freewrite what we teach

I want to spin this assignment a new way, and promote "writing what we teach" inside the classroom in real time (in addition to the notion of demonstrating to our students the fact that we actually do write outside the class, and have and will tackle similar assignments to those we give them). I had an opportunity to do this with my students last week, and, looking back, wish I would have thought of this sooner.

I used this fantastic activity called "Exploding the Moment;" I think there might be a similar activity floating around, but this one is a bit different. I got this from the Florida University writing program's website ( http://writing.fsu.edu/?q=node/475) and found it to be an excellent tool in both my 110 and 215 sections.

The activity goes something like this:

1. Read orally the following paragraph:
I woke up late this morning--as usual. I had no clean clothes and the fridge was next to bare. Traffic was heavy as I sped to work. Some jerk cut me off and I almost had a wreck. At work I went to my desk and there was a note to go and see the boss. I waited outside her office for a while before she called me in. I couldn’t figure out why she wanted to see me. I went inside and sat down. My boss handed me an envelope. She told me that my services were no longer needed and that I was free to go. I got my belongings from my desk and left. The drive home was quick. I am now unemployed.

2. Point out the lack of details in this paragraph. Explain that any one of these sentences could be "exploded" to create an interesting story.

Here is an example from the website -- this example is an "explosion" written by the English faculty member:

"Some jerk cut me off and I almost had a wreck. I hate people who can’t drive. I decided to teach him a little lesson by playing near bumper cars with his bright red 300 ZX. He kept hitting his brakes, and eventually even shook a fist of rage at me. I giggled gleefully--kind of like that lady in Fried Green Tomatoes who got immense pleasure from repeatedly rearending the car of the person who had stolen her parking space. Space is crucial, and that jerk will probably think twice before he cuts into mine again."

3. Now pass out copies of the first (bland) paragraph to students. Tell them to choose one sentence to explode, making up the most interesting details they can--as long as their additions will still fit in the facts of the original paragraph. Give them about 15 minutes to write their explosions.

4. I differed slightly from the website's instructions and had the students gather into groups -- one group per sentence exploded. (So all of the students who exploded the first sentence got together.) I then had the students read aloud to each other their explosions in the groups.

5. Regroup as a class and read the paragraph line by line, asking each group to volunteer a "favorite" to explode each sentence. This was the most fun I think we've ever had as a class.

6. I had the students go home and explode a moment from the essays they're revising and bring the explosions to class the following class period.

My point to all of this is that this is a great opportunity to join in with students and do the writing WITH them! :) I usually freewrite with my students on almost every in-class freewrite (unless I'm conferencing or checking work), yet I realized that though I ask students to share their work, I rarely share mine (and hardly ever anything creative -- I usually stick to "examples")! I realized as I read this Florida State University faculty's paragraph that I should have attempted this myself before class and read my own paragraph for my students.

I don't know if other teachers are hesitant to show this kind of writing to their students; I think I'm afraid of seeming like I'm showing off or placing myself as an example. I think, though, that this type of activity -- and many in-class freewrites -- could provide a forum appropriate for this kind of interaction.

philosophy of teaching

I believe that passion and enthusiasm in a teacher can transform reluctant students into participating students. In assignments, I encourage writing which will serve my students in their own fields of study and/or areas of personal interest, whether that be through creative or technical/professional writing. Learning from my own experience as a writing student, I promote real-world application for writing done in the classroom, such as writing for publication or field use, to create a greater sense of ownership and autonomy. I show students my passion and enthusiasm for writing by regularly writing and submitting my own work – both academic and creative – for publication and participating in department and community readings; by doing so, I model my dual role as both passionate teacher and happy, dedicated writer. Students participate in class as writers and thinkers of our own community as a class and the greater community of the university and society; this necessitates attendance, energy, and effort. In an email, a student told me, “You are really working me through every step of the way.” This email is affirming to me as a new teacher, and reminds me of how much I appreciate my own teachers, and colleagues, for working me through my own challenges as a writer and writing teacher. I believe writing can be taught, and I do my very best to teach it.

my life in six words

Dr. Cadle gave me the following prompt:
Completely off the subject, you've been tagged for a meme. Why? Because we all need more writing fun right now. See Can your sum up your life in just six words? (a meme) to see how, then as a part of your post, tag at least six others.

After some deliberation, I think I can sum up my current life with the following:

I type one handed while nursing.


Watch out, 'cause i'm tagging six of you people with this tomorrow ...

think outside the workshop

In an interview at the Stanford Writing Center, Andrea Lunsford talks about collaboration: "I believe that all writing is collaborative. . .No matter what you’re doing, even if you’re sitting by yourself at your computer you’re collaborating with somebody, something you’ve read, or some voices you’ve got in your head, or your friends, or something, there’s some kind of collaboration going on.” I love this idea of collaboration existing outside of what we normally see as collaboration in our classrooms, i.e. the Workshop. (dum, dum dum dum DUM. . .) I hope that workshopping is more pleasant for other teachers than it is for me. In my class, it's a day when most people don't show, everyone seems a bit bored, and every technique I've tried has seemed to fail. (Though the reading-out-loud exercise was at least exciting in terms of sheer volume!)

If I teach composition again in the future, I think I'm going to try a different approach and teach my students about collaboration as defined here by Lunsford. I might give them a text in class, have them read it, and then rewrite their freewrite. I think this could be really effective! I do something similar to this in my creative writing class (writing after reading a very distinct style and seeing how that style, simply by reading it, can infuse into the writer's own style) and I think it could be effective in 110. I also think I might encourage some collaboration with another 110 class, perhaps working with another TA to swap drafts and let our students respond to each others' work. I think this could be fun and also establish a sense of community amongst 110 students.

I get so stuck in the workshop rut, and I think my students feel the same. This may have been obvious to other people, but when I've heard the word "collaboration," I always think of this workshop scenario. I simply love this idea of collaboration as communicating with multiple disciplines, medias, people, ideas, and even "voices in my own head." (I'm collaborating right now with the episode of "Seinfeld " playing in the background. . .gotta love it.)

embracing the i-search

I read a great quote today from David Bartholomae in Inventing the University: "When students are writing for a teacher, writing becomes more problematic than it is for the students who are describing baseball to a Martian. The students, in effect, have to assume privilege without having any. And since students assume privilege by locating themselves within the discourse of a particular community--within a set of specifically acceptable gestures and commonplaces--learning, at least as it is defined in the liberal arts curriculum, becomes more a matter of imitation or parody than a matter of invention and discovery."

When I read this quote, I immediately thought of the I-Search, which was by far the most enjoyable unit to teach/grade this semester. In the midst of the Position Paper unit, although it seems to be going well, I find myself wishing for those happy days of teaching/brainstorming/discussing/drafting the I-Search with my students.

The I-Search, in my opinion, is a way to circumvent students' instincts to "imitate" the traditional research paper. Because of its unique approach to the process/reporting of research, the I-Search commands what Bartholomae articulates as "invention and discovery," two practices I think we can all agree we wish our students will experience in our classes. The I-Search's structure leads students to examine their experience researching, which includes an honest, evaluative reflection of current knowledge and assumptions, the process and practice of finding and evaluating sources, the discussion of findings and results, and reflection on predictions, unexpected results, and revelations. I taught this paper as a "written documentary" and I think this clarified what I was looking for. (I showed my class the documentary "Supersize Me" as an example of mixing personality/personal voice with facts, findings, and interviews. It works wonders.)

This semester, I required each of my students to interview a source for the I-Search; one student ended up interviewing the top official in charge of environmental concerns for the state of Missouri (the official title escapes me) for his paper on "Going Green." One student interviewed a professor on campus about his best friend's experience living in a commune for her paper exploring the benefits of communal living. With maybe one or two exceptions (and these were the people who never came to class), the I-Searches were provocative, reflective, insightful, and interesting! They described their experiences in the Missouri State library using descriptive language, articulated their frustrations with web sources and their elation when they found, and I quote, "the motherload of articles on my topic." One student commented, "I learned how to do an interview for this paper which was quite helpful." I submitted one of the I-Searches on the Aurora Borealis to Dr. Cadle for consideration for publication in Composing Ourselves; in this paper, my student discussed her journey in changing her topic from a scientific approach to the phenomenon to a study of different cultures' perceptions of it. It was incredible. I could actually see my students "inventing" and "discovering" because they were documenting their journeys step by step. This paper was not only fun to teach, but I learned what was working with my students in terms of their passions and approaches to the writing process.

Bartholomae is right on the money when he distinguishes between "imitation" and "invention." I'm not saying that there isn't a place for the teaching of a traditional research paper, etc. but these basic essays (traditional research, position paper, critical analysis) can be enriched, deepened, and made more effective when they follow such a writing/researching journey.

freshwater mussels, semiconductors, and shakespeare

I spent this morning with Megan Keadle, Hannah Dutko, Craig Meyer, Mary Maupin, Charity Gibson, and Dr. Cadle at the graduate interdisciplinary forum. I checked into the forum around 8 a.m. with Lucas and Ethan (my husband and little baby) after braving a walk in what the weather people like to call a "wintry mix." (read: cold as all frickin get out.) Was it worth it? I would have to say yes. (Ethan and Lucas split after my reading ... I stayed for the duration.) It was interesting to see the variety of presentations (see my title of this post) and read the various abstracts.

I chose to read a short story from my thesis -- I was the only fiction writer to present. I have to be honest and say that I don't think it was necessarily what the "judges" were looking for (yes, there were judges for this, which was a little strange) but I'm glad I did it -- "represent" the fiction crowd, so to speak. Megan presented a piece about her experience with a basic writer, which was amazing. Hannah presented about the advantages/disadvantages of personal writing in composition - fascinating! Craig presented on the effects of text messaging on quality of writing. A student named Landis presented a piece on Hamlet, which was picked as a finalist for the forum. Mary and Charity presented poster presentations from their papers in Dr. Weaver's class last semester. All in all, the English department showed, in my opinion, a nice reflection of those of us that haunt the halls of Pummill.

Craig Meyer and Mary Maupin received awards at the award ceremony -- Craig for Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant and Mary for Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant. Go English peeps! :) I think it's pretty awesome that out of the three awards given to graduate students, the English program received two. (I think that's right, at least -- don't quote me, I have to admit by then I was hungry and the cheese cubes weren't quite cutting it.)

I would recommend this forum to those of you who didn't submit this year -- it was a nice day, and there was a great energy in the PSU, especially in the room full of poster presentations. It just feels good to be around people who care about what they study as much as I do. The best part was listening to what my friends/colleagues had to say. I'm continually inspired and challenged by you amazing people. OK, now I'm off to enjoy my baby! It is Saturday, after all, even for a graduate student.

Dialogue and "Maus: A Survivor's Tale"

I want to talk about one assignment which draws upon my experience in my specialty area of fiction writing (and my passion for the comic book genre). In teaching the memoir (which, in my opinion, is the closest related assignment to writing fiction), I decided to elaborate on the discussion of dialogue. When I asked my students how many of them had written with dialogue in the past, every student raised his/her hand. When I asked someone to come forward with ideas about how/why dialogue is used to propel a story and contribute to characterization, I was met with silence. When I asked some specifics about formatting dialogue, I was met with silence. (I get the same thing when I ask students about writing MLA. Everyone has used MLA, but no one can tell me anything about citation. This cracks me up.)

Anyway, so I started out what I like to think of as my "dialogue unit" with a reading from Maus: A Survivor's Tale, a graphic novel written by Art Speigelman. This graphic novel (and I'm very much oversimplifying here) is about the author's father's experience during WWII and the Holocaust, and also about the author's own experience interviewing his father and writing the novel. Needless to say, it is fascinating. With this reading, I establish the power of dialogue as used to propel plot, to enhance characterization, to establish conflict, to create mood, to establish setting/region/time period, etc. I like to point out the specific dialogue that provides information without seeming to provide information, and dialogue with dialect to establish characterization and voice.

After they've read these excerpts, I have an in-class writing exercise. First, I give them the following prompt:

Joe and Beth are friends sitting in a restaurant in New York City. They have been friends for a long time. Joe wants to tell Beth he’s moving away, but is scared she’ll be upset. He’s nervous. Meanwhile, during the conversation, Beth is excitedly telling Joe about her new job as a waitress. She has no idea something’s going on with Joe. Joe interrupts her to tell Beth he’s moving away. Beth reacts.

I then challenge students to write this scene using ONLY dialogue (no narrative passages and no tags) and to try to infuse as much of the setting, exposition, and mood they possible can. This exercise is SO FUN -- students are very creative! After they're done writing, I'll ask students to volunteer their dialogue and then I have two students read it aloud (kind of like a script). After the reading is over, I try to encourage students when I see them attempting characterization; for example, students might try to show Joe is nervous by having him say, "Um" or stutter a bit. I'll praise this technique. I use this exercise in my 215 (creative writing/short story) class, and it's just as effective. This is also a great exercise to get students involved and to interact with each other. After this is over, I ask students to use the same approach to create a scene from their memoir. I found in both semesters that students will usually use this freewrite in their papers.

Now that I've taught ENG 215 for a bit (just this semester), I've come across a number of activities/lessons I'd like to incorporate into ENG 110 with a little tweaking. I've also come across a number of readings I'd like to hand out to my students as substitutions for some I'm using from A Presence of Others. I love working in my own skills/passion/experience in writing/reading fiction in the 110 classroom, but I haven't done it too much quite yet. To be honest, I wanted to familiarize myself with the curriculum first to get a better feel of what elements of the papers could be manipulated. Now that I do feel more confident, I'm excited to see what else I can do to make the class more interesting, not just for me but for my students as well.

it's all about the discourse communities, baby.

In her essay "Cognition, Convention, and Certainty: What We Need to Know About Writing," Bizzel argues, "...the problems of basic writers might be better understood in terms of their unfamiliarly with the academic discourse community, combined, perhaps, with such limited experience outside their native discourse communities that they are unaware that there is such a thing as a discourse community with conventions to be mastered. What is underdeveloped is their knowledge both of the ways experience is constituted and interpreted in the academic discourse community and of the fact that all discourse communities constitute and interpret experience "(230).

I love this insight by Bizzel, because it gets to the heart of what I'm thinking is an interesting dilemma with 110 (and something I've blogged about in the past): topic choice. This can be seen in the context of experience -- what constitutes experience worthy of interpretation? I'm running into this issue with my students beginning their I-Search papers. I told them that I'd prefer they pick topics relevant to a professional or (burning!) personal interest. The majority of my students have aligned themselves with topics meeting these guidelines; others, defying my advice and warnings, insist on writing papers that will be utterly useless to them later in their academic careers.

One of the greatest lessons I've learned as a graduate student is the importance of a "specialty," or topic of choice, around which to base as many papers, conference proposals, presentations, etc. as humanly possible. For me, this has been my passion for comic book scriptwriting, a passion born of a three year position at a publishing company writing/editing educational comic books. I used this example for my students, encouraging them to explore (if they haven't already found one) a topic, issue, concept, idea, etc. they could carry over into other areas of their academic experience and/or professional interests. I parallel this concept with my assignment (forgoing journaling) of the individual writing project, in which students find a text associated with their field of study and/or personal interest and use it as inspiration to write within that, as Bizzel calls it, discourse community.

I think it's important for students to realize there are discourse communities both inside and outside the academic arena and that, when possible, they should marry these two communities to best serve their own interests. If a student knows, for instance, he/she wishes to be a financial planner, it would be helpful for that student to not only learn the rules of the academic discourse community, but to carry over and apply those rules to the discourse community of the financial planning industry. I find that this approach makes written communication more relevant for students who can't escape the "english only in english class" mindset.

I think the I-Search is an important way to draw students' attention to these discourse communities. By directing their topic choices, we as teachers can expose them to the concepts, people, ideas and, perhaps most importantly, texts (discourse community!) associated with a relevant, meaningful subject. The I-Search also offers the unique opportunity to explore a more personal reflection about this journey, which I think is quite valuable for beginning writers and young people doing just that -- searching.

excuse me (or not)

I'm writing this post as a response to some of the other posts I've seen about attendence woes due to weather and flu. I'm sure everyone received the same email I did about being understanding towards students who miss class due to weather and travel. I also recently received an email about "excused absences" concerning one of my students who has broken his jaw. The email appealed to me on behalf of the student to be understanding about his absences, but reiterated time and again that it is up to me, the instructor, to determine what is, and is not, an excused absence.

This whole idea of "excused absences" is interesting to me, because it's something I affiliate with high school. Is a student "excused" -- what does that even mean in a college course? It must imply that I will allow the student extra time to turn in work, extend deadlines, etc. But in the case of my student who broke his jaw, a student who was fast approaching missing the 7 class periods I've designated in my syllabus as the pass/fail attendance line even before this accident, how can I "excuse" him? (The final memoir is due on Monday, and I haven't seen a draft or heard a word -- what am I supposed to do about that?) When I was an undergrad, if I missed a class, more often than not I didn't notify my teacher. I simply accepted the consequences of my absence (I took ownership of the class). Now, as a teacher, I receive a zillion emailed excuses for people missing class -- do I excuse those people? What about the people who miss b/c of the same reasons, but don't contact me because they approach the course the way I did? What is "excused"?!

I tend to be more understanding than not when it comes to absences, because I'm just a softie. But I can see how, in the hands of more manipulative students, and if I taught more than two classes, this could be a problem. I do email missed handouts to students. I do this simply because in the event of a student's late paper or unacceptable paper, I can say that I did everything I could to help them and that I must fall back on my overall course policies. Students can't deny that I did everything to help! (I also email students who have missed several classes to show I care, and usually I really do care.) Also, I have to admit, sometimes I'm scared to lay down the law with a student. I think to myself, in the environment of violence in the universities, how can it hurt to be accomodating? But I think that's a blog post I want to explore in more detail next week ...

assignments as stepping stones

In a brief article titled "Response to Sharon Crowley, 'Components of the Composing Process,'" in College Composition and Communication (1977), Nancy Sommers addresses the idea of composing as both a linear and recursive process. One of the three aspects that define this binary is the idea of writing assignments as linear "stepping stones," marking "writing development from assignment to assignment" (2).

This idea is at the forefront of my approach to the assignments in ENG 110. The overt example of the annotated bibliography and the I-search illustrates this best. This semester, I've decided to really reiterate the tie between assignments by asking students to analyze the texts for their annotated bibliography much in the way that they evaluated the text for their textual analysis. When evaluating their sources, I ask them to consider the rhetorical models we discussed for the textual analysis assignment -- ethos, pathos, and logos. I found that most of the material I had on evaluating sources could be boiled down to these three basic approaches: evaluate the source (who and what credentials, where it comes from, etc.), evaluate the tone/style (opinion? information?), and evaluate the validity of the argument (does the text provide counterarguments, etc.).

Of course, the annotated bibliography will be created from the students' sources for their I-Search assignment. I find that this is a valuable use for the students' time and also allows me to make sure their topic is properly narrow and acceptable. I'm allowing students to maintain control over their resources (two students will be using documentaries, for example), but at the same time they know I'm expecting them to critically approach each source and that each must live up to the students' evaluation of these three components. This knocks out common student mistakes such as using wikipedia or about.com. (FYI, I ran across a helpful website about evaluating internet sources, which reiterated that .org sites aren't necessarily credible. Their main example was martinlutherking.org, which is in fact sponsered by a white supremecist organization. Check it out -- it's shocking.)

I like Sommers' description of "assignments as stepping stones" because it implies a journey. With each assignment, the student is advancing towards a final destination. I've described how the critical analysis approach to the textual analysis helps the student evaluate sources for the annotated bibliography. The student will use the techniques he/she has learned for the Memoir to draw out the personal voice component of the I-Search. Exploring sources for the annotated bibliography will help the student discover information and ideas for the I-Search. The student's honest evaluation of his/her assumptions and beliefs when approaching the I-Search topic will help him/her be authentic and confident in taking and defending a stand with the Position Paper. The workshops, drafts, and revisions for each assignment will build towards the final assignment, "It's Wise to Revise," where the student can revisit one of the assignments in the course for a better grade. Looking at the course holistically, so to speak, helps me as a teacher understand the purpose and overall momentum behind the assignments, and helps the students to understand the relevance of each assignment and, hopefully, allow them to reflect back upon the growth they've made, one step at a time.

to choose or not to choose: a question of topic

This semester, I decided to teach the memoir second -- needless to say, I am currently in the midst of all things memoir! Taking a page from the discussion of "playing it safe" with academic writing, I'm wondering about the idea of student-chosen topics and its possible negative effects in the composition classroom.


Though it's a bit cold to refer to our students' personal experiences as "general," I think we can all agree that there are some "safe" topics in academic writing. In this particular blog, I'll use the word "safe" to refer to those topics which are perhaps typical, easily accessible, etc., which don't necessarily require deeper thought in terms of topic choice. In my experience with the memoir, for example, it's often safer to pick a serious topic than a humorous one. Why do our students shy away from humor? In my class, I assign two pieces by David Sedaris as reading during the memoir unit ("Cyclops" from our text and a handout of "Turbulence"). These pieces are overtly humorous! I even show a clip from the film "American Splendor," a darkly humorous reflective, memoir-driven film about the non-fiction underground comic writer Harvey Pekar. YET, in all except one of my conferences with students about their memoir topics, I find that their chosen topics remain "safe" (read: serious).


Donald M. Murray, in his essay "Teach Writing as a Process Not Product," lists the implications of "environments in which our students can experience the writing process for themselves" (5). Implication No. 2 reads, "The student finds his own subject" (5). I think that most of us take this approach with our students when it comes to the memoir, the I-Search, and the position paper (and even some in the textual analysis). Though I tend to agree with Murray in his support of this process-driven environment (drafting, students' work as texts, etc.), I think that the implications of student-chosen topics can be, in fact, negative.


In allowing my students to choose their own topics, I find most opt for the "safe" choice. In addition, I find that instead of directing my students to topics in a positive way -- suggesting or assigning my students specific, thoughtfully chosen topics I know will challenge them as writers -- I often find myself "vetoing" specific topics, utilizing don't-ever-write-about-these-topics-ever lists from previous graduate assistants which in fact negate student ideas. In doing so, I feel like I'm creating a false environment of choice: "Choose whatever topic you want, but don't you ever write about abortion! That's a big no-no!"


I wonder if rather than substracting ideas before students have even begun to brainstorm, I could instead provide a limited list of specific, thoughtfully chosen, challenging "un-safe" topics from which they could choose. This way, I could encourage the un-safe while still giving my students some power over their topics. I'm actually finding myself doing this while teaching the memoir. In one activity, I encourage students to choose one "big" moment (family death, car acccident, etc.) and one "ordinary" moment and to freewrite about both. I then subtly challenge them to choose the "ordinary" moment from which they can create an "extraordinary" memoir. One student who chose this ordinary moment is writing about how embarassed she was to use crutches after an accident, and how stumbling around on crutches made her realize something about herself and issues like control and dependency.


As I approach the position paper, I'm thinking about replacing my list of "vetos" with a prepapred, thoughtful, challenging and un-safe list from which they can choose their topic. And in my opinion, an un-safe topic is the first step to un-safe writing. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes ...

new assignment - "it's wise to revise"

This semester I've decided to try a new assignment in place of the expanded I-Search. Instead, I'm incorporating what I've titled "It's Wise to Revise." It's basically a chance for each student to pick one of his/her papers from the course to expand and revise. If this new version of the paper receives a higher score than its original grade, I'm offering to replace the original grade with the grade of the expanded and revised version. Along with this assignment, I'm requiring an in-class essay (which is mandatory, replacing the mandatory workshop of other papers) during which the student will reflect upon his/her expansion and revision using the academic vocabulary learned throughout the course.



I believe that the chance to revisit a paper will really reiterate some of the concepts associated with that paper (i.e. revisiting MLA citations in the I-Search, utilizing critical reading for the textual analysis in more depth, adding to descriptive and dialogue content in the memoir, etc). I also believe that implementing the replacement grade incentive will show students that revision is both necessary and has positive results! My goal is that the students will be able to see how much their writing has improved over the semester; if the distance between the original paper and the revised version is long enough, the student might even have forgotten what he/she wrote and will be able to look at his/her own work from an objective critical reading standpoint, a POV that can be very beneficial to new writers. New writers rarely get the opportunity for self-evaluation; as rhetorician Susan Miller writes in her article "How Writers Evaluate Their Own Writing," “Self-evaluation – experiencing the quality of one’s writing in relation to subjective standards – is crucial to the development of an individual’s perception of writing as an important and ‘natural’ way to investigate problems and represent ideas” (182). By evaluating their own work during the semester and choosing which paper they'd like to expand and revise, students retain that subjective power they might miss in a typical assignment.