Final Project: Theme/Title

Browsing over what Colin and Laura wrote, I agree that Writing Matters is a great title. It is broad enough to encompass each of our individual projects, but focused enough to explain what we are doing. I'll test it against the other choices.

Writing Matters vs. Finding Your Voice: The two titles are similar in that they both imply that we are all looking for what matters individually to each of us and how to use writing to express it. However, using the word "voice" seems to imply "voice" or "style" in writing, which isn't really what we were shooting for. It also seems to imply we were silent until we "found" something, which I don't really agree with.
My verdict: Writing Matters wins.

Writing Matters vs. That Writing Moment: Writing Matters can refer to why writing is important, or it can refer to different matters, subjects, situations, in which writing is used and valued. The double entendre is cool. That Writing Moment is too narrow (just one moment!), and doesn't include the various angles and situations that Writing Matters allows.
My verdict: Writing Matters wins.

Writing Matters vs. Why I Write: I'm not sure any of us actually included Why I Write as an option. I think it made the list because Dr. Zamora asked the group a question about our theme and we were not clear enough with our answer. (A misunderstanding?) I think our vignettes are pretty diverse and don't necessarily respond to the question "why I write." If we are not all focusing on the answer to that question in our vignettes, then we shouldn't use Why I Write as our title/theme. If we are, then Why I Write should stay on the table. Personally, I am not trying to answer that question, but I could change direction if that's what the group decides.
My verdict: I prefer Writing Matters but would defer to the group's decision if Why I Write explains everyone else's intentions.

Weekly Response: Murray's "Teach the Motivating Force of Revision"

Donald Murray is at it again. He is asking professors to teach students the joy and adventure of revising. He wants students to find new ideas and interests through their writing. They should move through meaning to discover what they truly want to say.

I get the point of his article, but it seems like it would work so much better in a creative writing setting than in my FYW classes. Also, freshmen definitely think that any required revision means they did a poor job on the first draft. It's a punishment, or at best a request for editing "mistakes."

Reflection: Peer Response Assignment, Jaxon Style

We tried the peer review in class today based on Jaxon's article. Students brought in two copies of their research proposals. I had students write memos to peers on the back of their papers. That took about 25 minutes in the early class and only about 15 in the later class. Then, I made sure they exchanged papers with someone they don't sit near, because we have done some peer editing before, and I didn't want them going to the same folks each time.

I explained that the proposal isn't just a preliminary document to the research paper, but an important stand-alone genre. Then I offered lots of points for the peer feedback. I didn't, as Jaxon suggested, let them bring the assignment home. There was plenty of time in class.

Weekly Response: Sommers's "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers"

Nancy Sommers, in her essay "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers" distinguishes between the linear nature of speech and the recursive nature of writing. She is uncomfortable with writing and revision strategies that are linear and stage-based, putting revision somewhere at the end of the process.  Revision must permeate the entire process.

She explains that speech cannot be revised, only added to as an afterthought.

The spoken word cannot be revised. The possibility of revision distinguishes the written text from speech.  In fact, according to Bathes, this is the essential difference between writing and speaking. (379)

Sommers conducted a case study to find out exactly what the students do to revise papers. It seems they focus on revision as wordsmithing at the end of a writing process, once they feel their writing is "finished." Concerns were finding the "right" word, avoiding repetition, and checking for mechanical errors. There was no reworking of theme, concepts, voice, or order. The students don't know how to revise; therefore, they try to follow the "rules" they've been taught.

The experienced adult writers, on the other hand, re-envisioned their argument and their form or framework, and considering their readers. Through this process they create meaning. Revision occurs throughout their writing and is not done only at the end. Their process is not linear but a series of different cycles, and they are not primarily wordsmithing. They are adding, deleting, and reordering sentences.

Sommers hopes that students will learn to revise by understanding the opportunities and possibilities that writing offers as opposed to speech: the advantage of revision.

Final Project: Digital Tools Idea

 
Click the play button at the bottom left. Please use speakers or headphones while viewing. (Er, I hope I embedded this correctly. Also, if this were the real deal, I would've followed a written script instead of winging it.)

Weekly Response: Jaxon's "One Approach to Guiding Peer Response"

This article reads more like a TIW than an essay. I am going to try out her ideas on Tuesday! The students are just starting their research papers in class, and next week we will use Jaxon's style of peer editing. Her directions are clear, and her examples are instructive. At first I thought she was unclear, because she offers peer response guidelines for a proposal, but then discusses only the peer review given for a first draft of a research paper. I read this again, and I see that she is suggesting that the students look at the assignment and then compose questions that will be answered in the peer review document. She gave the assignment and questions composed for the proposal document. Later, when she gives an example of peer feedback for the actual research paper, we don't get to see the assignment or the questions composed.

Weekly Response: Beach and Friedrich's "Response to Writing"

Dear Lord,
Please spare me
from any more articles
by Beach & Friedrich.
Amen.

Weekly Response: John Bean's "Writing Comments on Students' Papers"

Great and useful essay. John Bean describes some strategies that I already use in my class, and he offers some useful advice that I will certainly try at my next opportunity.

In the beginning of the essay he talks about how easily students get discouraged. For me, this is something I strive to actively remember when I grade and conference with students, because I don't personally get discouraged easily. He also talks about how "we ourselves feel when we ask a colleague to read one of our drafts (apologetic and vulnerable)" (317). That statement should serve as another reminder to be wary of addressing the audience and/or using first person--because that's not how I feel at all.

The students' comments to teachers' responses were expected and funny. The idea to put positive and negative comments at the end is intuitive....but I guess not if it needed to be stressed. Personally, I comment very little if at all on the final draft. I use rubrics to inform students of the strengths and weaknesses of the paper and project. (I assign projects, not papers. Projects include outlines, reflections, technology, first and final drafts, peer editing sessions, and Writing Center visits. Student are graded on all aspects of the project, not just the final paper as final project.)

Final Project: Thoughts

I like the Digital Writing Month idea. The site looks pretty cool, and I think our project would fit in nicely.

My contribution to the final project would be a personal narrative about the first time my writing was valued--at millions of dollars!  I never saw a penny of that cash, but neither did a CTC (chlortetracycline) factory in rural China. More on that in my story...

Weekly Response: "Bi, Butch and Bar Dyke: Pedagogical Performances of Class, Gender & Sexuality"

[T]his article examines the way three feminist, queer teachers of writing experience and perform their gender, class, and sexual identities. (70)

This reading seemed overly scholarly at first, and I had to look up expressivist and compositionist. Later, it became reflections of 3 lesbian professors and where they fit in their roles in academia.

Weekly Response: Peter Elbow's "Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries"

I'm going to write this weekly response differently from the others and see how I like it. It will be more of a reflection after reading than a note-taking and response.

This week's reading by Peter Elbow talks about voice, obviously. I know the term but didn't know there was so much controversy surrounding it. Well of course you can hear voice in writing, but tuning it out is important, too. I enjoyed how he argued first for and then against teaching and reading voice. Neat how he proved the importance and validity of both sides. That's certainly an uncommon way to write a persuasive essay.

Weekly Response: Hartwell's "Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar"

Click for the Weekly Response.

This is a response to Patrick Hartwell's "Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar."

This is one of my Discussion Lead assignments. It was supposed to be about 2 pages. I went a little wild with it....

Weekly Response: Peter Elbow's "Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking"

Click to see the Weekly Response.

This is a response to Peter Elbow's "Ranking, Evaluating and Liking: Sorting Out Three Forms of Judgment"

This is one of my Discussion Lead assignments. I went a little over the page count, sorry.

More Thoughts on our Final Project, and a shout out to Melissa

In thinking further about our final project, I agree with Melissa's last post. She said she would like to create lesson plans or design a course. I agree. I'd prefer to make a compilation of lesson plans / best practices and tie them to theory. The final product of ideas #1, #2, and #3 are all very similar. If we each choose the way we want to present our lessons, anti, online, print, they could still all be part of the same compilation (because print will start as an electronic document anyway).

Thoughts on Our Final Project

These are just some random thoughts about our final project. I'll be happy with whatever we decide as a group, whether it incorporates any of my ideas or not.

If we stick with the handbook idea, we need to nail down who the audience is--teachers or students? If it is teachers, what level are they teaching?  If students, what grade? I'd rather a handbook for educators than a handbook for students. That might be more easily published through Dr. Zamora's contacts, not sure. Also, I don't personally have any interest in making a print book, but certainly any online resource would have printable pages. That might satisfy the urge for paper.