R4: Final Advice for the Bewildered

R4: Final Advice for the Bewildered

When I first realized that I would be submitting the first draft of my course materials before I had read the last four chapters of First Year Composition, I was a bit apprehensive that when I read those chapters I would run across ideas that would significantly change the direction of my course components. In light of all that we have been reading about the importance of being flexible with our ideas and our drafts and the need for major revisions, it would have been quite appropriate if that had happened. Given the time constraints of fitting in this course with other plans I had this summer (as well as a desperate need for some downtime to decompress from this past school year and to prepare for the upcoming one) I am relieved that I don’t feel a need to substantially revamp my course. Instead, I found several of the comments made by these authors to be helpful, and I can use some of them to enhance the plans for my course.
One of the gems that I was able to mine from these last four articles was the list of stated goals for the course shared by Howard Tinberg. His list could certainly serve as the core for a list of my own that I would like to share with my students. I am also thrilled that Tinberg described his assignment for the This I Believe program. I was feeling guilty that my original course plan did not include an assignment that would reach a broader audience. I am also embarrassed to admit that one of my former department members had raved about the This I Believe project that he had done with his sophomore students, but I had never taken the time to look into the specifics of the submission process. I had also never listened to any of the audio essays on the site and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them. I am also glad that the actual written essays are available on the site as well. I have found several that I hope to use as models. I will also assign the students to choose essays to listen and respond to. There is something quite magical about hearing the writers’ voices sharing their experiences. I hope that my students will be inspired by the essays that they listen to and read. I also hope that they will be excited about sharing their work with such a broad audience. I also borrowed some of the wording from Tinberg’s course description to revise the About section for my course. Hopefully those revisions will make the focus of the course clearer.
In the chapter written by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs, I was reminded of the appropriate use of both student and professional models. I agree that models can effectively be used to discuss possible revision strategies. Using models that are not written by members of the class can take away some of the initial anxiety about making suggestions for revisions. As Downs points out, I also believe that they can be used to discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of the pieces. I also liked Downs’s use of the term reader response instead of peer review. I agree that the term reader response adds another dimension to the value of peer sharing. It emphasizes that the reader will gain additional insight into how to improve his or her drafts and deemphasizes the perception that the reader is trying to catch errors or make a value judgment about the work.
Kathleen Blake Yancey provided another item that I can integrate into my own course. The eight habits of mind that she lists as essential for success in college writing can be used as points for students to consider as they write their final portfolio letter to me. They can reflect on and discuss how they have demonstrated these habits of mind throughout the course.
Some of the other ideas that I gleaned from these chapters validated my own basic beliefs and practices. For example, I agree with Victor Villanueva’s practice of assigning the most important assignment next to last in the schedule of assignments. Students are very stressed at the end of a semester and they would probably not give sufficient time and attention to a lengthy work too close to their exam schedule. That is one of the reasons that I did not schedule the integrated profile essay too close to the end of the course. I was also glad to read Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs’s discussion of the importance of scaffolding. That is one concept upon which I have always tried to base my teaching practices and assignments. I hope that my final course materials will reflect a definite scaffolding of skills and strategies.