Comments on: 12 Beliefs About Teaching Writing

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:11:08 +0000

This is completely ridiculous.

By: Dr. Davis

Dr. Davis — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:11:46 +0000

Michelle, We did that, too, but I think it was two years ago.

One of the things with having 6 papers is that ours tend to be shorter. I look for 3 page papers rather than 4-5 pages. The research paper is 5-7 pages, not including outline and Works Cited.

And, yes, at my CC they teach 5:5. I have 6 this fall, though I was offered 7.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:28:47 +0000

Yes, we are required to assign six. That’s actually a reduction, too. It was seven until last semester when we underwent a course redesign. We are required to follow the lead of the English Department, and that’s what they assign. The last one is the final, so there are five spread out over the semester.

I think I do well with the feedback.

We also teach 5:5 and most people teach overloads. Such is life in the CC.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:21:18 +0000

But six essays in a semester? That’s crazy. That’s an excruciating grading load on teachers, which makes for poor feedback to students, and that’s also not nearly enough time to sufficiently engage in the stages of the writing process, and a pace like that also prevents students from internalizing feedback and applying lessons learned from one writing project to the succeeding one.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:15:24 +0000

Michelle, one thing that works for me with correctness concerns is to *not* tackle the errors all at once, because that tends to overwhelm my students. When we get to the proofreading and editing phase for Essay 1, we review all the editor’s marks (frag, cs, fs, pn agr, mm, dm, det, et cetera), and figure out which three we have the most trouble with or are most confused by. We work through the exercises in the handbook related to those three errors, and then we do peer proofreading and editing based on those three errors, with me telling the students that those three are what I’m going to focus on when I look at surface-level correctness in grading: in other words, I’m not going to worry as much about dangling modifiers if we’ve focused most of our work on comma splices and fused sentences, but they need to make sure they proofread carefully for those comma splices and fused sentences. (I also have peer proofreaders write their names at the tops of their partners’ papers, for accountability.) Then when I grade, I identify which errors I’m seeing most often beyond those three, and direct students in my end comments to focus on those errors in the future. For essay two, we then take on the next three most common errors, so by the time we get through the semester, we’ve devoted explicit attention to at least 12 surface-level correctness issues.

I’ve also found that it helps to ask students to explicitly address their own error patterns as one component of their after-essay reflections; to look at which errors they’re learning how to avoid and which errors they persistently struggle with.

By: Mark Fullmer

Mark Fullmer — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:21:15 +0000

A friend in the New York textbook publishing industry forwarded me to this page, in re #10 — and I have to agree, publication is crucial. I began a literary journal for college writing at Boston College and now we receive submissions from coast to coast. It’s one more place to send your students for that extrateacherial publication avenue: http://newcommave.com

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:40:07 +0000

PS, it was also #3. We are required to have six essays, so although I try to review drafts, in a typical fall or spring semester, it’s not always possible with my teaching load. This is why #12 is so important to me.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:42:41 +0000

Clancy’s partially right about #10. We do have two publication (one creative and one non-fictions), but the essays that are included are usually from Comp 2 level students (or creative writing students). I teach primarily the developmental class before Comp 1, and my students are not at the level necessary to compete. You have me thinking, though, about how nice it would be to have some sort of publication for just developmental students. My department members and I co-wrote a writing workbook for the fall, and the students who were asked to give permission for use of essays for examples were so honored.

Primarily, though, it was #8 that I think I was alluding to. I have *tried* to limit markings as it often feels like I am editing their work, but so many of my students have intense problems with grammar (think 15 fragments in a paper, five instances of subject/verb disagreement), and we just really have to acknowledge it from the first paper and pinpoint the weak areas to work on. It’s rarely about style in my classroom and almost all about getting the thoughts organized, clarity, and conquering the grammar. I am very non-invasive about the way I mark the papers though, using abbreviations like FR for fragment, etc.

By: Clancy

Clancy — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:51:15 +0000

I’m guessing maybe 10? Perhaps Michelle’s cc doesn’t have the resources to support a student publication (after the fashion of the one U Mass does or did). I guess it depends on what you mean by “publication,” though.

By: mike

mike — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:30:12 +0000

Thanks, Michelle. I’m curious: which ones wouldn’t work, and why?