Paint me a picture...

Wow!  A lot can happen in a week!  While I’ve caught up on most of the blogs from last week (comments forthcoming in the next few days…) and completed the readings for this week, I’m still trying to process how to visualize all this material.  (Being a visual learner is not always convenient!)  I’m trying to think outside the box, but I still struggle with the thought that these pieces (pedagogies) need to somehow fit neatly into some sort of visual presentation.  Is it linear, or more of a box?  Fourth grade, after all, is all about the graphic organizer!  One thing I know for sure is the more I read, the more strongly I feel about the importance of the process pedagogy and what it has to offer students.  

 I am rapidly becoming a fan of Peter Elbow and his teachings, and I particularly appreciated his willingness to defend his position in his review of Harris’ Expressive Discourse while allowing for the possibility that some of her ideas make sense.  I’m drawn to his emphasis on voice, because I feel that so often we, as teachers, squelch students’ voices, even though it may be unintentional.  Just working our way through the required curriculum is enough to deaden student motivation and kill creativity.  But reading pieces that highlight the importance of voice, such as Elbow’s commentary that voice empowers individuals to act in the world (Tate 23), helps me to regain my momentum to move forward with whatever it takes to help students find theirs. 

From an evaluation standpoint, the Pennsylvania rubric used to score students’ writing allows four possible points for style, which includes voice, out of twenty possible points on the entire rubric.  So theoretically, a student could have no “style” whatsoever, and still receive an 80% if he scores four points in all other categories, including focus, content, organization, and conventions.  But without style (voice), would the piece be worth reading?  This doesn’t seem to say much for the current-traditional pedagogy from which we’ve slowly been shifting for the past thirty years.  But this all boils down to the writer’s purpose and audience, which seems to be bone of contention among the scholars we’ve been reading. I guess if there were only one correct answer, a “one size fits all” for teaching writing, we wouldn’t need to keep researching.  Keeping an open mind seems to be the key…

Now that I’ve put my thoughts into words, I’m envisioning more of a tree than a line or a box.  Thoughts?   

Copy/Paste

I always thought that plagiarism was a pretty cut and dry concept; copying someone else's words or ideas without giving them credit.  However, Lynn's sections on plagiarism and imitation have muddied the waters a bit.  For example, when he talks about how people have ideas about a topic when writing, but the ideas are based upon what Aristotle would call a "common topic," what we would refer to as common knowledge.  The person's writing may be based upon what is commonly known, but that doesn't make it his original idea.  So whether one is writing on a topic which requires research, and therefore citations ("special topic"), or about a common topic, many of the ideas are already out there to use. 

I recently read a piece where the author offered that it may be useful for writers to find an author they find interesting or whose style they like, and use it as a model.  (It was either Elbow's Writing Without Teachers or Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones - my husband make me "organize" my mess, and now I can't find anything!  I'll dig it out by the next class so I can get more specific...)  So is it plagiarizing to copy someone's style?   

Earlier today, I heard a mother telling a story where her son failed a paper because his writing style had changed since the beginning of the school year.  She had a teaching background, and was furious that the teacher had questioned her son, "Are these your words or your mothers?"  The mother and father wrote a letter to the teacher explaining how they had worked with him to improve his phrasing, encouraged him to use a thesaurus to expand the paper's vocabulary, etc., to which the teacher responded to the son, "I still don't believe you..."  So whether parents have a teaching background or not, is it plagiarizing to have them help with a writing assignment's content or wording?  Is the student "stealing" ideas from his parents?  Stories like this make me stop and think what our goal is as teachers (and parents).  Obviously, we don't want parents completing students' writing assignments for them.  But don't we want parents to work with their children and encourage academic progress, whether it be in writing or another subject?  Again, muddy water...

Still working on the Miller readings...  sorry I'll miss this week's class discussion, but hopefully I can pick up on your thoughts when I read your blogs...  Have a great week! 

O Brave New World...

I really enjoyed following Lad Tobin's journey in Tate's Guide to Composition Pedagogies as he moved from the traditional way that he was taught to write, through the shift to process pedagogy, and eventually his exposure to a post-process school of thought  (Tate).  The way he described his trek through that period and the changes that took place through each step, I really felt drawn in to what he was experiencing.  In reflecting on his narrative, I'm impressed that he recognized the benefits written about by the "expressivists" regarding the process pedagogy, but was also able to recognize that not every part of the traditional pedagogy was detrimental to writers.  I'm was also impressed by the fact that he defended his position at the regional conference when asked to participate in the development of a post-process course.  I think the main lesson that I take from this reading is that teachers of writing must keep an open mind about what works not only for them, but what will work for their students, as well.  I love the "expressivist" school of thought, and look forward to reading some of the books and articles referenced by Tobin.  However, while it would be easy for me to completely immersed in this pedagogy, I recognize that I can keep the foundation of process pedagogy as my main source for teaching writing while exploring other ideas that may supplement it. I believe that when teachers become closed-minded about their methods of teaching that the system starts to collapse, as many of our reading would support regarding the paradigm shift to process pedagogy.  They say that variety is the spice of life, so what better way to motivate students, and ourselves, than to "mix things up" and come up with recipes that really help students become better writers.  More later...  

Mom, are we there yet?

I don’t really remember learning how to write.  I know it was a long time ago, and that I didn’t really put the skill to much use other than what my academic pursuits demanded.  Then I started teaching fourth grade, and I was expected to teach nine-year-olds how to write, among numerous other elementary school subjects.  Since I didn’t really remember how or when I learned, in my mind it kind of just happened… I had no choice but to simply follow my district’s (and fellow teachers’) examples.  Fair enough – the five-paragraph essay and linear writing process it is!  And so it’s been for the past ten years.   Except now I’ve completed the Capital Area Writing Project, and I’m continuing my pursuit of earning a Writing Specialist Certification.  My attitude about writing has completely changed, and suddenly, the five-paragraph essay using the 4-square model and linear writing process aren’t enough.  Not even close!  Now granted, I believe, for the second semester in a row, that I am the only elementary teacher in the class, so my perspective on things may vary somewhat from those of you who teach middle or high school, college, or aren’t involved in teaching at all.  My focus, at least for now, is how to help my nine-year-old students put aside their fear and hatred of writing (surprising that many of them have such a strong negative reaction at such an early age), and develop a love of writing that will actually serve them both academically and personally.  A daunting task, but I believe an important one. 

For this reason, Hairston’s “The Winds of Change” article captured (and kept) my attention from the minute I picked it up.  I really became engrossed in her ideas about a shifting paradigm in teaching writing, and moving toward process-centered instruction.  Her explanation what the paradigm shift involves, how it begins, opposition, etc., really helped me to understand what is occurring.  I finished the article with a true feeling of hope that we’re heading in the right direction, and that in no time at all, we (writing teachers) would arrive at this wonderful place that held the answers to our questions about how to effectively teach students how to write.  Then I looked at the article’s publication date… 1982!  Are you kidding me!  This paradigm shift has been in the works for almost thirty years and we’re not there yet?  I get that change is often slow, but three decades?  I was floored, not to mention immensely disappointed.  (A glass of pinot noir helped me through it, but still!) 

Next I moved on to Lynn’s, Rhetoric and Compostion: An Introduction.  In addition to appreciating his definitions of composition and rhetoric, I enjoyed his reference to an “uninformed” approach to teaching writing as, “Curricular administrators, school boards, and teachers, … continue to do many of the very things that decades of research and the consensus of experts have declared to be ineffective and sometimes even possibly injurious.”  Again referencing the paradigm shift addressed by both Hairston and Lynn, three decades in the making and we still don’t get it? 

Now, I tend to have an idealistic view of the world, even though I’ve learned repeatedly that this is not reality.  But the Hairston and Lynn readings were just the jump start I needed to get my butt into gear and start planning to teach differently.  (Of course the CAWP was the original jump start, but I tend to procrastinate!  By the way, is it really 8:00 p.m. already?)  Just the idea that the writing process is, “messy, recursive, convoluted, and uneven” (Hairston, 85) is a new way of thinking for me and opens so many possibilities for teaching students!  I can’t wait to dig out my “Steps of the Writing Process” poster cut it into sections that I can display in a “non-linear” fashion.  I still have a few more months before I get back to the classroom, and I hope to use that time wisely to really make some positive changes to my writing instruction, and hopefully share ideas with my district to make changes at various levels. 

As for North’s article, the main thing I took away was the idea of community, and how I could apply this to my peer editing lessons at school.   I work hard in my class to help the students develop a strong sense of community amongst themselves, and when successful, it really carries over into tasks such as peer editing, problem solving, etc.  I will continue to help the students develop these skills, not only to aide in writing and other academic endeavors, but also to become productive members of society. 

So in answer to the original question, “Mom, are we there yet?”  The answer is, “No.”  But the more important answer, as increasing numbers of teachers and students become aware of the paradigm shift and the surrounding issues of rhetoric and composition, is, “But we’re getting there…”