1.29 Gee, Perl, Yancey & What we will do for next class

During the second part of class we discussed 3 pedagogical approaches to teaching writing that address some of the issues on the "what's really important" list.


Gee's new literacies/language as saying/doing/being approach. 
I discussed Gee's "Literacy, Dicourse, and Linguistics: Introduction" as a way to provide us with some of the ideas or "tools" that are central to thinking about writing as something more that grammar, proper word choice, well formed sentences, and appropriate genre choices (see the first post for this course for an introduction to "new literacies").

I started by defining some of the terms Gee uses in his discussion (quotes are):
discourse: language in use=> the ways we use language
Literacy "denotes fluency in a given practice" associated with reading, writing, or some related system for making meaning through the intrepretation of symbols (as being able to "read" social relationships in online communities, or the "digital information literacies" associated with being able to use search engines and access information in data bases); "literacies (plural)' refers to the ability to use and participte in "digital, electronic, musical, visual, oral, mathematical, and gaming litereacies, among many others ( from the glossary of Downs and Wardle's WAW text book).
practices:  "socially recognized and institutionally or culturally supported endavor that usually involves sequencing or combining actions in certain specificed ways.  Encouraging a student is an action, mentoring the student as his or her advisor in a graduate program is a practice" (from the glossary in Gee's An Introduction to Discourse Analysis.)  Writing practices are usually associated with particular writing communities (classes, online forums, professions, etc) and often are used in specific parts of the writing process.  For example, freewriting, clustering, listing, and detailed listing are all writing practices associated with invention (finding and organizing ideas) in composition classes.
discourse analysis = methods for breaking language into its parts, examining the relationships among those parts and seeing how the system (language) works.
The 'parts' include not only grammar, vocabulary, and grammatical relationships that contribute to making meanings, but also the assumptions, values, and beliefs, and the social, interactive relationships that surround and create (and are created by) the meanings we attribute to lanuage in use.
Discourse: ways of saying(writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing that taken together create and identity or way of being in the world; "they are forms of life wihich integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes.  Small "d" discourse is one part of Discourse.  (p 484 in the essay we discussed).  We each participate in many Discourses. 
Discourse community: a group of people who share a particular Discourse. Writing teachers, bird watchers, and so on are/can be Discourse communities.   This term is defined in both broad ways where regional & ethnic groups, or groups associated by age cohort and gender can be thought of as Discourse communites where members share certain "ways of being,", and in more strict ways that specify more homogenious, more specific language features (see Swales, "The Concept of a Discourse Community").

Primary Discourse (and primary Discourse communities) = the discourse where, as a child, we first (unconsciously) take in "the way the world works".  This primary Discourse is largely unexamined, and is both the produce of (past) experience, and our basis for interpreting experience.  It constitutes our foundational patterns for "seeing" the world.

Secondary Discourses: "After our initial socializtion in our home community, each of us inteacts with various non-home-based social institutions (and groups) . . . Each of these social institutiosn comands and demands one or more Discourses and we acquire these fluently to the extent that we are given access to these institutions and are allowed apprenticeships within them (paragraph 10 in the reading).

After the definitions we had a discussion of Gee's "Theorems" - his  logical extrapolations about how language learning works - particularly with respect to how and whether, once we are past a certain age=> we can become fluent in Discourses that are widely different from our home Discourses/primary Discourse.

1. Discourses (and therefore literacies) are not like languages in one very imporatnt regard.  Someone can speak English, but not fluently (and still be understood). Hoever, someone cannot engage in a Discourse in a less that fully fluent manner.  You are either in or you're not.  (par 18)

The sorry conclusion of this discussion was that once you are past a certain age you can not acquire new Discourses sufficiently to pass for an insider.

Discourses are used as "gate4s" to ensure that the "right" people get to the "right palces in our society. . . ."  (par 25).

2. Primary Discourses, no matter whose they are, can never be fully liberating lieracies. Fora literacy to be liberating it must contain both the Discourse it is going to critique and a set of meta-elements (language, words, attitudes, values) in terms of which an analysis and criticism can be carried out (a meta-language or language that is outside of the language to be critiqued). par 21.

This line of discussion leads into the 3 ways for being 'successful students' and for 'successful social change'  =>"mushfake, resistance, and metaknowledge. 

For our course, we are taking primarily the metaknowledge approach.

This is a much shortened re-cap, and assumes that you will draw from your notes/memories of what we talked about.  We did not go over the example that makes up the last part of the article.  This example illustrates (quite powerfully) Gee's point that reading and writing are NEVER taught outside of the Discourses that the learners bring to the classroom.  In his example, unconscious understandings of what "stories" are shape the form of the talk and the ideiolgical message in the child's presentation of what happened at her birthday party.

Good learning from video games=> this is a learning through doing pedagogy where learners take part in learning communities in ways that instill the values, beliefs, and practices of the community.  As an approach to teaching mainstream (dominant) discourses = it can be adapted as a model for supporting nonmainstream writers to gain using mainstream patterns.  Although "motivation" is built into the structure of "games" => as Mary pointed out, motivation may be an issue when the game is "learning to write."

Building tasks handout: this is Gee's list of what language does + the kinds of questions we might ask of the structures that do those tasks.  We will use these questions (and other related questions) to "interrogate" (ask questions of) the language data we collect.  This kind of questioning can help us "unpack" the "identities" (assumptions, values, beliefs etc) embedded in the language forms each of us use.

I think those are the high points.

Perl - Heidi (thank you=> great job).
Heidi engaged us in a conversation to define "felt sense" => the bodily feeling of "knowing" what we had to say, whether we "knew" what we were talking about, whether we going it "right", and so on.

She then walked you through a modified (shortened) version of one of Perl's sets of writing prompts to "train" students to use felt sense as a part of their writing process. The prompts engage writers in both writing and watching themselves write, and direct their attention to how they are "feeling" as a way to help them know how they are doing with their writing.

You reported various responses to the process (not surprising), and yes, it is similar to yoga, and there does seem to be a balancing act between getting into your head and being interrupted by the prompts; it does slow and deepen the process - and class discussion also suggested that it shifts the writer's expectations (not so product driven?)

When we went back and looked at the "what we really want to learn that writing classes don't teach list" Perl's approach addresses some issues but not others.

Addresses
helping writer own his/her writing
acknowledging that some writing is for the self
being a compassionate reader of our own writing (maybe = we didn't discuss this, but maybe)
the unconscious is part of the writing process

This last point is perhaps the strongest contribution of "felt sense" in that it not only creates an awareness of that the unconscious plays a role => it helps writers learn to use and connect to unconscious processes.  From my perspective, this is very important.

Does not really address
how to handle the struggle of writing and face the rejection of certain audiences
the socially constructed nature of language, understanding and writing process (is primarily directed to the writer's "internal" self = as if that self exist outside the language/social structures of culture)
does not (really) empower the writer to change/critique what feels "bad" about writing (or provide the writer with tools for critically examining those things)

Anything to add?

Yancey=> reflective pedagoy
As usual, I scheduled a little more than was possible to cover, so we did not get the whole way through Yancey.

Heather, Nikki, and Mary did an awesome job.

Definitions:
Reflection is both the processes through which we know and articulate what we have done, and the products of those processes.

In terms of writing pedagogies, it will include goal setting, visitng what you have done, revising, rethinking (retrospection) and saying what you have learned.

Types of reflection discussed by Yancy
Reflection in action: focuses on a single composing event, usually a single text that is in process.  It may be public or private and the purpose is to make sense of the process used to produce that piece of writing.
Examples= writer's memos, talking to, & talking back writing.

Constructive reflection: includes several composing events, is often private, looks for patterns in writing process, and the purpos is to see the self as a writerr.
Example= goal building, setting a learning agenda for what the writer is learning

Reflection-in-presentation: public, linked to assessment, and the purpose is to reflect on (evaluate/assess) your own writing for someone else.
Examples= portfolio letters.

Reasons why you might want to use reflection (class generated list):

• to create constructive/instructive comments regarding a piece of writing
• to check for accuracy
• to set preferences/goals
• to check communication
• to increase writerly authority

At this point, Mary invited us to take part in some reflective writing.  W

For next week:
I will check in with your writing on your blogs and be in touch with some feedback. If you have not yet sent me your blog url, please do so.

We will begin class by talking through the reflective exercise (thank you, Mary, Heather, & Nikki).

Then we will discuss:

James Pennebaker (Andre, Wayne & Robyn) excerpts from Opening Up. Pay particular attention to his descriptions of the original "experiments," p. 29-37, and Chapter 7, "Understanding the Value of Writing" (reprints handed out in class).   My copy of Opening Up will also be in the writing center. For a brief overview see "Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process," as short summary of some of the work from his book.

Louise DeSalvo (Lewis)  Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Stories Transforms Our Lives. Available through Amazon for pretty cheap. Lewis currently has the only copy. For those of you scanning the book focus on chapters 5 & 6, practices for drawing on "felt" perspectives.

 

Marian MacCurdy (Luis + Maria) The class will focus on her essay, "From Trauma to Writing", (which I have copied and I handed out in class), pp. 158-200, in Writing and Healing: Toward an Informed Practice.

Assignments:
Attend your oral history interview, if you are scheduled.

Write:  Complete the writing prompt provided by Mary.
Work on your contributions to the data base (see previous blog).

Blog 2: Do some writing to explore what you might be interested for your research project.
Read: Pennebaker handouts, MacCurdy handouts, DeSalvo Chapters 5 & 6.  Contact Lewis to copy chapters + make them available at the Writing Center?

So great class and see you next week.