After reading through the E110 Goals and Practices, the majority appeared to be what we as educators consider “best practices.” However, any teacher of writer would acknowledge that most academic writing is more complex than it sounds. The majority of the goals were clearly stated, thus, I will not mention them to save time; however, several could use more clarification or could be a bit difficult with my students.
In terms of goals, to “research the various perspectives on a question or topic and contribute to the scholarly conversation about it” could present a challenge to my students. As I read this statement, I automatically made a connection to the move of countering as detailed in Rewriting, since it is not enough to select one side of a debate; instead, the writer must look through a lens beyond the debate to uncover another perspective. Really, the challenge begins in instilling the significance of “various perspectives” in their research as they often fall into vacuum of what only fits into their thesis. In turn, they must use these perspectives to push beyond the debate in order to join the scholarly conversation. Unfortunately, too often is the case that choosing and defending a side is as far as students are pushed.
As for practices, “Write frequently, write for different audiences, and write pieces of varying length and complexity” seemed quite open-ended. For instance, it seems the generic high school English course is built around argumentative and informative writing thanks largely in part to the Common Core Standards, so in order to bridge the course, I want to make sure analysis and argument are included, and ideally, narrative writing could fit as a starting piece if it is not deemed too simplistic for such a course. In terms of planning, it seems imperative to begin with the writing pieces first; therefore, the expectation for type and amount will be helpful.
Next, for “Participate as a member of a community of writers,” I not only understand it, but I want to see it further. Although this practice seems more related to the process of group-workshop in class with collaboration and constructive criticism of peer writing, how much should occur online? Also, in our ENG 668, everyone is expected to read and respond to one another since we have three students and one instructor, but what is the expectation when there is a class of twenty-plus? In addition, since this is a college-level writing class, I would like to hold outside-of-class writing conferences as well since I can still remember the impact time spent conferencing during a professor’s “office hours” had on my own writing. However, what are the limits to this? Can I require each student to meet with me out of class a specified amount of time? Is it up to my individual school? What do you suggest?
Finally, “Reflect on your aims and strategies as a writer” seemed the most vague in terms of the expectation. However, after reading Rewriting, I envisioned this to be a meta-cognitive piece similar to when Harris expands upon “Coming to Terms” in “Projects” when the writer goes back through their own writing to see if they can write a paragraph or two in which they describe how the essay as it stands (Rewriting 32-33). Adding this new layer to the writing process will certainly challenge my students, especially since they will be forced to define their own project, which very few take the time to do or even consider. If there is more they need to do in terms of reflection, I would be open to additional ideas to consistently implement this reflective piece. My students already keep traditional portfolios; however, I believe more consistent reflection on past pieces could be helpful.
Though the majority of the document makes complete sense, feedback on these few questions will be extremely helpful as I continue to plan and lay out the course.
E688: Seminar in Teaching Composition 