This post was so long I decided I should publish it in 3 parts. So this part presents the introduction to the course. 1.23 Part Two discusses the presentations on the readings. And 1.23 Part Three is a discussion of how we are going to work on the data base. Links to Part Two and Part Three are also in the Blog Archive (on the right) and the text of these posts can be accessed through scrolling down.
Introduction:
I started class with a rambling introduction about how I got interested in teaching a class like this, and why such a class might be important. My experiences as reflective teacher-researcher set me up to wonder what it was that writing courses didn't teach - and to think about how teachers could help students with what surrounded the page (rather than with what appeared on it). Though they may have gotten lost in my storytelling, the points were the following.
1. New literacies approaches to language made clear that language (and therefore writing) is not only about saying, but also about doing and being. As illustrated by our lists of what we were taught and what we learned (mostly on our own) about writing, writing courses primarily focus on saying without providing students much support in dealing with issues surrounding doing and being.
2. My work with the student writer for my book project illustrated that when students use methods from discourse analysis and narrative studies to examine the stories they tell about who they are as a writer = they make important discoveries about their relationship to writing that they could not discover simply through telling those stories. In other words, the analysis of the language forms in their stories allowed them to discover parts of what they do and who they are => parts that were not obvious from the stories themselves.
3. Research in discourse studies, narrative analysis, and social constructivist approaches in psychoanalysis provide powerful tools for examining our stories about writing, and these tools may be a good place to start our search for how to support students in discovering the "ways of doing and being" that they need to grapple with as they become writers.
What we were taught vs what we needed to know about writing.
As a way to check with our own experiences with writing. we did a class exercise where we created a list of what we learned about writing "in school" or through teaching. The list we came up with looked like this.
Introduction:
I started class with a rambling introduction about how I got interested in teaching a class like this, and why such a class might be important. My experiences as reflective teacher-researcher set me up to wonder what it was that writing courses didn't teach - and to think about how teachers could help students with what surrounded the page (rather than with what appeared on it). Though they may have gotten lost in my storytelling, the points were the following.
1. New literacies approaches to language made clear that language (and therefore writing) is not only about saying, but also about doing and being. As illustrated by our lists of what we were taught and what we learned (mostly on our own) about writing, writing courses primarily focus on saying without providing students much support in dealing with issues surrounding doing and being.
2. My work with the student writer for my book project illustrated that when students use methods from discourse analysis and narrative studies to examine the stories they tell about who they are as a writer = they make important discoveries about their relationship to writing that they could not discover simply through telling those stories. In other words, the analysis of the language forms in their stories allowed them to discover parts of what they do and who they are => parts that were not obvious from the stories themselves.
3. Research in discourse studies, narrative analysis, and social constructivist approaches in psychoanalysis provide powerful tools for examining our stories about writing, and these tools may be a good place to start our search for how to support students in discovering the "ways of doing and being" that they need to grapple with as they become writers.
What we were taught vs what we needed to know about writing.
As a way to check with our own experiences with writing. we did a class exercise where we created a list of what we learned about writing "in school" or through teaching. The list we came up with looked like this.
What we were taught about writing
Parts of speechGrammarSentence structureHow to use quotesDocumentationForms (five paragraph essays = genre)Global indications about whether YOUR writing is good or bad (as in grades on essays written on assigned topics)
Drafting is a necessary part of writing processWeb diagrams (clustering)Can’t start a sentence with and or but
Brainstorming is important (learned this as a teacher)
Leave the grammar until later in the writing process
Finding a voice is important (learned during thesis work)
Writing can be cathartic
There are effective ways to talk about writing (learned during work at writing center)
Writing can be collaborative
What plagiarism is
If we look at what we, as a class, were taught about writing, most of it focuses on features of writing on the page, or how to support an effective writing process. Nearly everything on this list falls into one of those two categories. In other words, most of what is taught in writing courses is about writing as "saying," with less instruction in writing as "doing" and "being".
We then made a second list. This list focused on what we learned about writing that was "really important".
Parts of speechGrammarSentence structureHow to use quotesDocumentationForms (five paragraph essays = genre)Global indications about whether YOUR writing is good or bad (as in grades on essays written on assigned topics)
Drafting is a necessary part of writing processWeb diagrams (clustering)Can’t start a sentence with and or but
Brainstorming is important (learned this as a teacher)
Leave the grammar until later in the writing process
Finding a voice is important (learned during thesis work)
Writing can be cathartic
There are effective ways to talk about writing (learned during work at writing center)
Writing can be collaborative
What plagiarism is
If we look at what we, as a class, were taught about writing, most of it focuses on features of writing on the page, or how to support an effective writing process. Nearly everything on this list falls into one of those two categories. In other words, most of what is taught in writing courses is about writing as "saying," with less instruction in writing as "doing" and "being".
We then made a second list. This list focused on what we learned about writing that was "really important".
What were the really important things you learned about writing?
How to own my writing + know my audience + how to meet it
How to write what is expected (in terms of forms) for professional communication
Writing is hard = I don't have to be disappointed or feel like a failure when it does not come easily
Writing is an intimate transaction ( it is important to the writer= feels like the self on the page)
Some writing is only for the self
Writing can tell you things about yourself that you may not know (it is evidence of a past self and you can learn about who you are from examining both what it says, and the forms it uses)
Collaborative/interactive writing is an important place where meanings are created “out there" = rather than in the writer or by the reader alone
Correctness in writing is subjective
Many important insights about writing come through teaching; teaching causes us to reflect and then to put those reflections into language=> putting what we know into language makes deeper knowingthe first draft is not the last draft
Being a compassionate reader of your work helps you to be a better writer (Elbow's believing game)=> don’t close down your ideas before you discover them
The unconscious is part of the writing process = it is a powerful resource
Writing takes timeWriting is powerWriting can be your career
This list contains many "lessons" about writing that are not taught or supported in writing classes. Most pedagogies do not provide explicit instruction in how to access and analyze "felt" (unconscious) knowledge, how to feel comfortable with criticism within the intimate transaction that is writing, how to be patient (set realistic expectations) with a writer self who may not be performing at the level demanded by the task at hand, or how to feel better or just differently about your relationship to writing.
Based on our talk, much of the "important" learning about writing came through experiences writing (not taught), or was discovered in writing relationships outside the classroom. And for some of these issues, we are still looking for ways to learn what we feel we need to know: how to be patient with ourselves when the writing is hard, how to receive feedback without resistance, how to let ourselves produce "bad" writing. Composition researchers are well aware that these are "problems" for writing, and pedagogies suggested by Elbow, Perl, Yancey and others do address these issues. One objective of this course is to see if some of the methods from new literacies studies of language, from narrative analysis, and from social constructivist perspectives in psychoanalysis can provide deeper insight along with some concrete "moves" for writers (and writing teachers) to turn to.
Part Two of this post addresses how we will review what other composition researchers have come up with in terms of taking a language as saying, doing and being approach to writing. your specific assignments and the due dates are posted there.
Part Three addresses how we will work on creating a data base for our research. How to own my writing + know my audience + how to meet it
How to write what is expected (in terms of forms) for professional communication
Writing is hard = I don't have to be disappointed or feel like a failure when it does not come easily
Writing is an intimate transaction ( it is important to the writer= feels like the self on the page)
Some writing is only for the self
Writing can tell you things about yourself that you may not know (it is evidence of a past self and you can learn about who you are from examining both what it says, and the forms it uses)
Collaborative/interactive writing is an important place where meanings are created “out there" = rather than in the writer or by the reader alone
Correctness in writing is subjective
Many important insights about writing come through teaching; teaching causes us to reflect and then to put those reflections into language=> putting what we know into language makes deeper knowingthe first draft is not the last draft
Being a compassionate reader of your work helps you to be a better writer (Elbow's believing game)=> don’t close down your ideas before you discover them
The unconscious is part of the writing process = it is a powerful resource
Writing takes timeWriting is powerWriting can be your career
This list contains many "lessons" about writing that are not taught or supported in writing classes. Most pedagogies do not provide explicit instruction in how to access and analyze "felt" (unconscious) knowledge, how to feel comfortable with criticism within the intimate transaction that is writing, how to be patient (set realistic expectations) with a writer self who may not be performing at the level demanded by the task at hand, or how to feel better or just differently about your relationship to writing.
Based on our talk, much of the "important" learning about writing came through experiences writing (not taught), or was discovered in writing relationships outside the classroom. And for some of these issues, we are still looking for ways to learn what we feel we need to know: how to be patient with ourselves when the writing is hard, how to receive feedback without resistance, how to let ourselves produce "bad" writing. Composition researchers are well aware that these are "problems" for writing, and pedagogies suggested by Elbow, Perl, Yancey and others do address these issues. One objective of this course is to see if some of the methods from new literacies studies of language, from narrative analysis, and from social constructivist perspectives in psychoanalysis can provide deeper insight along with some concrete "moves" for writers (and writing teachers) to turn to.
Part Two of this post addresses how we will review what other composition researchers have come up with in terms of taking a language as saying, doing and being approach to writing. your specific assignments and the due dates are posted there.
This blog ended up being VERY long. If there is anything else I said I would write about that I forgot - please send me an email and I will update. Thanks for the good class and see you next Wednesday.
For next class:
Read: the text you will be presenting on;
Skim: Gee's introduction (sent as email); Language building tasks (handout from class); Perl, Yancey (in writing center, available electronically through Kean Library or Project Muse)
Blog 1: Reflections on what you do as a writer, what is most valuable to you, and what you have been "taught"; and what you haven't.
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