Techno-Rhetoric Cafe

I have an odd group of students this semester. I mean that in a nice way, really. The first week of class flew by and these kids are already deeply entrenched in the work we’re doing. They do their homework (something I can’t say for my other class) and they bring a diverse set of views to the classroom that they are not afraid to talk about.

But what makes this group even more different is that this is the first group of 18 year old students I’ve had who have not decided to vote based on the candidate that their favorite parent is voting for. For some strange reason, I have 15 students just barely old enough to vote and they are doing the unthinkable. They are trying to decide who to vote for.  I discovered this the first week of class when they bombarded me with questions not relating to deadlines and grading scales, but how they could register to vote and whether they have to  claim the school or their home as their voting precinct. I was floored. I’ve never had a group even ask me about this. I gave them the best advice that I could and sent them on their way. I assumed the political activity in my class was over.

It wasn’t. The second week of classes, my students returned. Our topic of discussion for the day was Ronald Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate (the famous “Tear Down This Wall”) speech. I had asked them to read the text of the speech and watch a few minutes of Reagan delivering the speech. Yes, I teach composition. No, Reagan is not out of place in a composition class. His speech oozes rhetorical appeals. It is also a wonderful means of teaching students how the modes of writing are not only aspects to writing individual essays, but can be be incorporated into one complete essay. As we discussed the speech, I noticed that they had not only paid attention to what I asked of them, but they had opinions on the speech. Yes, this is odd for a group of freshmen during the second week of school.

After Reagan’s speech, we turned to an article on Hurricane Katrina and several of my students got into a mild debate about where the blame for the disaster relief debacle should fall. One student, a native of New Orleans, was placing the blame not on the President, but on New Orleans politicians. This is unheard of in my classes. As I broke up the debate (to keep it from getting too heated), one of my student’s asked if I had seen Obama’s speech the previous night and we chatted for a moment on the speech. Then, another student asked if I knew when McCain was speaking. We Googled it. I took a risky step (now with only a few minutes left in the class period) and asked if they had made a decision on their next president.

One replied

I haven’t made up my mind yet.

This was followed by another reply of:

I want to hear more about their stance on the issues

A third student replied:

I’m waiting for the debates.

I was dumbfounded. My experience with freshman voters involves voting for the person daddy or mommy tells them to vote for. I asked for a show of hands for those who watched Obama’s speech and half the class raised their hands. Many of the others had missed it because they were in class. There were only two who were not interested. So, I posted the link on our Blackboard site. I’ve also posted McCain’s speech.

Then I started thinking about four things:

1. Civic Engagement
2. Critical Thinking Skills
3. Improved Writing
4. Reinforcing the Modes of Discourse

Civic Engagement

Students who are interested in politics are a rare group. They have beliefs that they are ready to take into a voting booth. As teachers, we cannot just cast aside this decision. We cannot-and should not-make decisions for our students, but we can help them to make their own decisions by allowing them to talk about their beliefs in a classroom setting.

Critical Thinking Skills

I can capture the political enthusiasm my students have and push this into their class activities in a way that means I can help them improve their critical thinking skills. This is important in their future and plays a role in our country’s future as well.

Improved Writing

I can assign extra credit work related to the election that asks students to write on their views as civic minded individuals. Through these writings, students can address the issues that are important to them while simultaneously improving their writing skills.

Reinforcing Modes of Discourse

Too many students come into the college classroom prepared to write a narrative or an argument without realizing the depth that various modes can bring to their writing. I can ask my students to look at how McCain and Obama use the modes to create powerful speeches. This mimics what I asked them to look for in Reagan’s speech, but puts it in a context in which they have show an interest. A topic interesting to a student is always going to engage them in their learning more than a topic they care nothing about.

So I’ve thought about this and made a decision. I’m going to allow my students extra credit writing opportunities throughout the semester. These will be brief one or two page assignments based around information they need to learn this semester. But they will also be based around various aspects of the political campaign. I plan to start by asking them to use the modes of writing to look at the two acceptance speeches. But as the semester goes on, I’m going to expand these options. I want students to have the chance to not only interact with the campaign, but also with new technologies. So, along the way, I will provide them with the option to record rebuttal speeches and send to me. (If they permit me, I will upload these to the YouTube account). I will give them the chance to design a webpage for the candidate they choose or to design a webpage discussing the two candidates. (If the students will let me, I will upload these pages to my homepage and link there when I can).

So, for starters, I’m teaching them the literacy of YouTube. I’ve created a channel specific to our class and posted the link on the class Blackboard site. I’ve also posted their first extra credit opportunity as a bulletin on the channel. It’s a bit like a semester long virtual scavenger hunt.

We will see how the students take to it. Check back for updates.

In my last post, I was talking about the changes I have made to motivate my students to speak with our Writing Consultants about their essays. I wanted to come back and reflect on how I have changed their relationship with the Writing Center through my own relationship with the Writing Center.

Getting to Know the Consultants

I knew our Writing Consultants before the summer began. I was in classes with some of them, knew others from professional organizations, and some I knew just from speaking in the hall or in another GTA’s office. But this summer, I’ve spent more time with them than I have before. For the most part, our conversations have been brief social interactions, but we do get professional as well. I think it is helpful to know the personality of the Writing Consultants when you plan to rely heavily on their input in your students’ writing development. We all know that some personalities just don’t work well together and I think it makes the relationship between Consultant and student that much better if I can recommend a specific consultant to a student based on the student’s personality.

With the first session of the summer semester nearly over, I can say in good faith that all of my students have found a consultant who best meshes with their own personality. Each of these students has learned that they can request an appointment with this tutor, even if it means that they have to wait until a later time to set their appointment. I know that this will mean that in the Fall semester they will have a better idea who they want to work with. So in the long run, it’s better for both the student and the consultant if I can give out good recommendations in the beginning.

Communicating (Professionally) with the Consultants

It goes without saying that Writing Consultants can only be as effective as you allow them to be. Our Writing Consultants work with students in all disciplines and with this comes the need for clarity on assignments. In the past, I have always told my students to take the Writing Assignment prompt with them so that the Consultant had an idea as to what the students were doing. But that is not really enough for the Consultant to work with.

This semester, I’ve spoken to the Consultants specifically about the assignments that my students have, I have forwarded them handouts I’ve provided the students and spent time speaking to them about questions they had with the assignments. I think that for this reason, the Consultants have a chance to give more concrete advice in their sessions. This is a key for a good writing consultation. If my students are getting advice that is too vague because the Consultant doesn’t know what’s going on in the class, then the students have a harder time applying the advice to their paper. So, if we can create a relationship where the students and the consultants know how to communicate about the specific things that I am looking for in an assignment, there will be much more improvement in the students work.

Availability and Access

One other thing that I’ve been working very hard to do this semester is make myself more available during my students’ writing consultations. This is somewhat simple for me since my office is literally next door to our Writing Center. With students setting up appointments during class, the Consultants know how to reach me for questions. But for students who do not have appointments during the class period, I encourage them to schedule their appointments during or close to my office hours or to let me know when they have an appointment. This allows me (for the most part) to make myself accessible to the student and consultant if they have questions.

Now, I am not saying that I’m hovering over the consultation. But knowing I am close enough to answer questions has led to several students coming into the office during a consultation to get clarity on a question. It has also led to several Consultants coming to make sure they are providing the most appropriate guidance on a sticky problem. I don’t discuss the consultation with either the student or the Consultant so that that relationship maintains the privelage that allows it to become a productive session. However, I have found that a student who is going the wrong way with an essay can be steeered back in the right direction in a consultation. I like to be nearby if I can help with this.

I have also given students permission to bring their Writing Consultant to their revision conferences. The revision portfolio is the most important part of First Year Composition and it stands to reason that if a student has worked consistently with the same Consultant for the duration of the drafts, they may want this Consultant to be present at the conference. While I have not had students take advantage of this yet, I have had several who made scrupulous notes in their conferences to take to their Consultant with their next appointment.

FInal Thoughts

I realize that the changes I have initiated over the past few weeks may not be the most feasible to every instructor and are much less feasible during the traditional academic year than in the summer. However, I plan to continue with as many of these changes as I can during the true academic year and see if I can continue to improve student writing as I have done this semester. The fact of the matter is that if only one of these changes becomes a full time part of my writing curriculum, it can make a change for the better. If I can get one more student to realize the value of the Writing Center before they leave First Year Composition, then I have one more student on the track to continual improvement in writing. All of my previous students who discovered the Writing Center in their early days of First Year Composition have continued to use the Consultation services throughout college. The key, though, is teaching the students how to put the Writing Center, the Consultants, and the consultation itself to good practice.

When I first stepped into the classroom this morning, one of my students told me that she had completely scrapped an essay draft after her visit to the Writing Center yesterday. This was wholly her decision, although one supported by her Writing Consultant. She came in with a draft she was much happier with and is confident in turning in.

Then, just as class was about to start, another student took her cell phone out of class and a moment later, came back with phone in hand and announced

I have the Writing Center on the phone. Does anybody else need to make an appointment?

One of my other students then stood up, stepped outside and set up her own appointment. This is serious progress for my students. I always encourage my students to go to the Writing Center, but for some reason or another, I’ve never had this much success with one single class. So far, I’ve had all of my students schedule writing conferences at least twice this semester. I am even more impressed that I’m getting them to go frequently. I think the reason for this improvement is in the method I took to introducing them to the Writing Center.

Familiarity Aids in Willingness

I have always taken advantage of the Writing Center’s in-class features. In the past, I have always had them come to the class at the beginning of the semester and talk to my students about the benefits of working with a Writing Consultant on their papers. This will generally perk at least one or two of my average writers up and send them to set up an appointment. I’ve learned that if I can get them to set up the first appointment, it’s more likely that they are going to set up another appointment. The problem was getting more than just a few students to realize the potential for the Writing Center.

This semester, I was having a problem readjusting to teaching 2-hour summer blocks of classes and my first few days of lectures were going way too fast. So, on the second day of class–when I normally would have asked a consultant to come speak about the Writing Center–I took my small class to the Writing Center. It seems like this was a good icebreaker. I had the chance to leave them alone with the consultants for half an hour, they were able to see exactly where the Writing Center is, and they got free grammar handbooks out of the trip.

I think this worked as a great icebreaker for the students not only because they were able to find out where the Writing Center is, but they were also able to meet with not just one of the consultants, but meet all of the consultants that they could work with over the semester. Several of the students set up appointments before they left the Writing Center that day.

Adding Incentives

The familiarity was not the only thing that I did to get students to go to the Writing Center. I also gave them a semi-benefit for going. I’ve used this in the past, but it has only worked with one or two of my average students. What I did was tell them that if they would visit the Writing Center, they could have an extra 24 hours to turn their paper in. In the Fall and Spring semesters, I do the same thing. This time, it resulted in all of my students getting the extra time to turn in their paper. I don’t know how much this has to do with the amount of quick writing the students are doing during these short Summer semesters, but I do know that this is working well for the students. 

I give them this extra time to make it more worth their time to go to the Writing Center. If you think about it, if the paper is due on Tuesday and the student has the chance to make their Writing Center appointment for Monday, they may feel rushed to make the changes and still get the paper in on time. But giving them the extra 24 hours gives them the chance to work with the changes suggested by the Writing Consultant.

Changing up the Idea of the “In Class Workshop”

I think, though, that the biggest reason that the students have taken so well to the Writing Center this semester has to do with the final incentive I gave them. I always set up two days of in-class writing workshops over the course of a unit. This gives students a specific time to spend time working on their essays and gives them the chance to ask questions about their essays at a time when they can get answers before the flow of writing dissipates. In the past, I have requested a Writing Consultant to be present at the first of these workshops. This allows the students to learn what the Writing Consultant has to offer and has led a few other students to set up an appointment with the Writing Center.

I didn’t use this tactic this semester. Instead, I told my students that if they wanted to use part of their class time on these dates for an appointment with the Writing Center, they could do so. I put parameters on this idea, though. They had to attend class between 8am and 9am (our class runs 8-10am), but they could set up an appointment at either 9 or 9:30 and leave for their appointment about 15 minutes early. I also told them that they could only set up these appointments on days that are clearly indicated on the syllabus as In-class writing workshops. Writing Center appointments are not a reason to miss class on any other day of the semester.

My students took a great advantage of this throughout the semester. Just last week, my class was a virtual ghost town. Why? Well, I have 8 students this semester. Three of these students had appointments at 9am, three at 9:30 am, and the two that were diligently working in class after the other six had left both had appointments for later in the day. It has worked really well.

Final Thoughts

So now that I have all of my students frequenting the Writing Center, I see much better essays. I see my students asking more detailed questions about what I’m looking for in an essay. I am sure that some of this comes from the bright students I have, but I also know that it comes from the Q&A session they do with their Writing Consultants as they begin working on the essay.

I cannot say that all of the improvements I’ve seen among students attending the Writing Center frequently are due to the changes that I made in class. Another serious factor to improving student writing using the Writing Center is due to communication between myself and the Writing Center. But this post has gotten a bit lengthy, so I’ll continue in a separate post. 

Thursday’s New York Times ran an editorial on standardized testing that demands some attention. They are calling for stronger curriculums in high schools and more focused standardized testing to demonstrate accomplishment in these areas. Just last month, the NY Times ran another article exposing the coaching of students that some schools do before their tests. I’ve known people who received phone calls about their students not taking these tests seriously. I’ve heard of students who have had anxiety attacks that stem from fear they will fail the test.

If you ask me, it’s getting way out of hand. I am no stranger to standardized testing. My family moved at the most every two years. It seemed as though I would take the assessment test at my old school, then move to a new state and start a new school just in time to participate in their standardized test. But, like many from my generation, I survived. I don’t know how well I scored on the tests, though I’m sure my mother has the reports around somewhere. We did not dwell on the material in the tests in our classes. I remember getting advice on test taking from my teachers: “get a good night’s sleep” “have a good breakfast” “bring an extra pencil.” That was it.

So when the latest article on standardized testing came out, I found myself behind approximately 98% of the contents. Specifically, this paragraph almost made me cheer:

The obvious cure in Illinois, and in other states, is to carefully limit or dispense with test preparation in class. Teachers should instead be working on the high-level academic skills that students need to perform well, not just on tests, but in college and long afterward.

I think it’s obvious that there is too much time spent on testing preparation. Honestly, I have to admit that when it’s in print in the New York Times, though, I do a little happy dance. Why? It’s getting attention outside the educational sphere. This means that the non-educator citizen is starting to pay attention. So, I say thank you, to the New York Times. I thank all of the parents who have called and complained that their child should not fail a math test for bubbling in the wrong answer when they have the work to show that they got the answer write. I applaud the parent able to de-stress their child by not stressing out over the test at home. I applaud the teachers who do not dwell on the test preparation in their classroom. I applaud Carl Chew for standing up for what was right.

Writing…the Black Sheep of the Curriculum?

I do not, however, applaud the New York Times for the ideas they put forth in the opening paragraph of their essay:

To get the well-educated, highly skilled workers that the country needs, states must strengthen public school curriculums, especially in math and science. States also need to adopt high-quality tests that show how students are performing from year to year.

Unfortunately, the New York Times has jumped on the bandwagon of bettering education without looking at the whole picture. If we are going to strengthen public school currriculums, it needs to be done across the board not “especially in math and science.” I spend a good portion of my summer grading writing placement tests and I have to say that each year, the results seem to get even more dismal. In addition to placing more students into basic writing classes because they cannot write to college standards, I hear more complaints from parents about the placement, get more pressure from administration to not place these students in basic writing and continue to grow more annoyed with the entire system. The problem with placing students in basic writing is two fold. It’s a result of bad PR for basic writing and it’s a result of less writing curriculum in the high schools.

Basic Writing (Read “Remedial Writing” to Parents and Students) is for Dummies

The biggest problem with Basic Writing is the bad PR it has gotten over the past few decades. Few schools offer this class as a credit class, which means the students enrolled in the class are paying for a class that does not in any way count towards the credit hours they need for their degree. Writing instruction in this class often begins with writing paragraphs and graduates to writing a full essay. For this reason, students who are placed in basic writing (and their parents by default) see this class as a course for remedial students or Second Language students. They feel that since they passed all of their English courses in high school and did not fail the Written portion of the Standardized Test, this is not the place for them. Unfortunately, this can create a very hostile learning environment for some students.

AP students are the worst in a Basic Writing class. This is largely because they enter into AP classes in high school with the preconceived notion that passing the AP test clears them from all need to take college writing and that if they don’t pass it, they certainly won’t be placed in Basic Writing.

The High School Writing Curriculum

In many high schools, writing is not actually part of the curriculum. Now, I don’t want to generalize, because I have seen several schools that do a great job of incorporating writing into their English classes. However, for the most part, writing instruction seems to simply involve

“Write an essay discussing the symbolism in [enter novel name here]“

When the student turns in the essay, they receive comments on whether or not they interpreted the symbolism appropriately, used MLA correctly, and used correct grammar. Unfortunately, I have found that too often writing instruction beyond these small areas consists of

• An essay has five paragraphs (introduction, 3 body paragraphs, conclusion)

• A thesis statement goes at the end of the introduction and is constructed as such: “In [the novel's name], [Author's name] uses symbolism to [item one, item two, and item three]

That’s about all it seems that my students know about writing. Even when they place into our traditional Composition I class, they don’t have the information to write a persuasive essay of any form. They can inform until the semester is over, but they can’t persuade an audience. In fact, most of them are never introduced to the ideas of writing to an audience. So it bothers me even more to see writers from the New York Times pushing for improvement in math and science curriculums.

Preconceived Notions of Writing

I think the biggest problem with writing curriculum and students’ disinterest in their writing classes comes from being in a field that they don’t believe will use writing. Over the last few years, I have heard more students say “I don’t need writing in my career, I’m going to be a [insert career here].” I’ve heard this from disciplines across the university, including:

• Business students
  • “My job is about numbers and management, not writing”
• History majors planning to attend law school
  • “I’ll have a clerk who will do my writing for me”
• Nurses
  • “All the writing that we do is notes that appear in charts”
• Chemistry
  • “I’m going to find a cure for cancer, I don’t need to know how to write.”
• Theater
  • “I’m an actor, writing isn’t my job.”
• Art
  • “I say it with paint, not words.”

I could go on and on with the disciplines, but I’ll leave it here. I’m not compiling a laundry list. I don’t know where they get the idea that their specific career is not one that requires writing, but I would love to see more emphasis on this in the curriculum. No matter how much I remind students that they will have to write in their discipline, they seem to brush it off as something their English teacher said. I don’t know anything about their discipline because I’m not part of it.

There’s a problem with the entire system. From not teaching students to write well in high school to the preconceived notions that they don’t need to write. Everything that gets done in this world today is in some way connected to a necessary document. Law students become clerks before they become lawyers. Even as lawyers, they still have to write briefs. Business students have to write proposals. Actors have to apply for jobs and those applications sometimes involve a cover letter.

In short, we need to change writing instruction now. We cannot afford to wait for another generation to slip through the cracks.  Please, teachers, start stressing how important writing is to the subject you teach. Kids need to know. If you teach English, move beyond the five-paragraph essay. If you’re a student, look into your career and see what kind of writing is going to be required; I think you would be surprised. If you or your child gets placed in a Basic Writing class, work with it. There are lots of things that you can learn from this class. I promise, it is not a remedial class. It is designed to aid you in becoming a better writer.

A few months ago, I got the chance to experiment with PikiWiki. When I first wrote about it, I thought that it was a site my students would enjoy and be able to work with easily. I was right.

After a brief explanation of the project and the site in the classroom, I turned my students loose to play with their pages. Now, the assignment was simple. They were asked to find a visual that demonstrated the opposition to the argument they were working with all semester. I asked them to place this in the center of their page and use the remainder of the space to refute that argument using any of the means available through PikiWiki. They did an excellent job.

But what I truly loved about PikiWiki was the fact that I did not have to hold any of my students’ hands through the experiment. Even those who are terrified of computers were able to do a great job with their page. And, it allowed those who knew more about technology to help out those who were struggling with the site.

But I think the biggest benefit to PikiWiki was to those who were not techno-savvy. They had the chance to work with technology and come to realize that if they experiment and try new ways of working with technology, it’s not as scary as they perceived. Even one of my less techno-savvy students has said that she will use the site in the future for visual presentations if her professors will let her.

In the end, I give PikiWiki two thumbs up. Below are pages created with PikiWiki by both a techno-savvy student and a techno-illiterate student. Take a look. I’ve rated them by the student’s technology capabilities over the course of the semester. You’ll notice that they’re both well done pages and without the identification of the student’s skills, you would never know which page was done by the techno-savvy student.

Benefits of Standardized Testing (a techno-illiterate by her own definition)

Legalizing Marijuana (a techno-savvy student)