1.
How would you as an instructor create an
environment that welcomes students to take risks with their writing? Is it even
possible to assist students in overcoming the anxieties of grade assumption to
the point that they are willing to play with grammar B or take on other foreign
approaches with their writing?
2.
Sommers states, “In
the course of my work the revision process was redefined as a sequence of changes in a composition--changes
which are initiated by cues and
occur continually throughout the writing of a work” (77). What are these cues?
Would you assume these cues vary between the student writers and the
experienced adult writers, if so why?
Hi Sidney!
ReplyDeleteI am going to try and tackle your first question, or at least get the ball rolling. I think this is a great question to ask as we begin to think about incorporating grammar instruction and revision workshops into the classroom. I would want my students first to feel comfortable with the academic genres which they will be expected to use, but within these genres, I'd also like for them to feel free to write about what they are actually interested in. When a topic is important to you, you find yourself invested/interested and willing to take risks. Windy Bishop advises that we can move away from this "grade" mindset with portfolios at the end of the semester, but I think shadow grading is a great incentive to get students away from worry because they do have potential to grow.
I love this first question so much! I think encouraging students to take some risks will be the funnest (is that a word? Sure.) part of teaching. In my experience as a student, so much emphasis has been placed on form during high school that we get scared of trying new things. I think using in class informal writing assignments that play around with risk could be fun ways to get students to start thinking outside the box. Additionally, providing them with maybe some examples of risky situations gone well that could perhaps inspire them. Even something like having a little discussion in the beginning about some of the creative risks they might be interested in taking with projects and asking what skills they may need to take those risks confidently so I can either address those in the classroom or point them towards resources that may help them. I think portfolio grading provides the easiest way for students to feel comfortable taking some risks with the assignments and still feeling like they have control over their grade. The setup of 1101 and 2135 is such that conferences and drafts are necessary. This allows the stakes to remain kind of low in the beginning phases for students to try out some new approaches and if they work then they can keep at them, or if they are too much to take on then this can be caught and altered early on in the writing process.
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