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A fly on the wall at my own writing consultation. . .

I set up a conference at the University of Minnesota Center for Writing to go over a draft of the learner profile for my academic writing course. It was the first time I had ever made use of such a service. Going in, I was not really sure what my role as the writer was, how much I should guide and direct the session versus how much I should let the consultant tell me what was wrong. That last part is, perhaps, something I should think about when asking students to conference with me: is the only purpose to point out errors? In the end I settled on asking my consultant to read the essay to make sure that the structure felt cohesive, and to make sure I was answering the question. When I first met with the consultant, she greeted me and asked if I would like a run-down of how the writing center worked. She would read through the paper and talk it over with me, but she would not simply make edits or changes to my writing. I explained the assignment, showed her the guidelin...
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Bye Week

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Thoughts on the five paragraph essay

From the moment I learned to write it, I remember seeking to subvert the strictures of the five paragraph essay. I would slip in extra paragraphs, or not list three components in my thesis statement, whatever I could get away with to break free from those five-walled confines. I wonder, sometimes, if my writing is better or worse off from never giving myself time to master what seems to be seen as such a fundamental component of academic writing. My tendency is to lean more towards the former. The five paragraph essay, while useful as a dialogic tool, is a flawed pedagogical tool when used beyond the early scaffolding of nascent writers as it stifles creative output, limits linguistic experimentation, and does not prepare students adequately for the more complex writing required later in life. First, the limiting form both of the essay itself and the construction of the argument limits the degree of creative input available to the writer. Not only must the argument consist of three ea...
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Mentor texts. . .

The whole addition of the Blog of the Week (said, of course, in Abby’s voice from now unto eternity), had made this experience feel much more high-stakes. Why not just intentionally underperform so that when mine is inevitably not selected I can say, “Oh, I wasn’t even trying anyway,” and bypass the shame of never being chosen as an exemplar. In reality the stakes are the same, as low as ever, and the blogs remain simply a place for reflection and perhaps brief conversation. However, these thoughts have led me to wonder what the impact this sort of selection of exemplary work for sharing with the class has on students. There is, of course, the excitement and pride of having your work selected, but what about those whose writing is never held up, even anonymously? No one else may notice, but those students will. Does this encourage them to strive harder, or simply leave them in the place I arrived of why even bother? It depends on the student of course, but the factors leading to that...
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The Writer's Workshop

I want to start by saying that I really like the idea of a course based around the writer’s workshop. The last general English course that I took was in 9th grade, as my high school options were more focused on either literature or writing. However, even in the writing classes, none of them were as focused or writing intense as the writer’s workshop framework advocates. They also tended to be more teacher focused, with assigned topics, formats, and timetables. It is hard for me to imagine, as a teacher, how the writer’s workshop would function, as I never experienced it as a student. Yet, it intrigues me nonetheless. When it comes to the application of this model of teaching writing, and English language arts in general, I do wonder at the feasibility in the more generalized high school ELA classroom. Most of the examples discussed by Nancie Attwell and others focus on elementary and middle school levels, when writing is first being introduced. Continuing this model with high schoo...
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The phrase Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, to me, sounds a lot like cultural relevance in the context of intercultural communication - speaking to and engaging with peoples within their own context. Or, in the case of teaching, selecting materials and presenting them with an awareness of how other cultural groups will receive them. I can see how people could interpret it as, “Oh! I should bring in rap for my Black students, because they like rap,” without giving it any further thought. We have been conditioned to see the word cultural relevance and automatically assume a non-critical must-accept-everything stance, when in reality all cultures have their good and bad aspects. An awareness of this should not mean we accept them with a grimace, but use the same tools we employ to shine a light on the problematic structures of the hegemonic culture to reflect on all aspects of society. However, a fine line must be followed here to not let biases and prejudice lead us to simply reify existi...
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Anti-oppressive Pedagogy

“The value of lessons about the Other comes not in the truth it gives us about the Other, but in the pedagogical and political uses to which the resulting (disruptive) knowledge can be put.” —Kumashiro, 2002 I found this line to be a very succinct crystallization of where my teaching philosophy is heading. The content covered in any given moment of school is always secondary to the new avenues of thought opened up to students and to the new vehicles they develop to explore those avenues. Kumashiro (2002) brings up the valid point that in a finite world, there is no way to achieve anything even approaching total knowledge, but one can develop a desire to know more. In the chapter, this is linked with the idea of empathy, and this is cited as a shortcoming of educating about the Other. Teaching for empathy, Kumashiro (2002) suggests, is a necessary but not sufficient mode of engaging in anti-oppressive pedagogy. I feel like something that underpins much of Kumashiro’s writing is an ass...
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