Hello everyone! I'm back! Sorry to have been gone so long! (Yes, I know that no one is reading this blog, that it's really for me only, but I thought I'd start with some simple humor to start my day!)
The topic that is most on my mind of late concerns using "themes" in college writing classes (i.e., developmental writing and/or the standard freshman comp. class). Common themes include pop culture (such as TV, ads, music, movies, etc.), a current event (such as an election), multiculturalism/diversity, social justice, work, education, suburbia, etc.
But some articles I've come across recently all seem to argue that any FYC (first-year composition) or FYW (first-year writing) course that uses a theme is a "sham." One problem is simple "truth-in-advertising," that it's really a course about something else, not writing. Another problem is that while such a course may be attempting to teach writing as well, use of the theme takes valuable time away from the study and practice of writing. A third, and perhaps the most troubling, problem concerns the possible "indoctrination" (political or otherwise) of students through the use of a theme.
When I was first taught to teach freshman composition at Mankato State University in the early 1990s, we did not start out talking about themes. We actually started out talking about the writing process and about the "modes" of writing (narration, description, exposition, and argumentation) which, I later discovered, reflected a combination of writing-process theory with "current-traditional" theory. But it wasn't a bad way to start to learn to teach. Later, some of my colleagues did begin to incorporate a theme (often involving pop culture or current events), while others of us incorporated focuses on literature, academic writing, or the various "genres" of writing (memoir, reflection, position papers, proposals, reviews, etc.).
A decade later, after taking other graduate-level courses about the teaching of writing at the University of Minnesota, I began to experiment with using a theme for my writing courses. I first tried the theme of "Work," thinking that it would appeal to my working-class, career-minded, currently-employed community college students. It didn't, really, and, to my surprise, some of my students didn't even have a job yet, had never had one. So, I switched themes, to "Education," which at that time was the focus of the writing courses in the (now defunct) General College at the U of MN. The theory behind having students explore education includes empowering students, having them reflect on their past experiences with education and critically examine the enterprise they are currently involved in. This theme interested me greatly but didn't have the same effect on my students. Some were interested, sure, but many others were tolerant, or bored, or apathetic. And this very mixture of widely varying interests in a theme by students probably occurs in any course, comp or otherwise, theme or no theme.
So, I'm returning to a course focused almost entirely on writing, language, the writing process, academic writing, documentation and citation, grammar, etc. Sure, there will have to be "topics" to writing about, and we will have to discuss some readings (either to respond to or as models). But the focus will be on the list I just gave. And, I'm sure, I'll still have some students who are committed and interested, and tolerant, and bored, and apathetic, etc. But the course will not be a "sham," it will directly address what it's meant to address, and it will, hopefully, help students with their writing, for other college courses and for the workplace.
But I'm also still continuing to think about this topic. It's interesting, and it needs to be discussed. We also need to talk about other "add-ons" to freshman composition courses, such as Service Learning, or Technology Tools, or Digital Writing Projects, etc. Do these also take away from the writing and language focus of FYC/FYW courses, or do they complement the courses in ways that "themes" do not?
For now, here's my bibliography of the sources I've been reading. Enjoy!
Benay, Phyllis. "They Say, 'Templates Are the Way to Teach Writing'; I Say, 'Use with Extreme Caution.'" Rev. of
They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein.
Pedagogy 8.2 (2008): 369-373. Print.
Brunner, Elizabeth. "Assignments for Freshman Composition." N.p. 24 Sept. 1999. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.
Fish, Stanley. "What Should Colleges Teach?"
New York Times 24 Aug. 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2009.
Fish, Stanley. "What Should Colleges Teach? Part 2."
New York Times 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2009.
Fish, Stanley. "What Should Colleges Teach? Part 3."
New York Times 7 Sept. 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2009.
Foley, James E. "The Freshman Research Paper: A Near-Death Experience." N.p. N.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.
Grow, Laura M. "If They Say Academic Writing Is Too Hard, I Say Read Graff and Birkenstein." Rev. of
They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein.
Pedagogy 8.2 (2008): 363-368. Print.
Miller, Susan. "How I Teach Writing: How to Teach Writing? To Teach Writing?"
Pedagogy 1.3 (2001): 479-488. Print.
Shank, Dianna Rockwell. Rev. of
Save the World on Your Own Time, by Stanley Fish.
Teaching English in the Two-Year College 38.1 (Sept. 2010): 85-87.
Young, R. V. "Liberal Learning Confronts the Composition Despots."
Intercollegiate Review 46.1 (Spr. 2011): 3-11. Print.
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