions in front of their peers. This will help you understand their process and help them adjust as needed.</li>
<li><b>Make action plans for working on their weaknesses. </b>Many times students/employees know they're bad at something, but don't have a real idea or any guidance on how to fix it. Having actionable goals, and checking them off, is incredibly rewarding. It enables the feeling of accomplishment and shows that improvement is possible.</li>
</ul>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16599555725289938761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-17909259534664617582017-03-22T15:45:00.002-04:002017-06-20T21:02:51.674-04:00The Good Bad Kids<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This week, I had the pleasure of volunteering as a facilitator of a creative writing workshop for a group of young men. They wanted to work on spoken word and rap (a post for another day). I haven't worked with that age group in a few years, and even when I had, it had mostly been kids from somewhat affluent families. Needless to say, I was anxious about my performance.<br />
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When I got to the classroom, I learned that the program was actually an attempt to provide more constructive uses of detention time. In essence, these were the "bad kids."<br />
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I was always a "good kid" in school. With the exception of my high school chemistry class, I never got in trouble for being disruptive. In all my years of school, I had only one lunch detention because I forgot to do my homework, and my teacher made me sit through my lunch break and do it. The funny thing is that some of my closest friends were the "bad kids." Several of my friends were familiar faces in the office, some even with the school-based law enforcement. I didn't know them as "bad kids," though. Actually, they protected me from bad influence (wouldn't let other kids pressure me into smoking pot when they knew I didn't want to try it, that kinda thing). All I knew of them was that they had good hearts and were good friends.<br />
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The kids in the creative writing group reminded me of those friends. It was a small group, so it was easy to get to know their personalities quickly. One faked being apathetic, one was engaged, and one wanted to participate but was self-deprecating.<br />
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By the end of class, it was easy for me to understand why they had been single out as potentially "bad kids." They were active and unfocused. Getting them to write more than two sentences was challenging.<br />
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It wasn't because they didn't want to be involved, though. It was because they were restless from sitting in school all day, and they were hungry, legitimately hungry, not "I want a snack" hungry. It was clear to me how they could be hard to manage in a classroom environment with limited resources, but they were nice kids who tried. I gave them a spoken word poem that was college-level reading, and they were able to make sense of it and have a conversation about the meaning and techniques used. At the end of class, I told them they could keep their pens and notebooks. They were surprised and excited. It really made me appreciate the challenges they must face.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure I have anything groundbreaking to add here. Since I've been invited back to work with a new group, this is more of an attempt to remember and unpack my experience. Here's a few quick takeaways that I've gathered about working on writing with what I'll call a more "active" group of students:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b>One-on-one attention</b> and patience goes a long way.</li>
<li><b>Ask questions</b> to individuals, not just the group, and not in a "caught ya not paying attention" way either. Whether they're itching to get moving or hoping to detach from the lesson, it will keep them involved.</li>
<li>I'd say that gamification and hands-on learning would also be useful since they didn't want to sit still, but at the same time, they were most focused when they were just <b>talking</b>.</li>
<li>Giving a writing task and walking away did not work with this group. I think it would have been more effective if I sat down and <b>led them to physically write</b> before moving on to working with the next student. This would definitely be difficult to replicate in a large classroom setting.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Since I'll be returning, I'd love to hear from colleagues and students about what works best for students who may be frustrated with writing because of the formal school experience so that I can continue improving the workshop experience for future groups.</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16599555725289938761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-20425470045050939572015-06-16T01:44:00.002-04:002017-06-07T01:48:03.553-04:00LinkedIn to the Job<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I started my doctoral program at the ripe age of 22. I was only 2 years out of college. Because of my writing center experience, I was fast-tracked to act as a senior consultant and to teach an English class immediately. Needless to say, I was nervous.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Pc7WSU0hDs3I772REBhyphenhyphennSASNdAEY3qGrtGbcYz6bvfuVlCQONmeXvYGvn1N50oun7Wt33q2G7caZFKuIHG6VcqUeVjlVR_EsUOZJH4uKEcq75RbOTSYcB5lJYFIh20CdR4hZWW0zsep/s1600/npprof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Pc7WSU0hDs3I772REBhyphenhyphennSASNdAEY3qGrtGbcYz6bvfuVlCQONmeXvYGvn1N50oun7Wt33q2G7caZFKuIHG6VcqUeVjlVR_EsUOZJH4uKEcq75RbOTSYcB5lJYFIh20CdR4hZWW0zsep/s200/npprof.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The only picture from teaching ever, <br />
and it's awful, but I loved this class.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I was especially nervous about being respected by my students. They were not that much younger than me, and I knew I would have to earn their trust. I was worried about being labeled a "novice" and being excluded from professional conversations and opportunities.<br />
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I also had some skeletons in my closet. Facebook came out my freshman year of college for college students only. I was a freshman learning to use a new technology, and the ramifications of this technology were still years away from really being considered. Not to say that I ever really did anything that bad during my college years, but I didn't want my students or colleagues to see my personal life and judge me. I didn't want them to assume I did drugs because they saw pictures of me at nightclubs and raves (I don't do them and never have, by the way). I didn't want them to assume I was unintelligent-- or worse-- because I enjoy mini-skirts and makeup. I didn't want them to assume I was wealthy because I was on the Equestrian team. I wanted to be able to develop my own persona and for their judgement to be based on my actions in a professional environment.<br />
<br />
Luckily, I realized that social networking profiles could be more about who you <i>wanted </i>to be than who you actually were. Even more so, that who you showed you <i>wanted </i>to be on social media attracted like-minded people. I wanted to be a well-educated professional and a competitive scholar.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Case Study # 1 </h3>
<div>
I went to work. I made sure that when you Googled "<a href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=nicole%20papaioannou">Nicole Papaioannou</a>" my history of horseback riding and college parties didn't come up. Instead, you'd find a slew of academic-related profiles and my work (and perhaps a few articles about the other Nicole Papaioannou, over in Cyprus-- she's a ballroom dancer). Go ahead, try it!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
I saw how my online presence shaped my offline life. My students read my profiles and saw a professor, rather than a grad student.<br />
<br />
Colleagues thought I had something worth saying. They asked to work on research with me. They extended learning opportunities to me.<br />
<br />
And years later, a professor in the department read my blog, reached out to me, and eventually became my dissertation chair, despite not ever having a class together.<br />
<br />
Then I decided to go to California. Before I made the move, I snagged a well-paying job in a month (pretty unusual for LA, I hear) mostly based on what they read in my LinkedIn profile, as well as looking at my instructional design philosophy via my course website. It was what set me apart at the starting gate.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Social media is important to becoming a professional. I know this beyond a doubt. </i></b></blockquote>
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Case Study # 2</h3>
My (then) boyfriend and I made the move out West together. He left a full-time job to try to create a better life out here, including finishing college. Without a degree, though, in a city full of actors and part-timers, it was really a challenge for him to find work. Eventually, he turned to me for help.<br />
<br />
The first thing I told him was to create a really good LinkedIn profile and a professional portfolio.<br />
<br />
It took a little, but he landed his ideal job. He works alongside like-minded individuals at a company committed to continuing education for its staff. It's a place he is proud to work.<br />
<br />
The funny thing is... he <b>NEVER APPLIED</b> for the job.<br />
<br />
During his first interview, he learned that the hiring manager reached out to him based on what she saw on his LinkedIn profile.<br />
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Pointers for Professionalizing Online</h2>
<div>
Here are some things I learned about developing an online presence along the way:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
1. <b>Make as many profiles as you can... keep up with</b>. It's great to have an all-encompassing social media presence, but it doesn't serve you well if information becomes outdated. It makes you look uninterested. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
2. <b>Have great taglines! </b>We all have short attention spans. If you can capture your essence in 40 characters, you have a competitive advantage. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
3. <b>Show don't tell-- build an ePortfolio. </b>Whether it's a formal online portfolio, a website, or links to work that you've done, people want to see what you can do, not just what you say you can do.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
4. <b>Engage in the right conversations.</b> Share and discuss issues relevant to that image you want to create. If you like photography, post resources for other photographers, comment on photography blogs, and show your pictures. Engaging in the right conversations might also mean you have to apply self-censorship. For example, fact-checking when you want to post something that seem too crazy to be real is important to maintaining credibility. If you post that Tupac was sighted, you better be ready to provide legitimate resources to back up that claim. Think of all the internet hoaxes that get spread by people who are too lazy to do a quick internet search on"giant squid hoax."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Ultimately, this doesn't have to be about a job. It could be about entering any community that you want to be a part of.<br />
<br />
Your social media presence is a self-portrait, a piece of art. It's like the lighting in a painting. It can make an object attractive and beautiful or cast it into the shadows. You are the painter, here.<br />
<br />
Choose what you want to highlight and what you want to hide in the dark.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16599555725289938761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-62805123981859106452015-06-01T21:00:00.001-04:002015-06-01T21:02:03.556-04:00Problematizing Problematizing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The last time I wrote a post was almost 9 months ago. Since then, a lot has happened.<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>I moved from the suburbs of NJ to the city of Los Angeles. </li>
<li>I left my job as an adjunct and writing center consultant and took a job as an Instructional Designer at a startup EdTech company.</li>
<li>I developed courses about automobiles, medical compliance, and all things aviation (aircraft systems, aviation regulation, inflight service, etc.). </li>
<li>I got promoted from Instructional Designer to Content Manager and now oversee a team of Instructional Designers and Subject Matter Experts. I also interface with executives from the client company.</li>
</ul>
<br />
So what's the biggest thing I've learned during this transition?<br />
<br />
<i><b>There's a problem with problematizing. </b></i><br />
<br />
From the time I took my first graduate Writing Studies course until I taught my last writing course, problematizing became a central focus of my life. Authority was demonstrated by the ability to find flaws in others' ideas, to be able to "make an argument." It transitioned from academic analysis to social analysis to picking apart every little facet of my life. To be smart, it seemed, I had to see the loopholes and the weaknesses in every theory, practice, and action, and to be socially just, I had to make sure to bring up the problems I saw in every space. I had to spread awareness.<br />
<br />
Things could never be simple, and you could never take them at surface value.<br />
<br />
When I became an Instructional Designer at a startup, there wasn't too much to problematize. I was given the content. I turned it into instructional materials, and I moved forward. I wasn't an expert in the content, and I didn't have enough authority to poke holes. I could learn without trying to be an authority on the subject matter. I was also too much of an authority on pedagogy for my colleagues in video production and animation to challenge. It was freeing.<br />
<br />
When I was promoted to manager, however, I was given new authority. As I transitioned into the management role, I found myself problematizing everything. I'd essentially complain to the Director of Curriculum Development about everything that "wasn't working" and tell her why it wasn't working. On some level, I thought that showing her I saw that our system was flawed was demonstrating authority, intelligence, showing her I was smart enough to be a good manager. Now, I'm sure it was just irritating. It definitely <i>wasn't</i> good management.<br />
<br />
Good management requires making decisions, taking action, and ultimately risking being wrong. These are not skills that are advocated in the current educational climate, where we are pushed to always be right, to make "arguments," and to strike at the weaknesses in other's theories in order to bolster our own, where we are taught that we need to make people more aware of their misconceptions.<br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
Spreading awareness used to be difficult. It used to require action. Now, it's mostly kids whining from behind a keyboard, claiming that you "just need to like or share" to save the world or expressing offense over non-PC language (I've done this myself-- totally guilty).<br />
<br />
What I've learned is that outside of academia there is little place for problematizing without action. There is only a need for solutions. Someone who can analyze <i>then</i> think beyond the form of the problem is valuable.<br />
<br />
While I know the idea of using knowledge to take action was built somewhere into my education-- mostly in relationships with mentors-- it became buried in the layers of problematizing and reestablishing the hierarchy of experts and novices. It became the reason I left academia. I felt that everyone always needed to leave a mark on an idea and only did so by deconstructing it, by finding what needed to be improved, rarely by an act of support.<br />
<br />
To take action is to take a risk, a risk that you might be wrong, a risk that someone else might exercise their "authority" by exposing your action as imperfect or faulty. Theory is, after all, built on ideal circumstance. Action is based in complex reality.<br />
<br />
What I've learned from crossing the boundary is that it is much harder, but also much more necessary to become an authority through action rather than argument alone. That is true leadership, and I hope to be a true leader some day.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis9y1AxEJ8MklJUFTy2ubN1XmK_L9rUzj8tSX4owVT9jIkfOVY8KtR8g_0egxX8sGugety9XLSxAUvzMtiv9efRIl3FlbvxNK6dq2yzSuOxw5SxnpbhizjCwYa3KibGNY1kkGZyJfTJ4Ic/s1600/1549383_10100617096969717_3108819390908180662_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis9y1AxEJ8MklJUFTy2ubN1XmK_L9rUzj8tSX4owVT9jIkfOVY8KtR8g_0egxX8sGugety9XLSxAUvzMtiv9efRIl3FlbvxNK6dq2yzSuOxw5SxnpbhizjCwYa3KibGNY1kkGZyJfTJ4Ic/s400/1549383_10100617096969717_3108819390908180662_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As of this week, I also traded in the car I drove across the country. It started to "problematize." </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16599555725289938761noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-82707794567562126472014-09-28T22:02:00.000-04:002014-09-28T22:02:20.769-04:00Do You Write Assignments for Colleagues or Students?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Every year the university where I work as a writing consult has a school-wide book that all incoming first-year students must read. They've picked some good books-- <i>The Geography of Bliss, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Devil's Highway, </i>and most recently, <i>Scarcity: Why Having So Little Means So Much. </i>Every year, though, without doubt, we cringe at the department-wide first writing prompt that students are given based on these texts.<br />
<br />
The problem is that every year, without fail, the question is convoluted and overwritten. As a consultant, I have to sit there with a pen, highlighters, and paper to try to make sense of what I'm being asked and how to approach the question. There are too many words on the page. The important information is wedged into distracting excess language. Sometimes, there is even discord between the question and the book's message. Sometimes, I feel like I don't understand the question and therefore can't help students. This year, I found the question particularly problematic because it asked students to analyze a specific high school writing assignment. We have a school with many returning adult students and veterans. This would automatically put them at a disadvantage.<br />
<br />
Even more problematic is that this department-wide essay prompt is given for high-stakes writing assignments. For the first three years, the questions were used as placement exam questions. Now, they are being used for the first graded paper and a mandatory portfolio entry. When the question is confusing or even at a level they haven't yet been prepared to meet (first essay before class or first essay of class), it's unfair.<br />
<br />
Now, it seems to me that the issue here is that question is being written to impress colleagues and those doling out accreditation. The words are overly scholarly. The ideas are complex. It seems that an incoming first-year student, who may never have seen anything other than the 5-paragraph essay, is a distant thought in the minds of the creator. And that's really unfortunate. If the goal of the department-wide writing prompt is to help students bridge the gap from high school to college while having a diagnostic writing sample, this type of assignment does not provide a clear picture of a students' capabilities.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, there is a lot of pressure for this department to demonstrate their worth and excellence at all times. For outsiders, "worth" often comes from complexity, a belief that if something really demonstrates high-level thinking it will be hard for the average person to decipher it. It's not surprising that something like this would develop from that academic cultural tension, and it leads me to wonder what kind of choices I make for the sake of "accountability" or answering to higher ups in my writing assignments.<br />
<br />
So what would you do if you had to design a book-related prompt for a large population of students in core classes? How would you approach the task? What would you consider the best theories or best practices to apply in this situation?</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16599555725289938761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-35291748020849091392014-08-11T16:33:00.000-04:002014-08-11T16:35:14.726-04:00Happily Rejected<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Over the summer, I considered taking on a full-time position outside of teaching (if you read my last post, you know I chose to leave adjuncting behind). One of the positions I applied for was the Tutorial Services Coordinator for the North Orange County Community College District. I didn't get the job.<br />
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What I did get was a rejection letter-- a real, hard-copy one on stationary. <i>And I loved it.</i></div>
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Now, it sounds weird to appreciate rejection, but in an employers' market, there are so many times when hiring committees/managers won't bother to let you know they received your application, let alone tell you that the position has been filled. Job hopefuls are left sitting on their hands, wondering whether they're being considered or their resumes have already been moved to the trash bin. The letter was a classy move.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Here is the body of the letter:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhau60u3-6eliPfCua0KoA4Ezk9Jqvzv9fZs9uNFqEKcNZ0hz1cqFJ7pCAQDlu28U_Izm4h0FpvdWH78FYV2V0dZbdnxgvHDA3VEDrxRju3RRjnEIllPl7r1KvR8dH6v085VDHegJd30_r3/s1600/20140811_162142_resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhau60u3-6eliPfCua0KoA4Ezk9Jqvzv9fZs9uNFqEKcNZ0hz1cqFJ7pCAQDlu28U_Izm4h0FpvdWH78FYV2V0dZbdnxgvHDA3VEDrxRju3RRjnEIllPl7r1KvR8dH6v085VDHegJd30_r3/s1600/20140811_162142_resized.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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Rejection can make you feel worthless, but this letter actually made a point to remind the person who they were rejecting that it wasn't anything personal. It wasn't a reflection of lack. It was simply that someone else had what they needed at that given moment-- a simple business decision. </div>
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I feel that the North Orange County Community College District went above and beyond in preparing this letter for rejected applicants because, even though I know this is a form letter sent to other hopefuls, they took the time to put a name on the letter, and they mailed it to my address. They treated me as an individual. A small, but significant effort that made a big impact, one that can be easily replicated.</div>
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I think more employers, especially universities, could take a lesson from the way that the North Orange County Community College District handled the hiring process. It's not very difficult to form-fill with computers. A mass email could even be sent, even without the applicant's name. It simply gives applicants closure and the ability to seek out other opportunities, instead of waiting on ones that they can't be certain are open or closed.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16599555725289938761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-44786969968878353982014-08-06T16:22:00.001-04:002016-09-21T10:58:11.553-04:00Bittersweet Beginnings: After Adjuncting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yesterday, I did something I never thought I would do. I formally gave up my teaching position. This Fall, no one will call me Professor Papaioannou. I won't get to enjoy the shocked looks when someone asks me what I do for a living, and I tell them I teach at a university. I won't meet a new classroom full of new students who rely on me for guidance and support. I won't get to have the wonderful exchanges with colleagues during meetings and project building sessions. It's really a very bittersweet moment for me.<br />
<br />
I love teaching. I do. I love students and collaboration and leadership and everything that comes with it-- except the system of adjuncting itself, which leaves you in a constant survival loop all for the chance of finding a job someday maybe. Leaving teaching behind really had to do with stability. I became anxious all the time, wondering how I would pay my bills or how I would find time to squeeze in writing my dissertation (which is costing me over $1300 a semester to write). I started to doubt that I was good enough to be in a doctoral program because I couldn't clear my head enough to make sense of my research. It made me feel like I would never finish or never get to reach the other life goals that I had for myself. This is something I hear almost every doctoral student starts to experience as they near the end phase of their degree. It might seem to some as impatience or not being able to deal with being uncomfortable, but it became about a basic quality of life.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1B3zAs1mRh9lTIzxEs-dVZHg6lZkxg9vCSwl5qUK4QL5m6udpwv0CgCO80dZqTs2F8YEpk0AFffsO9LY6L2qKvRFYAnSxxjeg7GB4A3n5qBUh6U8n_5s4TEc0EQWwRJVo5_jtHPaP_iIn/s1600/professorpfall2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1B3zAs1mRh9lTIzxEs-dVZHg6lZkxg9vCSwl5qUK4QL5m6udpwv0CgCO80dZqTs2F8YEpk0AFffsO9LY6L2qKvRFYAnSxxjeg7GB4A3n5qBUh6U8n_5s4TEc0EQWwRJVo5_jtHPaP_iIn/s1600/professorpfall2010.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A picture of me taken by a student<br />
while teaching my first writing course</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I started teaching 4 years ago as a doctoral teaching fellow during the 2010-2011 school year. The next year, I became an adjunct. I drove to Queens from central New Jersey once a week and spent my whole day on campus. The next year, I spent a semester on the Staten Island campus, which was a much shorter commute, before returning to Queens. Then, I took a job at my alma mater. I took the job because I was told it would be good prep for the possibility of a full-time position in the department, a Composition position that they had just gotten a line for. When that job came around, though, I was still working on my dissertation. I wasn't qualified for the position, and so I was passed over. I decided to stay on as an adjunct anyway because I loved the department and the students. Since the job search failed the first year, I figured I would try again the following year. Again, though, doing a qualitative study takes time, and I still didn't have the degree to qualify me for the position when the next year's job search came around. They found someone (who I happen think is a great fit), and I was left with the option to continue adjuncting at a university that was 86 miles away from home.<br />
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I intended to stay on this year, figuring that I needed to be teaching to be relevant after graduation and that the department was pleasant and the students were engaged. At the same time, the more I thought about this semester, the more anxious I became-- tuition, healthcare costs, commuting expenses that were topping out in the $3500 range per semester, hours spent in my car, and a lack of socialization because I couldn't afford to do anything anymore. I felt like I was paying to go to work. Some people would say to look at it like an internship, earning my way to a higher position, but let's be real-- no on wants to be an intern for 5 years. I also felt like every time I tried to go above and beyond, I was pushed back down, either by time constraints or unnecessary bureaucracy/micromanagement. I was afraid to talk to my advisor because I thought she'd just tell me I was being silly, that all doctoral students struggled, that real academics stayed in academia (she didn't, for the record). This all made me an unpleasant, unproductive person. I found myself complaining all the time to those around me. I didn't like the person I was becoming.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiG2roHsgarqmES8r4oJ0-1Je_7Wjwy7e36Gk1Hr3ZKzB8DsfanvF3zIE8bGfUM2cMt38kCAUyTf-IbCCAA7DQ_3T7_lCFre4xZinTH0nzo_3Nc04NhBwSHPwY_NVas-eM743m1VFSVsty/s1600/professors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiG2roHsgarqmES8r4oJ0-1Je_7Wjwy7e36Gk1Hr3ZKzB8DsfanvF3zIE8bGfUM2cMt38kCAUyTf-IbCCAA7DQ_3T7_lCFre4xZinTH0nzo_3Nc04NhBwSHPwY_NVas-eM743m1VFSVsty/s1600/professors.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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So I struck out and did some research to see what else I could do. And you know what I found? Lots. Lots of things that still involved education, writing, working collaboratively, making a positive impact, and being a leader. I realized that I was clinging to teaching in part because I liked the job, but also in very large part because I simply liked the respect that others outside of academia gave me for being a professor, especially because they always thought I was too young to be one, and because I felt that it was what was expected of me as a doctoral student. But liking that people are shocked at your title or living up to others' expectations for you aren't very good reasons for continuing to do something.<br />
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The minute I heard back from my supervisor acknowledging my resignation, I felt a huge weight lifted. For the first time in a long time, I didn't feel like I was hanging off the edge. I felt closer to completing all my goals, including my doctoral degree. I went to work at the writing center that day not stressed about making money to afford gas to get to work or finding time to revise syllabuses, but making a schedule to work on my dissertation and plotting what I could do with the money saved. It felt wonderful.<br />
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I am still a writing consultant, so it's not like student interaction and writing pedagogy have been completed yanked out of my life. And while I'm sure I'll miss teaching, I also have some fantastic opportunities on the horizon. I feel re-energized by the possibilities I find as I explore my options.<br />
<br />
Does this mean I will never teach again? I don't know. At the moment, though, I'm pretty committed to the idea that I will never adjunct again. In truth, I'm not sure what this all means for me in the long term, but I do know that I'm excited to find out and that's way better than what I've been feeling for a while now.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-30046451270091953702014-07-28T15:08:00.003-04:002014-07-28T15:32:59.889-04:00Why We Still Need Feminism: Just Another Day in the Life of a Female Academic<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I've seen some of the arguments that we don't need feminism anymore that have been shared via <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23IDontNeedFeminism&src=tyah">#IDontNeedFeminism</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23WomenAgainstFeminism&src=tyah">#WomenAgainstFeminism</a> on Twitter. They aren't very good arguments, as most of you can imagine, and usually play more into the rhetoric of feminism than the actual body of theory and work that is feminism.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It convinced me that I need to be more vocal about the experiences that shape my life as a young white female in academia. My experiences may not reflect all experiences, but I can bet that many women have found themselves in my shoes. Here are just two experiences--there are many more I could have shared-- that tell me why we still need feminism and have nothing to do with "man-hating."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<h1 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
Today...</span></h1>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am writing consultant. I like to do online sessions. WCOnline has this great program that enables you to chat with a user in order to help them better their writing. The program allows each user to see what the other user is writing as they type, so it's more like face-to-face conversation. Well, I was working with a male today, and after saying "hello, how are you?" someone on the other end typed:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">So I wanna fuck you...</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b>
This message was deleted before the "send" button was hit so that the comment was excluded from the transcript, but at some point, someone on the other end typed those words. All the person on the other end knew about me was that I was female, as it was a new user with no previous reports.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He claimed it was a friend, so I continued, but why should I have to deal with feeling uncomfortable and harassed when I'm trying to help you do better in school? I shouldn't. Unfortunately, patriarchy treats people telling women that they are sex objects as a joke.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, then, this girl would say:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI5cIpE9jDhBYc8ftFTw5umrS-UtFH0dwOlWe8ks4qhD7GO5eO8qyJfCBtNCyAvBqg5Dx2K0PDoditxSYoWtuYcDiNKQPWeUntiYf4RaTmHd67znR25LGV1iJIfLzGG_r0NUvmUOGcSnEE/s1600/antifeminismgirl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI5cIpE9jDhBYc8ftFTw5umrS-UtFH0dwOlWe8ks4qhD7GO5eO8qyJfCBtNCyAvBqg5Dx2K0PDoditxSYoWtuYcDiNKQPWeUntiYf4RaTmHd67znR25LGV1iJIfLzGG_r0NUvmUOGcSnEE/s1600/antifeminismgirl.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Except, feminism doesn't do that; it doesn't make me a victim. Feminism gives me the power to speak about this issue, and if I see fit, take action against it. Allowing you to see that something exists, like the dichotomy she mentions, is not the same thing as making it exist. Feminism makes me see that I don't need to be passive when someone says something that makes me uncomfortable or harassing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<h1 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
Last Semester...</span></h1>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I stopped to speak with a former male student in the hallway about his school work this semester, something I would never have been able to do if the feminists before me didn't clear the way for me to achieve the same education as my male counterparts. The student pointed to a colleague coming up the stairs saying he was in his class. That colleague chose to make a snide comment, snarkily asking "Are you friends? Are you connected?" Because, you know, it would be impossible for a young female professor to have any legitimate academic relationship with a student.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
Some people might think I'm reading too much into that one, but this was a colleague who was shocked when I said my students respected me in the classroom and even more shocked when I said my male students didn't make passes at me, after he insisted they must. The comment was intended to say the same.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the surface, this might seem harmless to an anti-feminist, but people who believe these ideas, that young females can never be anything of real intellectual value, are the reason females are overlooked for promotions, publication, and leadership opportunities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Then, the icing on the cake-- after lodging a complaint with my chair, I was told I should expect an apology and further discussion with the colleague or his department chair. Neither ever happened. My complaint clearly was not taken seriously by either of the two, who just happened to both be old white men.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<h1 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
We need feminism because...</span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">women deserve to be successful if they put in their best efforts, and this can only happen if feminists encourage women to share experiences and to work against misogyny. No one should make me seem less than I am simply because I was born with the biological components of a female.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But then this girl says:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdBefRMu56G6uo8XEQNQbTh4dfM0t9rtLLQhdwCEkURY4FO4Pgl-IL1MGrI1hZ0VBkmKE-YXfriNjUXlNkgyjmIWEI7jvZMmBcNaw1pdPp4Ezx7R-mSCcRlY3p7s16j0Umh_tkpOe0nH_/s1600/girlagainstfeminism.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdBefRMu56G6uo8XEQNQbTh4dfM0t9rtLLQhdwCEkURY4FO4Pgl-IL1MGrI1hZ0VBkmKE-YXfriNjUXlNkgyjmIWEI7jvZMmBcNaw1pdPp4Ezx7R-mSCcRlY3p7s16j0Umh_tkpOe0nH_/s1600/girlagainstfeminism.png" height="316" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Look, I don't hate men.</b> That's misandry, not feminism. This isn't about men treating me differently or buying me stuff or whatever crazy ideas are out there about what feminists want from men. This is about taking apart false perceptions created by patriarchal society that prevent women from moving forward, whether it's the idea that women are not as capable as men, not as smart as men, don't want to work as hard as men, are more complicated than men, don't want as much money as men, or are here only for the sexual pleasure of men. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's just a few examples of what feminism does:</span></div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">works against the idea that women are weak and dependent creatures and shows that women are only weak and dependent in situations where we have been socialized to be so and/or given no choice (e.g., laws demanding the mutilation of female genitalia)-- and hey, that doesn't sound like victimizing!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">makes it safe for me to express my views and try to attain those things that are important to my existence as a human being, e.g., access to health education, not having to ask a man to escort me to a doctor's office, obtaining a driver's license, voting, using Twitter even when I'm saying stupid things...</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">fights against being threatened by rape or told I'm a hideous bitch every time I disagree with someone's political stance or am not interested in someone making a pass at me. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">demands women be treated as human beings instead of a source of sexual entertainment, especially, not only, in the workplace. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">advocates for men's ability to have and express emotions, their right to report and be respected as victims of rape, and their freedom to behave in non-violent, non-sexual ways without being degraded as "not manly."</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Breaking down those barriers is the work of feminism. Given that I still come across people, male and female, who believe women are not as capable as men or that I should be subordinate or even silent simply because I have a vagina tells me we still need feminism, despite being surrounded by many wonderful men and strong women.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://pixabay.com/p-379216/?no_redirect" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Yt0d6cGPMJFkp1jnbVwERAeFkxUpvUZCZuuBm6_pHx7sjhP5cwg_9xuP9tSTErhc-ZXSr4U6oHMTc8iBnLZEqXAWpttnH9RYoxWzuykSpYkLizaiomSWLvLUILfU2E5LjVnNRr8asIjs/s1600/classroom-379216_150.jpg" height="146" width="200" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pixabay.com/p-379216/?no_redirect" target="_blank">image from pixbay.com</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have this awesome colleague who I admittedly disagree with often. This is one of the things I enjoy most about our conversations, though. I always leave feeling smarter. Either he has taught me something about the other perspective that I had not considered before, or I am able to better articulate my own stance on something for myself. Most recently, the latter happened in regards to First Year Writing (FYW or First-Year Composition/FYC).<br />
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My colleague definitely falls into the First-Year Writing abolitionist group. He believes it's useless. After all, outside of the FYW classroom, where would students ever need to write essays like that again? At the university where we work, the FYW course also has a social reform focus, which can sometimes wind up confusing students-- they feel forced to choice a side that they might not buy into based on what they think their teacher feels about the issue. It seemed to me that my colleague had a singular vision of FYW and what it could do, though. </div>
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<b>Why We Need FYW Courses</b></h4>
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The NCTE makes a strong argument for the FYW requirement in the research brief, <a href="http://www.ncte.org/library/nctefiles/resources/journals/cc/0232-nov2013/cc0232policy.pdf" target="_blank">First-Year Writing: What Does It Do? </a> The NCTE notes that FYW courses foster engagement and retention, enhance rhetorical knowledge, push students to develop metacognition, and increase responsibility. These all sound like good things to me!</div>
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Through my own teaching and consulting, I've also seen that First Year Writing is a social experience. It is a chance for first-year students to struggle through their first year in college together and to meet students from across disciplines (which they might be prevented from doing later in their major). It is a chance for them to become acclimated to college academic expectations. It's not surprising that the NCTE did not find test-out options particularly useful, then, as those options negate the social experience that helps students to develop as intellectuals and human beings. </div>
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<b>Where the Anti-FYWers Get It Right</b></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://pixabay.com/p-108545/?no_redirect" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxaHsOY2EV-aH4gRy18J951UDtZcjyc7EYNAdQsfKz_tnFz71ux9QvFsd98aapX3uCxs_MYTFL3a0jU35bccDfJbQq5ZT1PfyzUPdcQZvGvQ9r8FRPUa1-Plfn3AiZYgjRO4E6aLJGywyK/s1600/creative-108545_150.jpg" height="130" width="200" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pixabay.com/p-108545/?no_redirect" target="_blank">image from pixbay.com</a></td></tr>
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The reason many argue against FYW courses is because these courses are often limited in scope. Academic writing comes to mean a very specific type of "academic essay." Academic texts comes to mean a narrow cannon of writing textbooks and literature. Students come to see the writing in their FYW courses as divided from any other types of writing, especially those performed beyond academia. Professors in other disciplines become frustrated that they "didn't learn to write" in FYW when students fail to master grammar or citations (which is often a result of conflating convention and style with grammar, but we'll save that talk for another day). </div>
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Where those against FYW do get it right is when they note that a limited scope is counterproductive. That is not to say that all types of writing must be taught, all students' grammar skills must be perfected, etc. What it means is that sometimes, especially in cases where the course is taught by someone with little teaching experience or study of writing pedagogy, FYW gets too caught up in preparing students to do tasks rather than preparing students to solve problems. This happens when students learn formulas for essays rather than questions to ask to approach a writing situation.</div>
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Reclaiming FYW</h4>
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I think if we are going to continue requiring FYW classes, a shift does need to happen. It's not a very radical shift. I see many instructors who already are doing this and already know this is where the future is headed. FYW needs to start focusing on a set of learning outcomes that privilege the following: </div>
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1. <b>Conceptualizing rhetorical contexts: </b>The big question students should learn to ask in a FYW writing course is: What are the elements of this writing event, and how can I best communicate within this framework? As I said in an earlier post about <u><a href="http://every%20writing%20event%20will%20not%20call%20for%20the%20same%20performance%20or%20product%2C%20even%20ones%20that%20seem%20extremely%20similar.%20those%20who%20cannot%20locate%20the%20elements%20that%20influence%20the%20writing%20event%20and%20ask%20the%20right%20questions%20of%20themselves%20will%20be%20unable%20to%20perform%20and%20produce%20effective%20writing%2C%20and%20they%20may%20miss%20out%20on%20real%20opportunities%20as%20a%20result./" target="_blank">losing job opportunities because of poorly written cover letters</a></u>,<br />
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"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Every writing event will not call for the same performance or product, even ones that seem extremely similar. Those who cannot locate the elements that influence the writing event and ask the right questions of themselves will be unable to perform and produce effective writing, and they may miss out on real opportunities as a result." </span></blockquote>
Teaching students to conceptualize rhetorical contexts would include everything from how to figure out style and citation to what form or genre would be most effective for communicating with a particular audience and/or purpose. </div>
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2. <b>Research Skills</b></div>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;"><b>Performing academic inquiry:</b> </span>Students need to learn how to apply depth and breadth of inquiry appropriately. They should be asking themselves, "what questions do I need to ask to get closer to the truth?"</li>
<li><b style="font-weight: bold;">Evaluating source materials: </b>It's important, especially in the digital age, that students learn how to evaluate sources, and not just scholarly ones. They need to learn how to assess bias and know that biased doesn't necessarily mean useless. </li>
<li><b style="font-weight: bold;">Learning how to find information: </b>Where can I find reliable (not necessarily scholarly) information to help me consider my argument or inquiry?</li>
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3. <b>Dealing with complexity: </b>As an undergraduate, this is something I really didn't learn about until the Spring semester of my senior year, and when I did, it was mind-blowing. I always thought you could only "make an argument," "take a side," or "provide evidence." That isn't how the real world works or even real scholarship. In world beyond FYW, things are rarely set in simply defined binaries. Students need to learn to make arguments while dealing with complexities (thinking about inquiry instead of argument can help this, too) and to see how complications can actually further their thinking or make their thinking more sophisticated. </div>
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Teaching a class with those learning goals might be messier and require more energy than a "here's how to write an academic essay" formula-based course, but the students will reap the rewards in the long run.<br />
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Food for Thought</h4>
I'm clearly not the first one who has thought about whether or not there should be FYW and/or how it should be taught. Here are some online sources that reflect multiple perspectives (but is in no way a comprehensive bibliography or in proper MLA format).<br />
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Bamberg, Betty. "<a href="http://wpacouncil.org/archives/21n1/21n1bamberg.pdf" target="_blank">Alternative Models of First Year Composition</a>." 1997.<br />
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Berrett, Dan. "<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Freshman-Composition-Is-Not/131278/" target="_blank">Freshman Composition is Not Teaching Key Skills in Analysis, Researchers Argue</a>." <i>Chronicle of Higher Education. </i>2012.<br />
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Downs, Douglas and Elizabeth Wardle. "<a href="http://wac.appstate.edu/sites/wac.appstate.edu/files/Downs%20&%20Wardle%202007.pdf" target="_blank">Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re)Envisioning First-Year Writing as 'Introduction to Writing Studies</a>.'" <i>College Composition and Communication </i>58.4. 2007.<br />
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Duffy, John. "<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/03/16/essay-value-first-year-writing-courses#sthash.fUhuSIL8.dpbs" target="_blank">Virtuous Arguments</a>." <i>Inside HigherEd.</i> 2012.<i> </i><br />
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Fish, Stanley. "<a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/what-should-colleges-teach/" target="_blank">What Should Colleges Teach?</a>" <i>New York Times. </i>2009.<br />
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Thaiss, Chris. "<a href="http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/tc/Thaiss/ThaissModule.htm" target="_blank">What Should First-Year Composition Students Learn about Writing Across the Curriculum</a>." 2002.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-2975154193280756202014-06-18T14:24:00.002-04:002014-06-18T14:29:12.781-04:00IWAC 2014: Meaningful Writing<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">More from IWAC 2014 today! What a wonderful conference!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLugl8ZqkLWlSZrhVnS7o_q_O4D5AI2tTWjHXiGgWqLYiZmm9O0w_-92T5ytMYg3YrpZbSvtBNGqhi0md_31MuTm02i6JZ1aty12O9fiD3UMc-V9xe1Bo3er0Uh6zMMxOzDWnAp7PBK_Gx/s1600/meaningful.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLugl8ZqkLWlSZrhVnS7o_q_O4D5AI2tTWjHXiGgWqLYiZmm9O0w_-92T5ytMYg3YrpZbSvtBNGqhi0md_31MuTm02i6JZ1aty12O9fiD3UMc-V9xe1Bo3er0Uh6zMMxOzDWnAp7PBK_Gx/s1600/meaningful.jpg" height="200" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This time I'm going spend some time considering the presentation by Anne Ellen Geller, Michele Eodice, and Neal Lerner about the </span><a href="http://meaningfulwritingproject.net/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Meaningful Writing Project</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, a massive grounded theory study that questions what makes writing assignments meaningful to students and how faculty that have composed these meaningful writing assignments think about writing and writing pedagogy. This particular presentation was focused on the latter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Disclaimer: I have a very positive bias towards the panel I'm going to write about in this post. I strongly believe in the importance of student-centered research when it comes to describing student learning experiences. I love to hear the voices of writers and educators; narratives are exciting. I also admire an approach that works from a strength-based concept of student learning experiences rather than a deficit one. And of course, Anne Ellen Geller is my dissertation chair, and one of the most kick-ass women I know (for lack of better words).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">During the presentation, the team of scholars asked audience members to consider, through writing and discussion, their most meaningful writing assignment. They followed this up by sharing interview responses from three professors whose assignments had been nominated as most meaningful by students involved as participants in the Meaningful Writing Project.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Their big takeaway for the day was that there was no magic formula for a meaningful writing assignment, but that there seemed to be something about student-faculty relationships built into these assignments that shaped their reception. How teachers saw students and how students understood the role of that particular professor really had an impact on how that assignment was done--something I've seen in my own research.</span><br />
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My Meaningful Writing Assignment</h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the meantime, what I really want to share is the thinking that I was allowed to do within the context of the discussion of the research. As I said, faculty audience members were asked to consider what their most meaningful writing assignment was. Here is what I wrote:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My favorite writing assignment is the Write for a Change assignment in my first-year writing class. It's a multi-part project where students begin by thinking about what they want to change in the world, no matter how small or big (I encourage them to think locally and consider the ripple effect-- what change could you actually implement?), and then to find a way to advocate that change through writing. First, they write a proposal that includes what they want to change, what form they will use, who their audience(s) is, and why that form and audience is most effective for causing change. Then, they actually all do their projects. They go through a multi-draft process with peer review, but as the projects vary, they can also vary greatly in the drafting process. Some people are writing pieces of websites, some are writing chunks of script, some are doing multiple marketing/PR-like pieces, etc. I typically have the whole class read each of their proposal drafts and workshop as a whole class. At the end, they each do a very brief presentation on their final project, which sometimes includes the showing of short films or presentations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The learning goal is to get students to use what they have learned about writing to help them achieve personal goals. I want them to think about genre, audience, and writing as a social transaction. I also want them to learn to use research in real-life scenarios, not just a research paper, and see how it actually part of life beyond academia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Students only get a grade on this project if they turn it in as part of their final portfolio, as I use contract grades throughout the semester. I give extensive feedback, though. Typically, students are passionate and do a great job. It is hard to assess sometimes, though, because projects can be so different.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I love seeing students learning to use writing to empower them and to help create a better world, in whatever small or large way they think that is. I like giving students opportunities to vent their frustrations, but also learn how to deal with them in productive ways. It is hard to assess them, as I said. I also find it frustrating when students think picking an "easier" topic will get them a good grade. Inevitably, they become bored over the course of the month-long assignment and don't do as well as they would have if they actually thought about what they wanted to change, rather than what they wanted to get in the class.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Students are asked to see the way writing can be used in other contexts based on their own personal view of the world. They have to research and figure out how to do things/forms they may not be familiar with or information they didn't know before that they will have to communicate. They're also being asked to learn writing terminology, such as form, genre, and audience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The second part of that process was to talk to a colleague and then to think about what similarities we saw in our assignments and experiences. I really enjoyed hearing about the work a colleague, who I had only met the night before, was doing with her history students, and I saw how, though very different from my own, her assignment also focused on getting students to think, make connections, and engage with the course content. We both agreed that an indicator for a "good" assignment was typically that we were excited to read the student products.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My Meaningful Writing Project</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, something that we weren't asked to formally consider, but I couldn't help but think about was their interview question for faculty-- what was the most meaningful writing assignment of your undergraduate experience?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That question was hard for me. I had lots of great writing experiences in college, which is how I wound up teaching college writing. As an English and Communications major, I was always writing. I do see that some of the best writing experiences I had, though, were maybe not the best writing I did, but the ones that let me think about things in new ways or the ones where the professors engaged me in the feedback process. So what were those meaningful writing projects for me?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I loved my independent research project on Children's Fantasy heroes, not only because it was an impressive feat for an undergrad and well-received by others at the school's research conferences, but also because I learned so much from the mentorship process. For example, I didn't know how accept information that didn't fit a box or examine the complexities before this project, but in a one-on-one meeting, my professor explained how that worked. I felt the same way about my poetry independent study, where I worked very closely with faculty and another student who was doing short fiction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the other hand, I also loved putting together the final portfolio of public relations writing for an imaginary fundraising event in my Public Relations for Non-profit class, even though I had far less, if any, interaction with the professor one-on-one. It was different, and it was fun. I don't remember the grade, but I do know that I left feeling like I learned something valuable, applicable to the world outside of class, and actually, to this day, I use what I learned while putting that project together whenever I write an email, a memo, web content, or other professional writing genres.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">These experiences definitely shaped how I have gone on to teach my own students. I really like project-based learning, and I try to make myself available to students as much as possible, to act as a mentor or role model where possible. For the most part, I came from the same place as my students, nearly literally, as I teach in the same classrooms where I was taught as an undergrad, and I want them to see that my success is not the result of some magic gift of intelligence, but of applying myself, connecting my passions to my school work, and of being willing to put in the time to do something exceptional rather than mediocre. In these ways, I see again how my concept of the ideal student-faculty relationship shapes my assignments. I can also see how understanding what I consider meaningful as a student and a teacher will have an impact on those relationships.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">With all that said, the Meaningful Writing Project has a great website: </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://meaningfulwritingproject.net/">http://meaningfulwritingproject.net/</a></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">, and the work is set to be published in book-length detail sometime in the near future. I highly recommend everyone read about the methods, the findings, and the interesting stories involved in the research, if for no other reason than to reflect on your own experiences with meaningful writing.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-66745335506715095282014-06-16T17:58:00.000-04:002014-06-18T11:43:50.215-04:00IWAC 2014: Considering "Discipline"<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As promised, I'm diving into some of the things that the<a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23iwac14&src=typd" target="_blank"> 2014 IWAC (International Writing Across the Curriculum) Conference</a> presentations prompted me to consider. Today, I'm going to talk more about the wonderful talk given by <a href="https://twitter.com/melodypugh" target="_blank">Melody Pugh</a>, Naomi Silver, and Anne Ruggles Gere called "Interrogating Disciplinarity in WAC/WID: An Institutional Ethnography."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The scholars framed the discussion around what began an institutional review of the Upper Level Writing Requirement (ULWR) at their university, which lead to interviews with faculties and students about their expectations and experiences with these ULWR. What they found was a real struggle with defining disciplines/disciplinarity and whether their concepts of "writing in the discipline" would actually serve students. Many students and professors expressed a desire to explore more genres, but felt that was outside the bounds of "<a href="http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop2e.cfm" target="_blank">writing in the discipline</a>," which largely seemed to boil down to write academic-journal-style papers. They also recognized the tension between forcing students to learn to use disciplinary writing as a researcher in the field when most of them would not be going on to do that type of work. Students questioned value while professors questioned ethics. It was extremely interesting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The trio will likely continue working with the extensive data and perhaps publish some of their findings, so I don't want to give away all of their secrets, but I do really want to use their work to think about what it means to be "in the discipline," as they asked the audience to think about. What does it mean to "write in the discipline"? Is "the discourse of the field" only the work published in journals and books? Where do disciplines start and end? How does the way we conceptualize discipline affect how we assign writing?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I thought some of the audience members' questions and comments were very insightful. Here's just a few:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Would it be better to consider disciplines as centers rather than closed-off spaces with boundaries?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Is the WAC/WID version of disicplinarity just a selling model that positions us in a power relation</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">over other departments?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Is the WAC model more useful than the WID model? Does wider help, or is "honoring of the occasion more helpful"?</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It seems that when we consider disciplinarity in writing courses, we get the rhetoric and epistemology stuff, but we seem to miss the "activity systems" part. How can we/should we be more focused on activity systems in the disciplines?</span></span></li>
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As I prepare my own Writing in the Disciplines course, where my uses of multimodal texts have been minimal and semi-traditional in that they are fairly linear and usually called "papers"-- write a blog, use a screenshot and hyperlinks in an essay, etc.-- I wonder how my own notions of disciplinarity have shaped and possibly limited my students' learning experiences. I thought they should be learning to write as scholars in their disciplines, learning to mimic the style of academic journals, and that there were other types of writing courses to prepare them for those other types of writing (business writing for memos and executive summaries, for example), but I'm not sure they really are getting it elsewhere., especially if this narrow idea of discipline is pervasive throughout the university.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Though I say I focus on genre diversity and teaching students to address contextual/situational elements, I'm now beginning to question my own understanding and application of these terms in my pedagogy. Am I simply (as a panelist said in another presentation) "putting old wine in a new bottle"? What are the alternatives that come with a new definition, especially one that would be more focused on disciplines as centers or conscious of activity systems?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I will be teaching Writing in the Disciplines again in the fall, and while I thought I had pretty much got my syllabus together, I'm now prepared to go back and scrutinize the application of my conception of "discipline." I'm also considering how I can informally replicate some of the work these women did, finding out what they expected from a course called "Writing in the Disciplines," what they learned that was unexpected but valuable, and what they wish they had learned. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Suggestions are much appreciated!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-71985992995567152812014-06-14T20:33:00.001-04:002014-06-18T11:44:10.089-04:00IWAC 2014: Where did the currents take me?<br />
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<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQyTE_vV_dFkhDhQj3eFKEFMrKI1b7wQSZldxPh1D8v4TRNfxpgjzRGohLoHlmxlJnffXkNDT2YJVlzqDCVZAkyg9TiOEoZ_8S2XMxXn7q9E4e6MGhibxolrafLY2bT2Mo_cibkS28xlG/s1600/10356716_10100489957448337_1936067680826090808_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQyTE_vV_dFkhDhQj3eFKEFMrKI1b7wQSZldxPh1D8v4TRNfxpgjzRGohLoHlmxlJnffXkNDT2YJVlzqDCVZAkyg9TiOEoZ_8S2XMxXn7q9E4e6MGhibxolrafLY2bT2Mo_cibkS28xlG/s1600/10356716_10100489957448337_1936067680826090808_n.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I just returned from
the <a href="http://www.cce.umn.edu/International-Writing-Across-the-Curriculum-Conference/" target="_blank">2014 IWAC (International Writing Across the Curriculum) Conference</a> at the
University of Minnesota, and I have to say it was one of my best conference
experiences yet. The presentations were engaging, the people were open and friendly,
and Minneapolis was a great city.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">During my brief two
days there, I managed to sit in on 5 panels, one in which I presented, a
keynote, and an incredible plenary session. In truth, it made me a little sad
that I'm not a WAC WPA because I would have loved the opportunity to implement
some of the ideas that were discussed at the universities where I am involved
in writing pedagogy. </span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span></h3>
<h3 style="font-family: Calibri; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Panels</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Here is a brief
overview of the titles of the panels that I attended:</span><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
<strong>Role Reversal: When Students Teach Faculty in WAC Programs</strong> - Deanna Daniels & Brandy Grabow, Kate Ronald & Lucy Manley, and Greg Skutches</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Writing Beyond the Curriculum</strong> - Nicole Papaioannou, Dan Reis & Caroline Klidonas, and KaaVonia Hinton & Yonghee Suh</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Interrogating Disciplinarity in WAC/WID: An Institutional Ethnography</strong> - Anne Ruggles Gere, Naomi Silver, & Melody Pugh</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Teaching Meaningful Writing: What Faculty Say About Writing Assignments in Their Disciplines</strong> - Michele Eodice, Anne Ellen Geller, & Neal Lerner</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Multimodal Literacy: Writing, Reading, & Transfer</strong> - Andrea Glover, Maggie Christensen, and G. Travis Adams</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I will take some
time to address the larger issues in each of these panels in separate posts,
but I wanted to recap some of the big questions that I've started to ask as a
result of these panels and some of the discussion that followed. I picked one
large question that was sparked by each.</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Does the campus culture empower students?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">How can on-campus organizations make use of student writers and also enhance student writing?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">How do we frame disciplines? Should we moving toward a theory of centers rather than a theory of boundaries?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">What makes a writing assignment meaningful?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Should we shift to a WRAC model (writing and reading across the curriculum)?</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">These questions may
be brief in text, but responses are complex, and the ways in which those
responses shape student learning experiences and faculty development are
important.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Plenary</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The plenary session
focused on creating sustainable WAC programs and was led by an A-team of
scholars-- Chris Anson, Kathleen Blake Yancey, Chris Thaiss, Linda Adler-Kassner, and
Bob McMaster-- who role-played how they would deal with a failing,
under-resourced WAC program (a very cool divergence from the traditional
plenary talk). Anson would propose scenarios, building the complexities facing
the school bit by bit, and the 5 others would respond on the fly. They did not
know what they would be asked beforehand. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> As some who hopes to
be a WPA one day, I was really intrigued by how the scholars embodied the different
thought processes, concerns, and strengths of each individual involved in a WAC
initiative, ranging from department chairs to WAC directors to provosts to
students. I thought, aside from having a bit of fun, they were incredibly
in-tune with those that they served and incredibly empathetic. It helped me see
what I might come up against should I someday be invited to try to enhance or
save a WAC program.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The speakers
reminded the audience that sustainability went beyond a current context and a
current moment and planned for the future. The solution also had to be built
within the framework of the local context with input from all stakeholders (as
much as possible, that is). Top-down initiatives would feel imposing and
oppressive and often fail to effectively use the strengths of the parties
involved. Collaboration, where possible, is a wonderful thing. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The most important
things I took away were:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<ol style="direction: ltr; font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.375in; margin-top: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed;" type="1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" value="1"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">Understand the campus climate
and be prepared to work within it, even if the aim is to change it. No
model is one-size-fits-all when it comes to campus writing initiatives. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Be sensitive to people's
fears and frustrations. See challenges as moments for reflection,
negotiation, or collaborative education. </span></li>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Bring joy into the work.
Focus on the pleasures of learning from one another and the pleasure of
writing. </span></li>
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</span></ol>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
What seems evident
from these talks and discussions is that the people here really care about
their students and their colleagues. While many people were doing serious
research, it was easy to see how much of it could be put into practice and was
largely aimed at contributing to a positive learning environment for everyone
involved. IWAC really made me excited about the work I'm doing, the field that
I intend to contribute to, and continued interactions with the people who I am
privileged to call my colleagues. I'm looking forward to (fingers crossed)
attending again in 2016.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I would love to hear
from IWAC-attendees about their experiences at the conference and from those
interested in campus writing initiatives what to make of some of these big
questions and themes. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-79078420712317681242014-06-06T13:53:00.003-04:002014-06-06T13:55:14.569-04:00Back to High School: What Do High School Students Want to Know About College Writing?Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting 7 high school senior English classes with three of my colleagues from the writing center. Our mission was to introduce high school students to the world of college writing before they got there. It was a great day, and I really enjoyed getting to learn what high school students thought about college writing.<br />
<br />
While we prepared a great handout that talked about being context-appropriate, making arguments, and campus resources, etc., we wound up turning our original formal lecture with some discussion plan into a Q & A session. Our icebreaker was to have each student write a question or something they'd heard about college writing down and put it in a basket. Then we would read a few anonymously and discuss in conjunction with our planned lecture/handout. This wound up being the heart of each presentation, which tackled most of the stuff we had written down for them anyway.<br />
<br />
I thought it was really a great moment. We saw how much high school students already knew and what they feared most. Here are some of the most asked questions:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>How much writing is there? </b></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Is college writing really hard? </b></blockquote>
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<b>How long is a typical paper in college? </b></blockquote>
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<b>How many research papers will I write in a semester?</b></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>How serious is plagiarism?/Is it really important to use MLA citations?</b></blockquote>
Of course, most of our answers came with a "it depends" disclaimer, though we told students that they should expect to write in every major and that it was "harder" but only in the sense that it was more advanced (like high school had been in comparison to junior high). My colleague explained that work was scaffolded, typically, and that they wouldn't be expected to write 25 page papers on day one and that different disciplines had different approaches to writing. She also explained that college writing was like going to the gym-- on day 1, no one picks up the 100-lb. weight, but with time, we can lift much more than expected. We reminded them that they were students, and that they were there because they had something to learn, that they shouldn't be discouraged if they didn't find immediate success, but be open to constructive criticism and learning experiences. We also encouraged students to be proactive and to talk to their professors when they had questions or concerns.<br />
<br />
Some of the other things they heard about college writing weren't as easy to respond to. For example, one student said something along the lines of <b>"I heard college professors are biased and will grade you poorly if you don't agree with their views." </b>We had to say that, though this wasn't the majority, it was at times true. We also explained that teachers were people and that inflammatory writing would likely be met with inflammatory grading and that they would have to work harder to prove something they knew a teacher wouldn't believe to be true on the surface. We encouraged students not to go in with the attitude that their teachers wanted them to buy into whatever they thought, though, and to stand by what they were passionate about while being aware that they might have to work hard to make others see their perspective sometimes.<br />
<br />
We also had students ask, <b>"Will essay writing be useful outside of school?"</b> This was my favorite question, of course. The one thing I really emphasized was that they needed writing in life. They might not need to write essays, but they would need to be able to show people how their logic process worked and to provide evidence for their claims. They would also be able to use writing to help them reflect and record, something oral communication couldn't do. It was necessary to help them make sense of complex ideas in class and help them succeed in the professional world, but also to be able to change the world in the ways they wanted to. This seemed to resonate with them.<br />
<br />
Aside from the advice we offered them, I really learned a lot about how much high school seniors know, how much high school English has changed since I graduated high school 10 years ago, and also how little has changed since I was in high school. The students were still a little immature, loud in the hallways, chatty when they first walked in, etc. At the same time, they were engaged in the conversation about college writing. Their teachers were showing them how to write something other than the five-paragraph theme essay, giving them more non-fiction texts to read, and talking to students about analysis and critical thinking. We were expecting shock when we said you could write something other than five paragraph essays, but there was none; they already knew. It seems like they are better prepared for FYW and college-writing than I was.<br />
<br />
Meeting with the high school seniors makes me look forward to teaching FYW again next semester, and of course, I hope they all find success in college and beyond.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-62971026854791030402014-05-30T11:56:00.001-04:002014-05-30T11:59:39.844-04:004 Things I've Learned from My Dissertation:<h3>
That Don't Actually Have to Do with My Research Question</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
I've been working on my <a href="http://tinyurl.com/wstdy" target="_blank">dissertation </a>for two full academic years (plus one long summer), and if you've read my earlier posts, you know it hasn't been all rainbows and butterflies. Now that the struggle of the recruitment process has eased up a bit, though, I'm able to finally enjoy my research.<br />
<br />
So far, I've held four full sets of interviews and five half-sets with undergraduates and recent graduates. I feel incredibly lucky to have had such great participants who were willing to share so much of their lives, identities, and experiences with me. What I'm learning, beyond the stuff that I'm supposed to be learning about my research question, is also pretty awesome and exciting for me.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: purple;">1. <b>Undergraduates are incredibly articulate.</b> </span></h3>
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRGMZkAPUTn817mHx2o6cjc1Qj9cbE3NXMnXvwR99IEc9kDB2iN" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRGMZkAPUTn817mHx2o6cjc1Qj9cbE3NXMnXvwR99IEc9kDB2iN" width="200" /></a>This is the one that really stood out to me. I spend a lot of time with undergraduates, and I hear them talk about their ideas, but it's usually when they're struggling that they come to me, not when they're feeling confident or accomplished. I was wowed by the way these undergraduates talked about complex theories and hands-on approaches to tough problems. I was also impressed by the way they interacted with me and how they thought about my research project. As I spoke to these undergraduates, I was reminded how incredibly sharp and articulate undergraduates can be when they take pride in what they have done. </blockquote>
<h3>
<span style="color: purple;">2. <b>The art of response is definitely still an art</b>. </span></h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQlwlyc6tRSAiGBDHVucC4zrILcvAQLb_IJbL09JbuXegpwDz1A" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQlwlyc6tRSAiGBDHVucC4zrILcvAQLb_IJbL09JbuXegpwDz1A" width="200" /></a>One of my biggest challenges as an interviewer has been responding to students, especially those who are incredibly articulate, and especially when I'm focused on listening and absorbing what they're saying. Sometimes, they get way ahead of my thought process. Sometimes, they say so much more than I can take in. At times, I am so awestruck that I have a hard time finding my next thought. It's no different than I feel in class when discussion takes an unexpected turn. Responding on the fly is definitely still a skill that I need to further develop. Though most people think questions shape the interview, I am learning that responses can also have a large impact on the direction of the conversation. They direct the conversation and either put the subject at ease or do the opposite.</blockquote>
<h3>
<span style="color: purple;">3. <b>People from the Midwest talk a lot faster than I thought they would-- and other ways that my own biases have been revealed to me.</b> </span></h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQRa8njdQBYL9nLDY6ZsgnBVcQLzxhtuLD6JGzsTngYTOxxKLh5aQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQRa8njdQBYL9nLDY6ZsgnBVcQLzxhtuLD6JGzsTngYTOxxKLh5aQ" width="200" /></a>I've been lucky to travel more than many people, but I admit still have preconceived notions of how things are that sometimes colors my judgment of things. It's a been a "check your privilege" kind of moment for me. At the same time, it's also been a little bit of a "your privilege is made up in your head" moment. Being from the NYC metropolitan area, I've experienced New York City and all the diversity of life it has to offer, including Broadway plays, knowing people of many races and religions on a personal level, and living in an environment that supports professional women rather than pulling them back to home and religious spaces. That has definitely colored my experienced, and I realize that I am privileged to have access to all of that. On the other hand, I've always been told my life that I was "privileged" because others didn't have those experiences in a way that made their experiences seem lesser. Different is not lesser, though; it is only different. Interviewing people from across the country has made me acknowledge some of my biases and really think about how they influence my decision-making and communicating.</blockquote>
<h3>
<span style="color: purple;">4. <b>We're all human.</b> </span></h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQgJAVimGbWPh-zoj4m_McLuMK2gIEpr0KTM5BQ6h6IAOSDaXe4mw" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="99" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQgJAVimGbWPh-zoj4m_McLuMK2gIEpr0KTM5BQ6h6IAOSDaXe4mw" width="200" /></a>Talking to people I have never met before has really reminded me that we're all just human. We typically enjoy sharing experiences, storytelling, and helping one another out. Despite our differences-- age, region, ethnicity, etc--, at the core, I've found that we are more alike than different. We all just want to achieve our goals and find our purpose in this world. </blockquote>
<br />
I've been really lucky to have these experiences. At this point, I've spoken with 9 different students/alumi, and they are all incredible. They have done amazing things spurred by their own volition. I'm looking forward to analyzing their experiences and writing in more depth and using what they've taught me to help teach others about constructing positive learning environments.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRfdoKUpwAU-u53gJ94NhlH-PHNqRElCk7lHd-x34YEC6-piUA2" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRfdoKUpwAU-u53gJ94NhlH-PHNqRElCk7lHd-x34YEC6-piUA2" width="320" /></a>Even if you're not doing formal research, I really encourage everyone to reach across the table and talk to others about their experiences-- whether that's faculty talking to students, talking to people who come from a region of the world you've never been to, or talking to someone who has lived through things you have little experience with. What you learn from narratives and from conversation affect you in ways that books and research may never be able to. They remind you that we all have a journey to fulfill, and even if we're thousands of miles apart, we're all in this world together.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-46393825045137412422014-05-09T13:32:00.000-04:002014-05-09T13:37:14.306-04:00A Wizard's Words of Wisdom<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
"Think of the solution, not the problem."</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
That is a line from one of my favorite books, <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43889.Wizard_s_First_Rule" target="_blank">The Wizard's First Rule</a> </i>by Terry Goodkind. The book is mostly about Richard Cypher, a woodsman who faces enormous tragedy and learns that he is a wizard--- I think of the Sword of Truth Series as an adult version of the Harry Potter series (and highly recommend it to everyone!). In this moment, as Richard agonizes over all the way things could go wrong while trying to pretty much save the world, Zedd (Richard's mentor) tells Richard he must "think of the solution, not the problem." This line stuck with me from the first time I read it nearly ten years ago.<br />
<br />
This year, I've really tried to make this my mantra, and I thought that, in the midst of the chaos of the end of the semester/academic year, it was worth sharing with all of my educator and student friends out there.<br />
<br />
In many ways, this mantra stands against a lot of what I've learned as a graduate student, where I've constantly been encouraged to <i>problematize </i>everything. Problematizing isn't a bad strategy for getting started, recognizing what's not working, but when it leaks into all facets of life, including your ability to complete tasks, problematizing can become a problem. I think many of us spend way too much time focusing on what's wrong instead of how to fix what's wrong, and all it does it give us things to fret about, to complain about, to write Facebook rants about.<br />
<br />
But when it comes to practicality over intellectualizing, action over hypothesizing, sometimes, we just need to stop problematizing and focus on simplifying. This is especially true during finals season when things tend to pile up in sometimes conflicting ways. Sometimes, agonizing over all the ways that these problems can negatively impact you can actually prevent you from being able to take action, simply resulting in more stress.<br />
<br />
When I stop thinking about everything on my plate or all the ways things could not work out, I become a better person. I focus in on my strategy and deal with problems as they come instead of panicking about problems that I may never face. I am less edgy and more productive (hey, look, even got a blog post done in the middle of conferencing and grading) because I have less floating around in my head to clog up my problem-solving abilities. I am nicer to the people around me. Even though I'm stressed and there are 600 things that need to be done at any given moment and a bunch of life-altering decisions to be made, the struggle is actually mostly internal.<br />
<br />
I know some people will argue, "well, I can't do that," and I am sometimes one of them--I am not an ideal being and fall into traps sometimes too- but I promise you, you are capable of applying this philosophy. It takes a commitment to yourself. We have to remember we are strong, we are resilient, and we can take whatever comes our way, as long as we focus on our strategies and our abilities to tackle these issues rather than focus on the problem itself and how terrible it is. We can do this by not only telling ourselves to "think of the solution, not the problem," but by breaking things down into manageable tasks instead of focusing on everything as a whole. We can also ask for help when help is needed. Things will or will not get done regardless of how much anxiety we make ourselves feel. The key is to focus on what is within our control and let go of that which is not if we are to be our best selves.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16599555725289938761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-91141069796499604402014-03-10T12:11:00.003-04:002014-05-30T13:54:01.549-04:00What's in a Name?: A Response to Katrina Gulliver's "Too Much Informality"<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
A recent article on Inside Higher Ed called "<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/03/06/essay-problems-created-students-who-are-too-informal-professors" target="_blank">Too Much Informality</a>" by Katrina Gulliver sparked controversy when it proclaimed that every professor should call themselves by title (Dr./Professor), call students by their title (Mr./Ms.), and expect the same treatment from students. It claimed that using first names promoted a lack of respect and professionalism. Her ideas definitely didn't sit well with me.</div>
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For starters, it really upsets me when people blame students and generalize entire populations of young adults as rude and disrespectful. I would argue that those students are the minority. I would even go so far as to say that many of those who blame the students for having no respect, often do not respect the students and consider them beneath them, as I think Professor Gulliver does.</div>
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At my first teaching job, I used my first name--Nicole. As a doctoral student, I didn't quite feel comfortable being addressed as professor, and I use more of a guide/coach strategy than acting as the authority, so I thought using my first name reflected my values. Some of my students did not feel comfortable using just my first name, so they called me Professor Nicole or Ms. P. We had a great relationship. They wrote evaluations that praised my teaching and continue, years later, to ask me for advice on school and writing and recommendation letters. I earned their respect by showing them I had their best interests in mind and that I knew my stuff. I didn't simply expect the "professor" title to make me a professor.</div>
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I carried that same notion into my next teaching job. After reviewing course evaluations, where students referred to me as "Nicole," I was scolded by the chair who asked me not to be be so informal. I explained my position and why I allowed students to use my first name and was told, "you are the authority." In other words, I had no choice but to refer to myself Professor Papaioannou, even with my returning adult students. Don't get me wrong. My chair isn't a bad-guy figure. I respect her and find that she is an advocate for pedagogy based on scholarship. This is one area, though, where I am forced to comply with a policy that I think is dated.</div>
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Regardless of what I call myself, I see little change in students' perceptions of my ability to help them improve their writing. It is as Will Miller states in his rebuttal "<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/03/10/essay-professionalism-and-formality-teaching" target="_blank">Professionalism and Formality</a>": "I worry about making sure I deserve the respect of my students rather than expecting my title or position to simply demand it. I want students to respect me as an individual, not solely for my role, title, or degrees." If you're doing a good job, your work will demand respect.</div>
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Furthermore, what many people consider rude, may just be opportunities for teachable moments. Emails like the "Hey prof" may be based on a lack of understanding of the rhetorical functions of an email to a professor or may even be a sign that they find you likable enough to say "hey." Most high school students are unaccustomed to emailing their teachers, and most high school jobs are set in casual atmospheres-- camp counseling, waiting tables, working a register, babysitting-- that would not require formal transactions with bosses. Students can't be expected to know what they've never been taught.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px;">Moreover, how you are addressed is often tied to culture. As Gulliver points out, she became more conscious of this shift after seeing how students referred to her in different cultural contexts. She writes: "Perhaps this [tendency to use first names] has struck me particularly as I went from living in Germany, where even to colleagues I was 'Frau Gulliver,' to teaching in Australia where students seem surprised I even have a last name." For one, it upsets me that she positions the German way as better than the Australian way.</span><span style="font-size: 15px;"> And of course, Australia is not alone in the first-name basis method. Again, what appears evident is that names have very little, if any, impact on students' ability to act as professionals. The article seems to promote elitism far more than professionalism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px;">And finally, it made me extremely upset that Gulliver decided that the "Miss" or "Sir" students had used to refer to high school teachers was inappropriate because professor is a much higher position than a mere teacher. First, she disregards that students are, in fact, trying to show respect and makes them seem foolish, instead of recognizing that they don't know what they haven't learned yet. But even more problematic is that she is creating a hierarchy where professors are better than other types of educators. We are cut from the same cloth. </span></div>
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Most importantly, <b>professionalism is context-based</b>. Professional means something different in different disciplines, cultures, and spaces. In some cases, people are even offended by over-formality in professional settings. <span style="font-size: 15px;">Students develop professionalism by participating as members of their field, learning the conventions of their discipline, and reading scholarship related to their future prospects. It has little to do with what they call their teachers. I called teachers by their first names if they asked to be called that, and it did not influence whether or not I respected them. If anything, it made me more likely to email them when I had legitimate questions or to collaborate with them. Just think of it this way -- Do you call your boss by their first name? If you do, does it make you respect them less? I'd bet not. </span></div>
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Instead of emphasizing formality, Gulliver should emphasize teachable moments, close reading skills, rhetorical analysis skills, and opportunities for exploring professional discourse. Those are the skill sets that lead to proper, context-appropriate interaction and success in professional settings.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px;">So before you judge a student, consider your own perceptions and treatment of them. Then, select a name for yourself that you are comfortable with.</span></div>
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*This post is a revision and expansion of a previously submitted comment to Miller's "<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/03/10/essay-professionalism-and-formality-teaching" target="_blank">Professionalism and Formality</a>."<br />
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**update 5/30/14 -- A student recently pointed out to me that using Miss/Mr. to refer to students is also a problem because it assumes their gender identity. She also pointed out a moment where a student was referred to by the wrong gender label (Mr. when she was a Miss) and horribly embarrassed her and set the tone for student interactions in the class for the rest of the semester. The use of first names would easily have prevented that issue from occurring.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-77624327825277974252014-03-03T11:41:00.001-05:002014-03-03T11:42:42.252-05:00The Measure of a Scholar: Doubt and Insecurity During the Dissertation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Right now, I'm at the beginning phases of my <a href="http://tinyurl.com/wstdy" target="_blank">dissertation study</a>. It's been quite a journey getting to this point. One I'm not sure that I was prepared for. One that has taken much longer than I thought it would. I'm writing this blog post because I'm sure there are others out there, like me, who
will be totally surprised by the path their graduate work takes them,
who will be a bit shaken when things don't go quite according to plan, but who probably also need to know that that's ok.<br />
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In May 2012, I passed my comprehensive exams. I was so excited! I figured, "it's go time!" In my Virgo over-planning mind, I figured I'd have my prospectus done in the middle of the fall semester, I'd write my first chapter by the middle of Spring, knock out the rest by the following year and defend soon after that. I figured it would take just a little longer than my lengthy thesis for my masters program. I couldn't wait to be Dr. P! <br />
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<i>It's been almost 2 years, and I haven't even started writing chapters. </i><br />
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Instead of the process I imagined, a year and a half to write a dissertation, it took me a year and a half to get a prospectus approved. It wasn't because I was lazy and put things off. I was writing and reading the whole time. I think I have something like 31 drafts. When I sat in my dissertation workshop week after week and heard my peers get their prospectuses approved, start chapters, and defend, it made me feel really inadequate. The hardest one for me to swallow was when a student who began her work only a bit before me-- and who seemed to have followed the same path from lit to writing studies-- managed to complete her dissertation in about a year. I didn't understand why I was falling so far behind. From time to time, I even thought maybe I just wasn't cut out to be a doctoral student, that I wasn't of the caliber to do that kind of research. <br />
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Sometimes, I still have those thoughts. It's almost mid-semester, and I've been working on recruiting undergrads for <a href="http://tinyurl.com/wstdy" target="_blank">my dissertation study</a> for a few weeks now. I guess because I strongly believe in the work I'm doing, I thought on some level that others would be equally excited. I imagined being overwhelmed with responses rather than underwhelmed. I didn't really take into consideration how difficult it would be to find participants. I thought I'd be doing interviews and have notes already. <br />
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<i>My biggest challenge is managing myself.</i><br />
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The dissertation comes with many challenges. It's time consuming. You must learn the conventions of your discipline as you research and write. Sources can be hard to track down. Participants might not flock to you. None of these will be as difficult as managing yourself, though.<br />
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It's much more difficult to stop thinking about your insecurities-- how much you don't know, how many times you mess up along the way, how many times you had to ask for help, how slow you must be because Suzie Q is so much further along with her project, how your writing is no where near as good as Dr. X's, how you can't even process thoughts as deep and insightful as the great-and-all-powerful Oz. The worst one for me... how my friends are buying homes, getting married, and having babies while I had to move back in with my parents and am working part-time jobs to make ends-meet.... There's just an endless list of doubts and flaws. You can get lost in the way you don't measure up. <br />
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If you're like me, or if you might be about to be like me, then, I have three words of advice for you:<br />
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<i>Knock that off!</i><br />
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Seriously, the hardest lesson for me to learn and something I have to constantly remind myself of is that I must stop comparing myself to others in a competitive way. It's great to look at what someone else is doing and use it as inspiration or just notice how well what they are doing is working for them, but saying "why can't I be like that?" is only counterproductive. It clogs up your focus and makes you feel incapable of things you are certainly most capable of. Sometimes, it even makes you want to throw away years of work and sacrifice to have it go away. In simplest of terms: it's bad; don't do it. <br />
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Once I figured that out, things got a little better. I try to keep in mind that I am my own person with my own journey. In my case, I have to give myself a little credit for shifting gears and remember that it takes time, probably a lot more than the 2-3 years I've had, to become fluent in a discipline. Changing over from lit to writing studies left me with some things to learn. And qualitative studies definitely take more time and have more variables than making an argument about published texts that are not in flux. I'm also younger than many of my peers in the doctoral program and had some growing room to take up. Plus, assuming I don't get hit by a bus or fall off a cliff any time soon, I'm looking at an 80ish-year life expectancy with plenty of time for buying houses and making babies that I'm not sure I want yet anyway. It will be much harder for my friends who have all that responsibility to decide to pursue my level of education for the next 25 years or so at least. I'll get where I need to be as long as I stay focused.<br />
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So, next time you're feeling down, think about this:<br />
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If you're working on your doctoral degree, you have an opportunity that most people will never have in their lifetimes. Not just one person, but a whole committee of people, agreed that you were the right choice for that program when pooled with a giant pile of program applicants.<br />
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And if you're working on a dissertation, there is a committee of people who believed enough in your ability to perform scholarship that they were willing to take time out of their work to see you complete yours. </blockquote>
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Now, go be productive :) and remember....<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-87334528732225581692014-02-08T12:06:00.000-05:002014-03-04T12:58:16.053-05:00Starting My Dissertation Study - YAY! - Call for Participants :)<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.309091567993164px;">I am proud to announce that I am beginning my dissertation research! I am looking for undergraduates/recent grads to participate in a qualitative study on writing through the classroom and beyond. Do you know a student who used class writing-- no matter how formal or informal-- to springboard to a larger project beyond the class without being required to do so? I would love to talk to them!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.309091567993164px;">Seeking nominations and/or interested parties. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.309091567993164px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.309091567993164px;">Please feel free to forward or share this call for participants. Thank you! </span><br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K0xbY8lSemh9WothJ59sb40WRje59q18jHfwHmqWVs0/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 16.309091567993164px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K0xbY8lSemh9WothJ59sb40WRje59q18jHfwHmqWVs0/edit?usp=sharing</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-80645349656554140242014-02-05T18:09:00.001-05:002014-02-05T21:50:24.415-05:00Class, Upward Mobility, and the History of LiteracyRecently, I've been thinking about the issue of upward mobility, especially how education plays a factor in that process. Theoretically, a college education will help ensure that an individual winds up within or above middle class, but the ability to complete that education or make use of that degree is becoming more challenging, especially for those who do not have the advantage of wealth.<br />
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In thinking about these issues, I stumbled onto "Literacy, Technology, and Monopoly Capital" by Richard Ohmann in my <em>Cross-Talk in Comp Theory </em>book. The first part of the essay describes the development of the terms "literacy" and "illiteracy" as we use it today. One idea becomes very clear. The term is tied directly to class. Ohmann explains "[literacy education] was a top-down discourse from the start, and its participants almost invariably took the underlying question to be: how can we keep the lower orders docile?" (701). Indeed, the main purpose seemed to be for white men to keep immigrants from taking the country into moral ruin and crime. Ohmann continues on: "Once the lower orders came to be seen as masses and classes, the term 'literacy' offered a handy way to conceptualize an attribute of theirs, which might be manipulated in one direction or the other for the stability of the social order and the prosperity and security of the people who counted" (701). In other words, the people at the top developed education to continue reaping the benefits at the top. I have to admit that reading this brief history of the development of mass education made me feel pretty grimy, but I also have to admit that this 19th century view of education sounds very much like the 21st century view. <br />
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Ohmann's history delves into the economic reasons for literacy discourse, as well. He notes that the "dangerous classes" were created by industrialism and the fierce competition. Attempting to avoid falling profits, businessmen continuously cut the wages of workers, which "led to all but open class warfare" (702). This also led to the development of "monopoly capitalism," the type of capitalism that is characterized by large impersonal corporations with multiple tiers of management. All of this was occurring at the end of the 19th century, about the same time literacy discourse, as we know it today, was developing. In Marxist terms, "docile bodies" were needed to work. <br />
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Ohmann extends his conversation on literacy to include mass culture and computer literacy. Though published in 1985, his predictions about computer literacy are hauntingly spot-on: <br />
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Graduates of MIT will get the challenging jobs; community college grads will be technicians; those who do no more than acquire basic skills and computer literacy in high school will probably find their way to electronic workstations at McDonald's. I see every reason to expect that the computer revolution, like other revolutions from the top down, will indeed expand the minds and the freedom of an elite, meanwhile facilitating the degradation of labor and the stratification of the workforce that have been hallmarks of monopoly capitalism from its onset. (709)</blockquote>
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Is this not our reality today? <br />
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In opposition to this top-down regulated literacy construct, Ohmann offers the Cuban campaign to improve the literacy of illiterate peasants. Instead of teachers, brigadistas, tutor/mentors as young as 10-19 years old, volunteered to help their fellow countrymen. The peasants wanted to learn because they saw being literate as a step towards revolution. The system worked well because the people felt they had a purpose, and it was important to their own well-being. <br />
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So what can we learn from Ohmann's piece, even though it was written nearly 30 years ago? Literacy crises are made up to suit capitalist needs (What's that? You have bad teachers. Don't worry, we'll make fool-proof scripted curriculums for $1 million dollars a pop. What's that? You don't know how to tell if kids are smart or not. We've got a great billion-dollar testing package for you to try out). It creates problems that need products and services, and it creates consumers who are committed to buying products to help them succeed. At the same time, literacy has become tied into the reality of the world we live in. In order to help individuals succeed, we cannot treat literacy as morality. We can't assume those who struggle with reading, writing, or computer skills are "bad" or "poor" students (just look at the terms we used to describe them). Furthermore, we need to show people how to use literacy for their own purposes, not just to pass exams or get a job, whether that's filling out a form for financial aid or writing a text to a friend. <br />
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Ohmann ends with these lines, and I would like to, as well: "It's worth trying to reconstitute literacy as a process of liberation-- but also to remember that work for literacy is not in itself intrinsically liberating. The only way to have a democracy is to make one" (713). Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-70680167176656647022014-01-20T11:46:00.003-05:002014-01-20T11:46:40.637-05:00My First Interview: Lessons from the Job Search<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Over the winter break, I had my first job interview for a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of Composition and Rhetoric. The search committee reached out to me and asked me to do an online interview via Blackboard Collaborate (which wound up not working, and we went with Skype). This worked well for me, seeing as I was out of the country. It was quite an experience. I don't know the results of the interview yet, but I still learned some things that I thought were worth sharing with those who are about to set out on the job search.<br />
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Lessons Learned</h3>
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<b>Lesson # 1: Murphy's Law Still Applies: </b>Things will go wrong. It happens, and you will survive. For example, I landed in Brazil, only to realize I left my professional clothing home. Then, on interview day, I couldn't find an internet connection strong enough to host video-chatting. It took me 5 different wifi locations before I succeeded. The one I finally got was in a bedroom with nowhere to sit, so I had to kneel on the floor for a half hour and finagle my tablet on the bed so that I could get my face on screen, even then I managed just my neck and above. It was an awkward angle. When I tried to access the interview session, the software wouldn't work, and through some misunderstanding, I thought I missed the interview. With all those little things going wrong, it was very tempting to just quit and say I couldn't get on. You have to be willing to be flexible. Plans will fall apart in real life, especially in the classroom. You need to show you can handle it. This takes me to lesson # 2. </div>
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<b>Lesson # 2: In the words of Nike-- Just do it!:</b> Because of the last minute invitation, I was far from being as prepared as I wanted to be, and the little things Murphy threw my way were really amplifying my nerves. At some point, the Skype request came up, and I had to take a breath and go. And once I did, I was fine. All the little things I battled along the way were trivial, and in some ways, the fact that I managed to get myself online while in a foreign country on time despite being given last minute notification demonstrated my desire to take on the position and my ability to problem solve.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Lesson # 3: Be prepared as possible: </b>I don't mean that you need to spend hours locked in a room, but do know the basics. Know who you are as a scholar and an educator. Know who you want to be as a professional. Think about service, not just teaching and researching, as well. I found that it helped me to write out the questions I thought I'd be asked and try freewriting the answers (especially since I did most of my prep on a plane and tape-recording myself talking would have creeped out the strangers sitting next to me).</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As an Assistant Professor of Composition hopeful, these are the types of questions I was asked:</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>What is your philosophy of teaching writing?</li>
<li>What scholars have influenced your pedagogy?</li>
<li>What textbooks would you recommend using or not using?</li>
<li>How would you facilitate faculty development?</li>
<li>What upper level course would you love teach?</li>
<li>Tell us about your research.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<b>Lesson # 4: Know what you don't know: </b>It's an interview, not an exam. While you're expected to know your scholarship and the theoretical underpinnings of your teaching methods, as well as have some idea about the mission of the institution, no one thinks you know everything. Have some questions to ask the search committee. It's expected that you'll be curious about how things work if you're interested in being a part of the department. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Lesson # 5: Be grateful: </b>Whether you get the job or not, a group of people took the time to review your application, contact you, prepare interview questions, and then sit with you for a period of time to hear what you have to say. They gave you an opportunity to share your views and practice professionalism. Sending a short thank you letter after an interview shows that you are thoughtful and that you still have the job on your mind. It also gives you the opportunity to very briefly mention anything you would have liked to elaborate (very, very, very briefly).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqV-FfKdoQNgM6v7sh9P1BGmTEDm6fFC6rW-OetGYhnCVoCV855HIoU7LOz4AjMZj9e2hOh7hf9eq72wiArBHE6iSY0MX5zfjo2-ft5utEMUmjBwfB8JHa0AiHBktjR8kQ3iLA5HCwbId/s1600/career_plan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqV-FfKdoQNgM6v7sh9P1BGmTEDm6fFC6rW-OetGYhnCVoCV855HIoU7LOz4AjMZj9e2hOh7hf9eq72wiArBHE6iSY0MX5zfjo2-ft5utEMUmjBwfB8JHa0AiHBktjR8kQ3iLA5HCwbId/s1600/career_plan2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div>
With all that said, I can't say I nailed or bombed my first interview. As a whole, I think I came across as confident and knowledge, for the most part, and I did manage to keep a genuine smile on my face through the interview; I was happy to be there. Truthfully, I tackled my nerves much more successfully than I would have thought possible.<br />
<br />
I do wish I slowed down and thought more about what I was going to say before I said it. I also wish I more fully developed some of my responses. Sometimes, I was too eager to fill space or show I had a ready answer. And while I probably could have asked more questions, I was happy with the ones I did ask and the responses I received. Really, whatever the outcome, I am proud of myself for getting so much together in a such a brief period and presenting my beliefs to a committee of respected professionals.<br />
<br />
Now, I get to play the waiting game.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-11571427042602741102013-12-26T09:56:00.000-05:002013-12-26T09:56:22.852-05:00Snark/asm and Second (3rd, 4th,...) Language Learning<div>
For the past few months, I've been trying to learn Portuguese. It is definitely one of the hardest things I have done in a long time. I use interactive websites. I write in elementary grammar books. I listen to podcasts. I even try reading the news and books in Portuguese. Acquiring even the most basic conversational skill has been a painfully slow process. Despite keeping at it everyday, I can make only a few full sentences-- nothing in past tense or conditional or the million other tenses Portuguese has. As someone who is almost a doctor in the English language, it feels so odd to me not to be able to craft complex sentences or find the right vocabulary for the ideas I want to express. I haven't given up yet, though.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The reason I continue to fight it out is partially because I want to be able to converse with my boyfriend's friends and family, but even more so because I've had positive encouragement. My significant other will let me ask him one million questions about the language. He'll sit there and help me try to pronounce words. If I message him in Portuguese, he'll answer me back and show me the correct way to say what I was trying to say. He does this all with patience and kindness, and he reminds me how far I've come. At a birthday party, his family friends made me feel proud of how much I was catching on. One of my best friends is also learning Portuguese, though she is much more advanced than I am, and she also consistently reminds me that I've learned a lot and celebrates my small victories. Even online, when I chat on Babbel.com with native speakers, they never put down my poor grammar or the length of time it takes me to construct a thought. They are all supportive. This has made it easy to learn.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I contrast this with my attempts to learn Greek as an adult. My father is a Greek immigrant and several of my family members and close family friends speak Greek. I've been to Greece twice. I thought it was important to learn the language. The problem is that whenever I tried to speak Greek, I was met with sarcasm or playful mocking. The first time I went to Greece, my cousin would poke fun at me every time I spoke, whether my accent was incorrect or not, simply because I was an American struggling to speak the language. The second time I went to Greece, my grandmother was the only one who encouraged others to speak Greek to me in an attempt to help me learn the language, but she didn't help much with the spoken aspects. At home, my dad made no effort to encourage my Greek learning, even after I dished out a large fee for Rosetta Stone. After a while, I just didn't want to try anymore. No one would engage me. The learning process felt solitary. There was no one to practice with, and as I already felt self-conscious, the playful jests made me not want to try, even when there was. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Sass doesn't belong in feedback to student writing. </h3>
<div>
I spent the first five years of my life in Brooklyn, NY, grew up in Jersey, relocated to Queens, and then returned to Jersey again. I was raised by a native Staten Islander and a Greek transplanted in Brooklyn. Needless to say, I am fluent in sarcasm and teasing. I admit that I will often tease my students when they ask seemingly obvious questions, but now more than ever, I see that there is a time and place for it, and I am trying to train myself to act accordingly.<br />
<br />
Learning a new language outside a formal educational settings has really helped me empathize with the plight of students who are learning English or even just learning to craft better Standard American Written English/Academic English/whatever fancy term you want to use to describe the English of the socioeconomic elite. It's become obvious to me that if we want students to learn, we have to tone down the sarcasm and the playful mocking.<br />
<br />
The worst case I ever saw was on a student's paper from a law professor. A student was proposing a thesis statement for a research paper, and the professor had written things like "REALLY?????????!?!?????? Are you even trying? Can you think? Oh, so X, Y, Z happened? Really?" in a paragraph long email of harsh sarcasm that addressed his vague, overly general thesis statement. While I guessed that this professor was just offering a bit of tough love, her comments made the student feel incapable of performing the assigned task. They completely alienated him and made him feel far beneath the average student. He didn't want to ask her questions. He didn't feel playfully challenged. He felt defeated and didn't want to write anymore.<br />
<br />
I also saw a professor who demanded that his student attend the writing center because he had a slew of grammar issues, which the professor guessed were a result of learning English as a second language. The professor thought he was being encouraging by writing snarky comments, then sending the student for extra help instead of failing him. However, the student's native language was English, and the professor's list of things to work on (which, again, he thought was encouraging) only served to make this student feel stupid and incapable of correcting what were really just small surface-level grammatical errors. He could have learned so much more if the professor just took the time to explain and perhaps actually let him play around with language.<br />
<br />
Like I said, language learners definitely need play and playfulness. We need to make learning fun and encourage mistake-making in a nurturing environment. It clearly needs to be interactive. But fun doesn't have to be at the expense of our students, a reminder that we are superior to this, which is what snark and sarcasm both do. These students already know we have mastered something that they are struggling with. Sarcasm should be reserved for those who have already established skill and confidence, who know that they can do better. Those who are already questioning their abilities will only find further doubt in those seemingly harmless teasing remarks. In the process of building confidence, play has to be about discovery and socialization, making new connections.<br />
<br />
Boa sorte!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-39444174078824179472013-12-12T00:02:00.001-05:002013-12-12T00:10:40.324-05:00Haters Gonna Hate: Victoria's Secret and Ugly, Jealous WomenLast night was the highly-anticipated annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, the runway that in many ways sets the standard for "sexy" in America. As expected, my social media feeds flooded with statuses about the show-- or I should say, about the models. Not a single one of the posts was about the production or the garments; they were all about the women working the catwalk.<br />
<br />
Most of the posts fell into two categories: adorers and "haters." Some of these people thought the models were absolutely stunning and some were unhappy with the how thin the models were. However, this one Instagram post really seemed to capture the theme of the conversations:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOW950g3RcQxC8zD8WEo0ozygSOOE9f6spW7HEg5ZCFE-Po3zwVuljNFjMYUFdwgyZ2MnHS0EWqDCmzQ07Fv5IWRSH0RyYtlM4nTtThltzyg4r7d0yt2f9umILz_vLT_l7Pa6u0vvkyWWU/s1600/Screenshot_2013-12-11-22-25-39_resized.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOW950g3RcQxC8zD8WEo0ozygSOOE9f6spW7HEg5ZCFE-Po3zwVuljNFjMYUFdwgyZ2MnHS0EWqDCmzQ07Fv5IWRSH0RyYtlM4nTtThltzyg4r7d0yt2f9umILz_vLT_l7Pa6u0vvkyWWU/s320/Screenshot_2013-12-11-22-25-39_resized.png" width="248" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In case you can't read the text, it says "<b>Hating on her makes you fat, ugly, miserable, and jealous</b>." Indeed, across the board, those who were supporting the models weren't just saying, "they're pretty," but that if you don't like the models, it's because you're insecure. The idea behind this post is that women don't like the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show simply because they are jealous of the models, not because they actually see something wrong (of course, we're women; we're incapable of thinking rationally).</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This quote perfectly demonstrates everything wrong with the media's representation of female beauty. I refuse to watch the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. It's not because I'm jealous of these women or hate them. It's because I recognize that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way beauty is portrayed, and it's not that the models are thin.</div>
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The problem with Victoria's Secret is that it sells an idea of what's sexy that is extremely limited. Yes, these women are beautiful. There's no doubt about it. But all of them are extremely thin, light-skinned (even the women who are not Caucasian, who are the overwhelming majority), and much taller than most women. The problem is not that they are these things, but that they are ONLY these things. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
There are no dark-skinned women. There are no short women. There are no bottom-heavy women or women with broader shoulders. Essentially, according the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (and most of the media), the only people who are sexy are tall, thin, fair-skinned women. THAT is a problem.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Let's go deeper:<b> </b>The problem with the tall, thin, fair-skinned model is that it is not attainable for the majority of the female population. As super model Cameron Russell said in <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model.html" target="_blank">her TED Talk</a>, having the features to be a supermodel is basically hitting the "genetic lottery." So, why, then, is that the standard if it is anything but standard?</div>
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<h3>
Because <b><i><u>CAPITALISM</u></i></b>, duh. </h3>
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Consumer culture relies on the purchase of commodities. People only buy commodities when they feel need. People with money typically are able to meet many of their physiological needs without spending much. How, then, do we get them to part with the excess? </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We create social need or fear. The media presents a standard of beauty, which is anything but standard, so that women purposefully feel dissatisfied and imperfect. And we use the words "<b>sexy/beautiful</b>" or "<b>ugly</b>" and "<b>confident</b>" or "<b>jealous</b>" to foster this feeling. We create a fear of rejection and convince women that they are lacking, so that they will fill the void with things-- cosmetics, clothes, hair dye, skin bleach, laser hair removal, gym memberships.... lingerie. </div>
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<i><b>This should piss you off.</b></i></div>
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If doesn't, also think about the fact that with Victoria Secret's PINK line, this dislike of the self is being sold to young girls, not just women. And remember that studies show that girls as young as 9 years old now think that they are fat and need to go on diets.</div>
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<b>And because, <i><u>PATRIARCHY</u></i>, duh.</b><br />
<br />
And on top of the media broadcasting these images, the messages embedded within are internalized and shared. Men tells us that sexy is tall, thin, and fair-skinned. They circulate images of heavily photoshopped, unrealistically thin women (women who are photoshopped to look thinner when they are already underweight) who somehow magically still have large, symmetrical breasts and butts. Also, they don't have pores, lines, or cellulite. We have people of both sexes telling us that if we don't worship these women as the most beautiful women on earth, we're jealous.<br />
<br />
When we don't buy into the standard, we are quite literally stripped of our voices-- called ugly and ignored. <i>Ugly </i>is basically a word for useless women in our patriarchal society. If you aren't aesthetically pleasing, you become ugly. But of course, now that you see how the media markets beautiful, you also understand that most women easily fall into the "ugly" category.<br />
<br />
So, these standards of beauty not only make women feel unhappy and drive us to buy products (that are mostly produced and marketed by men), but also create a culture where it easy to suck the power from women by simply insinuating that those unable to meet the unrealistic standards of beauty are not worthy of notice, not capable of saying anything worthwhile. They're just "fat, ugly, miserable, and jealous."<br />
<br />
<b>And just saying....</b><br />
<br />
we all know Victoria's multi-billion dollar secret now: Victoria was a man, Mr. Roy Raymond, and the store was created so men didn't feel humiliated when they wanted to buy lingerie for their ladies, not to make women feel sexy.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Are you angry yet?</h3>
<div>
You should be.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-13926524886868638712013-11-21T19:30:00.000-05:002013-11-21T19:34:52.231-05:00Fake Passes and Rapes: Athlete Entitlement Culture in the UniversityToday, Adam Weistein published a post titled "<a href="http://deadspin.com/jameis-winston-isnt-the-only-problem-here-an-fsu-teac-1467707410" target="_blank">Jameis Winston Isn't the Only Problem Here: An FSU Teacher's Lament</a>," in which he discussed how high-profile college sports are creating an atmosphere that fosters intimidation, cheating, and irresponsible behavior. And while I can't support his careless use of Islamic extremists as a metaphor for college sports culture, I can empathize with the struggles FSU teachers have faced when dealing with high profile athletic teams. I, too, have dealt with them firsthand, both as a student and as a professor.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>The Almost Rape</b></h3>
As a college student, I was an athlete. That means I socialized with other athletes from other teams. In particular, as freshman, I took a liking to one of the older baseball players, and I decided to go to one of his baseball player house parties...<br />
<br />
I bet you think you know where this story is going, but it's not... Nope, Baseball Guy didn't touch me inappropriately at all. He was actually a very nice guy. He wasn't drinking much, and I wasn't drinking at all, and we had fun talking over the loud music until we retired to his bedroom to cozy up a little. We did nothing more than kiss.<br />
<br />
<b>But then things took a turn...</b> It was chilly out that night, and I was wrapped under layers of blankets. Baseball Guy and his baseball player housemates were hosting a few potential recruits, and so the party had been about showing them a good time. I had met a few, and they seemed like good kids. Baseball Guy wanted to check on them before he passed out, but seeing as I was cold and tired, he left me in bed while he went downstairs. I was pretty much asleep when I awoke to someone climbing over the top of me. I assumed it was Baseball Guy, but when I came out of my sleep daze, I saw that it wasn't Baseball Guy at all. It was one of the recruits! I was pinned under the blankets, still in a bit of a fog, and couldn't react. Confused and terrified, I laid there frozen and wide-eyed.<br />
<br />
Lucky for me, Baseball Guy opened the door just in time and sent the recruit running in fear when he bellowed for him to get off of me. I can tell you that the kid's intention was NOT innocent, and he probably assumed I was drunk and passed out and an easy target. He also assumed that he was entitled because he was supposed to be shown a good time, a common trend in college athletics. He probably also thought that because he was drunk his actions would be excused... and he was probably right.<br />
<br />
"Boys will be boys" would have been what I would have been told the next day by university athletic officials and university administrators. Had someone on the baseball team told him he was being a scumbag, beyond just being yelled at to get off of me, or told him they didn't want him on the team, it could have had a real impact. But as I've learned, male athletes, in particular, especially those in contact sports, are told "be aggressive. Take what you want. You're the star. It's yours."<br />
<br />
Not drinking didn't save me at all, which is usually what rape-apologists, especially those siding with "poor athletes under a lot of stress" would say-- "if she hadn't been such a drunk slut, she wouldn't have been in that situation." But even if I was wasted, it wouldn't have given him a right to treatment as his personal entertainment. This kid just thought he was entitled to take what he wanted and there would be no consequences because he was a prospective athlete, someone who might make the school some money, and he knew it. The players knew they had to show him a good time if they wanted to bring his talent to their team. Reprimanding him or telling him "don't go after that girl" would have dampened his fun and affected his decision to come to the university. Happily, I never saw him again, so I assume he chose another school.<br />
<br />
I'm fairly certain the incident was never spoken about again, which means he probably still thinks it's ok and probably raped some other girl at some other point before or after or both.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>Summer Schooled</b></h3>
<div>
My almost-rape is, of course, an extreme case, and there are lots of very nice male student-athletes. However, the entitlement problem that leads to things like rape and assault start with little occurrences, like the ones I faced while teaching summer courses at a DI university. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Coaches would make unreasonable requests on behalf of their players, like asking for final grades the same day finals were turned in. Or give me the "isn't there something we can do?" when players weren't doing well. Players would assume they could slack all semester and then pass. I failed a student whose excuse was "but I didn't know anything was due" for all the assignments that he had missed the entire semester. I was also asked, after submitting final grades, if there was "anyway to make up the work I missed" by several athletes, who had simply failed to do work at all. They were shocked they failed. I was even more shocked that they were shocked.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Lucky for me, I had a strong supervisor, who had my back when I stuck to failing athletes or having to put their eligibility in jeopardy. But the pressure to give these students leeway was immense. Basically, these athletes were told that they were exceptions to the rules of higher education. Someone would "take care of it" if they messed up.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Of course, when things don't go their way, these athletes become aggressive and throw temper tantrums because they've been taught that intimidation is the way to succeed. They'd try to guilt me into passing them, making me feel like I was letting the whole university down by preventing them from playing. They've been told the university needs THEM, not that they need the university. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Imagine being told this your whole life: do what you want because someone else will make sure you're successful no matter what. What things might you have done if actions had no consequences, if someone else would always be to blame? It might have started with cheating on exams, but I'm fairly sure it would grow worse as you got away with more and more harmful activity.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Remember the Job Description</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We call them student-athletes, but we treat these talented players them like athletes who just happen to take a few classes. If we don't prioritize academics over athletics, or at least make them equal, and give these student-athletes the tools to succeed as normal human beings, seeing as most of them will never go pro, we are inviting horrific events-- rapes, beatings, hazings, cheating, etc. It's not a far stretch. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But even when the horrors are more subtle, like someone plagiarizing a paper, we are simply failing these students by removing their sense of personal responsibility. These students will most likely struggle to be successful once the "golden years" pass if we fail to teach them how to negotiate their time, how to spring back from personal failures outside the sports arena, how to make amends when they have done wrong, and how to empathize with other human beings. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If we shift the culture and move towards holding athletes responsible, what we will ultimately find is not failing sports programs, but programs with student-athletes who are truly role models for others, who inspire people with their actions on and off the field and who know how to succeed beyond the field. We will start to create leaders, people who have persevered through tough mental and physical practice and are able to help others do the same, rather than those who take advantage of "the others' weaknesses." And those would be people I would want to play with.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-9729046021449696682013-10-21T17:39:00.002-04:002013-10-21T17:42:45.929-04:00Langer's Six Strategies of High-Performing TeachersFor last week's writing center professional development, my colleagues and I read George Hillocks' literature review on Middle and High School Composition from Smagorinsky's <em>Research on Composition: Multiple Perspectives on Two Decades of Change. </em>The chapter heavily concentrates on state-wide and national assessment, mostly via standardized tests, giving you an idea of what middle and high school writing education has become- an endless series of exams and rankings. Bleh!<br />
<br />
In this chapter, Hillocks cites Langer's (2001) discussion of<b> six strategies used by high-performing teachers</b>. They are:<br />
<ol>
<li>applying a variety of teaching methods and approaches that "integrate the skills taught with ongoing larger curricular goals"</li>
<li>integrating testing-based skills into the curriculum</li>
<li>pointing out connections </li>
<li>teaching students strategies for organizing thoughts and making tasks more manageable, focusing on the "development of meta-cognitive strategies"</li>
<li>taking a "generative approach" that reiterates and makes connections to already-learned material, even after that unit/lesson/objective is over with</li>
<li>creating social contexts for learning</li>
</ol>
Now, I recognize that these six strategies are all still in some ways shaped around the evaluation of teachers by their ability to get students to pass exams, which seems to be a very backwards way of educating anyone, but I still think the bigger picture, here, is an important one for educators to consider. The impact of high-performing teachers is best summarized in these lines:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: purple;">English learning and high literacy (the content as well as the skills) were treated as social activity, with depth and complexity of understanding and proficiency with conversations growing out of the shared cognition that emerges from interaction with present and imagined others. (Langer, 2001)</span></blockquote>
The teachers who help their students to excel the most are those who recognize that learning and producing knowledge are social activities, built on conversation and interaction. Furthermore, Langer's findings demonstrate that learning and knowledge production are tied to an interdisciplinary approach that emphasizes connections and connect-making.<br />
<br />
The problem is, of course, that most of what is being implemented as a result of current "education reform" steers educators away from the six strategies. We put lessons and units in boxes. We rank students by their individual accomplishments, rarely on collaborative efforts. We encourage them to succeed as individuals, and we encourage competition with peers to prove one's worth. We push for narrowly defined disciplines and sub-disciplines and call for specializations. <br />
<br />
At the same time, we also know that beyond the microcosmic classroom, collaboration is important. Communities need people to come together, as do professions and academic disciplines. None of us can succeed on our own. We need everyone's skills pooled together. Most problem-solving in life requires integrated, interdisciplinary approaches. Communication, the very basis of our society, requires people to share information, negotiate, interact, and make connections. So why on earth aren't we teaching these skills? Why are those who do the "exception" and not the rule? <br />
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I'd argue that we've put far too much on individualism for the sake of individualism rather than pushing people to excel so that they may contribute to the whole, make things work better. That's what we have begun to teach in school- succeed at any cost, make a name for yourself, and leave the "weak" behind.<br />
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<b>But literacy involves everyone!</b> The United States created mass education so that Americans could be a community of knowledgeable individuals capable of making decisions that would benefit the entire community. The more individuals who are stomped down by this race to the top, the fewer people we will have to contribute to our society. This may seem like a good thing for those in power, but with time, it will break down the fibers of the community, leaving even those in power with much less power.<br />
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By returning social interaction and interdisciplinarity to education, high-performing teachers do more than just prepare students to meet standards. They tap back into this American democratic ideal of an educated mass, encouraging students to dive beneath the surface of texts and arguments and have educated conversations with peers, the stepping stones of social participation in the democratic microcosm.<br />
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The problem is that these high-performing teachers are considered extraordinary-- not the norm. So for those of us who teach or mentor pre-service teachers, the questions become:<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;">How can we revise the standards for teaching high school writing in a way that is fruitful for all involved? How do we encourage development of educators who use socially-integrated, interdisciplinary, hybrid methods of teaching to help students achieve success on exams and, more importantly, beyond?</span></blockquote>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438130766662933004.post-63342592198585671352013-08-23T13:50:00.003-04:002013-08-23T13:50:41.714-04:00iSearched & iFound:<h3>
Using the iSearch Model to Improve a Previously Dreadful 5-week Online Comp Course</h3>
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#TeacherFail</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbO4ZUjd4QhdJD4M2Zt6Ye-qN_gjECaOALZ0_wBQ5oVGBSP09ehkneNR5gLl7K_ShlbPPzxY8EFYRWBOcV84xslnmjVXN4UuN7TcRpOCTp-hAdM-E8ou3wOLUZ8AeshlhOO_H9lnWWECta/s1600/failtrain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbO4ZUjd4QhdJD4M2Zt6Ye-qN_gjECaOALZ0_wBQ5oVGBSP09ehkneNR5gLl7K_ShlbPPzxY8EFYRWBOcV84xslnmjVXN4UuN7TcRpOCTp-hAdM-E8ou3wOLUZ8AeshlhOO_H9lnWWECta/s200/failtrain.jpg" width="166" /></a>Last year, I taught my very first online class. I thought I"d be awesome at it, seeing as I'm so connected to social media and constantly using the internet. Gosh, was I wrong! The whole class felt like a trainwreck to me. It was hard to keep students motivated. I realized I was not always as clear as I thought I was being, and I didn't get final projects that demonstrated the kind of in-depth thinking and writing improvement that I was used to seeing in my 15-week face-to-face classes. Changes had to be made.<br />
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The problem with my first summer online course was that I was unwilling to try something I hadn't done before. While I was up for trying new technologies, I was sticking closely to what I had done in my face-to-face classes, simply trying to reshape time frames and assignments. Online is not the same thing as face-to-face, and a 5-week class is not the same thing as a 15-week class.<br />
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#iSearch for a Better Strategy</h4>
This year when I was asked to take on another summer course, I knew I had to approach the task differently. I was ready and excited for the challenge. I always like my classes to be 2 things: <i>fun </i>and <i>challenging</i> (in a positive way). And while the class still needs to be rigorous, I know that I have to be realistic about what students can accomplish. Many of the summer course students were athletes with hectic schedules or international students, travelling between their home countries and the U.S. At the same time, I didn't want to cheapen their learning experience, and I wanted them to see improvement in their ability to compose academic writing.<br />
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Instead of focusing on traditional writing goals, I decided that the most important things I could teach my students were to be more rhetorically aware and better at performing research. So, I went with an iSearch project. iSearch projects ask students to come up with a research question, perform in-depth research and analysis on that topic, and come to conclusions based on their findings, rather than arguing a hypotehsis from the get-go. The final product of an iSearch project is not a typical research paper, but a presentation of the research process (which, yes of course, includes the research too).<br />
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For the purposes of my class, I gave <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8cIlM350HC8c3ZLWWpqMkxMUzg/edit">project instructions</a> and asked students come up with a <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8cIlM350HC8TnJQY0NmcWcwNVU/edit">research </a><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8cIlM350HC8TnJQY0NmcWcwNVU/edit">proposal</a> in week one. Then, encouraged students to comment and give feedback on each others' proposals (with some guidance for proper feedback).<br />
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#TeacherWin</h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_l0JGnl_491OT-YcO0Nqd3PYsCwZ6ecJmJj3W-BlM26IiIZ-7zCRWwqEVtgQTazddhFuhczZrIWRfP-crgyw6HgUat-71oFe4ppzfG6fgJbJU-ZqQX3BjQiTXqVbGo7xGSO8Mg25_NXwA/s1600/NicolesClassHeader.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_l0JGnl_491OT-YcO0Nqd3PYsCwZ6ecJmJj3W-BlM26IiIZ-7zCRWwqEVtgQTazddhFuhczZrIWRfP-crgyw6HgUat-71oFe4ppzfG6fgJbJU-ZqQX3BjQiTXqVbGo7xGSO8Mg25_NXwA/s400/NicolesClassHeader.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Now that my course has come to a close, I am happy to report that the short iSearch-based online course was a success. In unsolicited feedback from students, they commented on enjoying the writing in the course, feeling that they learned a lot, and stating that the teaching was "good," which in my mind means I did ok.<br />
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But where I really see the success is in the final projects. The vast majority of my students went above and beyond in their research, in their presentations (most of them chose <a href="http://prezi.com/">Prezi </a>as their Web 2.0 component), and demonstrated clarity and precision of prose. I enjoyed reading all of their final projects and learned a lot from them, too. It was a fairly painless grading process, as far as grading goes that is.<br />
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The iSearch lent itself to student engagement, which was a problem in the last online class. Students genuinely wanted to know more about the topic, so they would check online every to learn more about it and to hear from others. Plus, the central focus throughout streamlined the experience, and students could focus on research and writing.</div>
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So what worked this time? Here are some things I learned:<br />
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<li><b>Focus on the big goals. </b>The first time around, I was simply aiming to do too much. I needed to really fine-tune a few important concepts/skills rather than try to tackle everything I could teach them. This time I really thought about what my priorities were as an educator. I had to skip sentence-level instruction for the most part. I did make up for it, though, in other ways. I encouraged students to seek grammar help from me or on a grammar hotline GoogleDoc and offered resources for them to check out on their own. </li>
<li><b>Give them (mostly) short, but meaningful writing tasks. </b>Last time, I was simply asking my students to jump into too many genres, and in retrospect, it was mostly for the sake of exploring genres-- which, to be fair, I did think would help with rhetorical awareness development. This time, I assigned only four genres--proposals, progress posts (blog posts about their research and reading responses for each week), comments on classmates' blog posts, and a final iSearch research presentation via Web 2.0. The genres were varied enough to show them that formulaic essays are not the only kind of academic writing, but narrow enough to keep them from being overwhelmed. They were also manageable within the short time frame. By the time they got to the final project, they had enough information to quickly put together a longer draft, rather than jumping into a new essay.</li>
<li><b>Don't ask them to use too many new interfaces.</b> The first time I taught the course, I wanted my students to develop digital literacy and experience all kinds of digital interfaces-- Twitter, WordPress, GoogleDocs, GoogleSites, etc. It was too much. It's hard enough to teach students how to write, let alone how to navigate multiple new interfaces. This time I chose to use WordPress for the course and for each student's class blog. I told them about how to use Twitter for research, but did not make it mandatory. I also made the final presentation a Web 2.0 presentation and gave them a list of technologies that they could test over the five weeks. They would only have to choose one, though, which allowed them to use whatever they were most comfortable with and what best displayed their ideas, rather than having to learn and use everything for class. </li>
<li><b>Assign useful readings. </b>During my face-to-face Composition class, I sometimes assign readings that can be used as models for the genre in which students will be composing. In a five-week online course, there simply isn't enough time to discuss and deconstruct models in ways that are useful to the students. I decided that I would only give "useful" readings, ones that describe genres, writing processes, or conventions or ones that they choose that directly inform their research. My favorite "useful" pieces come from <a href="http://writingspaces.org/">WritingSpaces.org</a>, namely "What is Academic Writing?" by Irvine and "Annoying Ways People Use Sources" by Stedman. Students enjoy the writing style, but also learn a lot about the conventions of research-based and academic writing from these pieces. I provide some guidance for finding sources that contribute to students' research projects, but I don't "assign" anything in particular.</li>
<li><b>Use repetition. </b>Try to keep the same deadline days for every week. It's one step better if you keep most of the weekly requirements the same-- post every week by X day, comment by X day, etc. You can add one or two new things on top of the regularly scheduled work, but anything more than that and students will forget what is due, feel confused, or become overwhelmed.</li>
<li><b>Allow for more depth than breadth. </b>This is the number 1 reason I believe the iSearch project worked for the online course. By focusing on a single question, which they were presumably passionate about answering, students were able to engage with the material and try new genres. In a week or two's time, they would barely have time to scratch the surface writing about new topics. The iSearch kept them focused on synthesizing ideas, analyzing texts, and working on the clarity of their prose and ideas in writing. In this way, they were able to focus on communication rather than content. That is not to say that new ideas weren't introduced through research or that their research questions did not evolve, but that they were able to sustain analysis, instead of starting from scratch multiple times. </li>
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All in all, if I taught this course again, I would keep it nearly the same, though I might introduce the Grammar Hotline earlier. As far as contract grading goes, the iSearch simplified that too. I found that far from being overwhelmed by having to check up on the many small writing assignments I gave last semester, this semester, it was easy to track the progress posts and my students' comments to one another. I knew the criteria for each post was clearly defined and because I narrowed down the genres, it was far more simple for me to establish the parameters of the contract.<br />
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The iSearch was a great method. I saw students learning, interacting, and showing pride in their work. To me, that says #winning.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09743634961727582102noreply@blogger.com0