Pedagogy at the End of All Things

This post is especially interesting, as its version 4.0 of my pedagogy for the semester, and 3.0 for the blog. For those of you who are reading (surely someone is out there) I promise this will not be the mammoth posting that version 2.0 was. Hopefully no one - with apologies to the unfortunate Dr. Souder - actually had to read that whole thing.

This class has done more for me professionally than any single other course I've ever taken, period. While this has been, ostensibly, a study of the theories of composition, the discussion has taken place inevitably, and nearly at all times in the context of the classroom. The theorists all paint themselves as rising to the defense of the students in one fashion or another. Therefore, I have taken the course as a chance to repeatedly re-evaluate my pedagogy in the light of the various theories we've been presented: some have changed my classroom practice already this semester, some I won't be using, and some figure into my ever grandiose plans for reshaping my courses over the summer. For certain, when I return in the fall, having had this course and the time to apply my conclusions to my teaching, I will never teach writing the same way again.

I keep reminding myself that I want this to be relatively short and practical. Short for a windbag like me is always relative, and even occasionally achievable. Practical, well...I'll try not to spend too much time playing with pure theory.

Given an ideal situation:
My writing instruction will focus on the development of rhetorical argument. The traditional modes will be taught in my classroom, but not as ends in themselves. Rather they will be presented as manners of thinking about problems that we address through writing. As Mike Rose indicates in "Remedial Writing Courses: A Critique and a Proposal," these techniques are really mental patterns for addressing problems, and it is in that fashion that they should be taught. As Dr. D said in the frustration of explaining the skills we teach in composition, "We teach thinking." Indeed we do.

In addition to a focus on argument, I want to make the They Say/I Say focus on dialogic writing a key to my pedagogy. In thinking and rethinking about what Graff and Birkenstein are saying in this text, I am convinced that the true focus of the text is not argument, it is dialogue. Now, Graff is famously, and correctly associated with argument, but the focus of They Say/I Say is not how to establish and back an argument, it's how to make that argument dialogic, how to take your argument out of a vacuum and make it a part a larger conversation. I want this to become a focus of my pedagogy.

I want to make sure that my class is a class between what Lindemann calls "the how" and "the what." That is I want process and the actual act of writing to be a major portion of my class as well as the moments of more formal instruction. Ideally a sixty-forty split or better in favor of class time spent in the acts of writing. I want each major piece to go through a full drafting and revising process with at least one rewrite. I want to provide a full workshop experience to my students allowing them to receive feedback from many voices and the experience of giving feedback themselves. I want to provide direct instruction and practice in the intricacies of process, focusing on Murray and Elbow's foundational work in this area.

I want my assessment to reflect my teaching aims. I won't assess writing in in-class essays or essay tests. I may require these types of responses from students, however, the purpose will not be to assess their writing, but to assess their ideas in connection with some other aspect of the high school English class. In grading these pieces writing elements will be handled with utmost leniency because students have not had the opportunity to revise or even to edit the piece I am receiving. When I want to assess the student's writing I will use a writing assignment that moves through the full writing process, with at least two full drafts before a final draft is accepted and a conference on at least one draft, if not both. Then this piece will become part of a portfolio which will form the backbone of the writing assessment in the course. I like Elbow's idea of not grading anything until I have two pieces in hand, and then you can see where the student wants to go and discuss the comparative strengths and weaknesses of each piece.

Politics is an unavoidable part of the classroom experience. As Orwell said, everything is political. That does not mean that I should turn ideologue and push an specific ideological or political agenda as part of my teaching. In fact, I think that the teacher's job is to play devil's advocate to the ideas the students present, showing that things are always at least two sided and that the arguments are often intricate and not easily resolved. In this fashion the teacher can encourage students to question their own ideas without intentionally or unintentionally promoting one side or another of any given issue. I don't believe that the teacher's personal political beliefs have any place in the classroom unless the students ask for them.

Finally, technology in the classroom is an entirely new aspect to my pedagogy following this year's experience. While I am most likely to find that my classroom approach will change very little, I will try to provide more opportunities for my students to use various pieces of composing technology in connection with the class. I am still floundering on this one, but would like to find ways to incorporate blogging, and the kind of digital document platform Google Docs provides as a part of working in the classroom. I could see having the responses to certain readings or general journaling take the form of blogs. The dilemma for me is how to use the blogs in the composition portion of class if not for responses. If I am not using a lot of readings, than what are the students blogging responses to? If it is journaling, how do I keep this particular portion of class from becoming a meaningless feel good exercise? There are of course more aspects than this to technology, I would like to learn more about digital portfolios to accompany an adoption of text portfolios in the classroom, AND I have already in the past included producing a web page as a means of addressing an assignment. That would continue.

At the end of the year I am stepping off into several new things that I've been intrigued by, but failed to employ in my classroom in the past: the use of portfolio assessment, a greater focus on process and a full application of writer's workshop, and a greater use of technology through the application of the programs/platforms available through web 2.0. I don't know that I will get all of this ready for the fall. I am also looking to redesign my instruction of literature by employing literature circles across the board in class. It should be an interesting year!