We Want to Know Who Our Students Are

PMLA ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 129 (3) ◽  
pp. 442-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Bizzell
Keyword(s):  
Composition Studies ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
First Year ◽  
Discourse Communities ◽  
Intellectual Work ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Origin Story

Composition studies concentrates on students, not texts. We in this field want to know who our students are. What abilities to use language do they bring to the academy? What new kinds of intellectual work are they able to do? What challenges does academic discourse pose for them? These are research questions we explore with rigor but also compassion and, sometimes, admiration. My favorite origin story claims that this field's modern iteration sprang from reluctance to use first-year writing courses, required at most universities, simply to eject the “boneheads.” Instead, we learned from Mina Shaughnessy and others to regard even the most struggling undergraduate writers as agents, operating among intersecting and competing discourse communities. For us, student writers are not solitary creators, nor are they intertextual blurs.

scholarly journals Re-Imagining the First Year as Catalyst for First-Year Writing Program Curricular Change

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Crank ◽  
Sara Heaser ◽  
Darci L. Thoune
Keyword(s):  
College Retention ◽  
Habits Of Mind ◽  
Curricular Change ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Program ◽  
Research Project ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Multiple Measures ◽  
Writing Course

This article describes a revision of a first-year writing program curriculum using the pillars of the Reimagining the First-Year Program. The authors adapted principles related to mindset and habits of mind from both college retention scholarship and composition scholarship. After developing a research project in order to understand what elements of mindset correlate with readiness for credit-bearing writing courses, the authors created a multiple measures placement system for enrolling students in a credit-bearing first-year writing course with co-requisite support.  

Using Wikipedia to Teach Written Health Communication

2016 ◽  
pp. 247-258
Author(s):  
Melissa Vosen Callens
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Professions ◽  
First Year ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
The World ◽  
Patient Provider Communication ◽  
Student Apathy

Unlike first-year writing courses, upper-division writing courses often require students to engage in discipline specific writing. In the author's upper-division course, Writing in the Health Professions, students examine health literacy as it pertains to both oral and written patient-provider communication. Students edit and expand a Wikipedia article for the final course assignment. The advantages of this assignment are threefold. First, students write for an authentic audience, decreasing student apathy. Second, students engage civically, improving health information accessed by millions of people across the world. Finally, students improve content of existing articles and broaden the scope of new articles written, leading to more diverse content and perspectives. In this chapter, the author discusses the above assignment, providing descriptions of scaffolding activities. Potential drawbacks of using Wikipedia to teach students how to write using plain language is discussed, in addition to strategies that might limit these difficulties.

From Expository Blog to Engaged E-Portfolio

2016 ◽  
pp. 51-72
Author(s):  
Jill Darling
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Electronic Portfolio ◽  
First Year ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Public Writing ◽  
Constructivist Pedagogy ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Learn By Doing

This chapter illustrates a student-centered pedagogy in process through the example of an electronic portfolio final assignment in two First-Year Writing courses. The philosophy behind the assignment is based in cultural studies, constructivist pedagogy, and multimodal studies. If students learn by doing, they also learn about culture through critique, public writing, and reflection. Students can thus become engaged as writers and citizens through constructing web-based texts focused on social issues and written from personal perspectives.

Wearable Writing

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Chew Kit Tham
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Wearable Technology ◽  
Composition Pedagogy ◽  
First Year ◽  
Google Glass ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Composing Process ◽  
Writing Technology

As technology continues to become more ubiquitous and touches almost every aspect of the composing process, students and teachers are faced with new means to make writing a multimodal experience. This article embraces the emerging sector of wearable technology, presenting wearable writing strategies that would reimagine composition pedagogy. Specifically, the article introduces Google Glass and explores its affordances in reframing student peer-review activities. To do so, the author presents a brief overview of wearables and writing technology, a case study of how the author deployed Google Glass in a first-year writing course, and a set of tips for using wearable technology in general and technical writing courses.

scholarly journals Multimodality as a Communicative Tool for Social Engagement and Reform

2021 ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
Brennan Thomas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Composition Pedagogy ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
First Year College ◽  
Post Process ◽  
Public Media ◽  
Media Texts ◽  
Community Issues

This article acknowledges the viability of multimodal projects in first-year college-level writing courses in accordance with the evolution of composition pedagogy over the past forty years. Since the 1982 publication of Hairston’s article “The Winds of Change” forecasting the end of the then-ubiquitous current-traditional approach, composition pedagogy has undergone paradigm shifts from process to post-process theory and from textual to digital modes of composition. Inspired by Goodwin’s (2020) research on students’ multimodal responses to local community issues, I developed a public media project for my first-year writing course for which students created media texts addressing local, regional, national, and global issues of their choosing. The project synthesizes the public and interpretative dimensions of writing identified by post-process scholars with elements of multimodality and civic engagement to help students understand how public media texts raise social awareness of current issues and mobilize community efforts toward unified resolution of such issues.

scholarly journals Students as fan, or Reinvention and repurposing in first-year writing classrooms

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keshia Mcclantoc
Keyword(s):  
Composition Studies ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
First Year ◽  
Fan Fiction ◽  
First Year Writing

I performed a study of two first-year writing classrooms and their interactions that used a fan fiction–based pedagogy. Rather than using fan fiction as class texts, this pedagogy used the fan fiction practices of reinventing and repurposing to help students better understand themselves and their community. This was done to position the students as fans themselves. Students were challenged to act as a fan would as they moved through myriad overlapping fan fiction and composition studies practices. I include descriptions of major assignments, examples of student writing, and reflections on both the successes and struggles within this classroom.

scholarly journals My life as a writing professor and research librarian: The ideas that bridge the gap

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
George Koors
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
First Year ◽  
College Level ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
American University ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Large Group ◽  
Time To Learn ◽  
Over Time

When I got into libraries, I looked forward to more one-on-one time with students. I had been a teacher at the college level for some time, and when I got a job as reference coordinator at American University, I saw an opportunity to have both large-group and one-on-one time with students.I staff a public-facing research desk, am embedded in first-year writing courses as their librarian, and teach first-year writing as a professor in the literature department. It is a wonderful balance, but it has taken time to learn how these identities interact. Over time, they have merged. This essay looks at that, and at some of the language I have used to understand that bridge between these roles. I hope to lightly tie this language to aspects of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

scholarly journals On the same page: collaborative research assignment design with graduate teaching assistants

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-358
Author(s):  
Maggie Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Teaching Assistants ◽  
Graduate Teaching Assistants ◽  
First Year ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Graduate Teaching ◽  
First Time

Purpose This paper aims to explore how collaborative research assignment design consultations between instruction librarians and new graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) have the potential to improve the design of research assignments for first-year writing courses. Design/methodology/approach The author conducted a small number of questionnaires and structured interviews with first-time GTAs who serve as first-year composition instructors to explore their conceptions about teaching researched writing. Thematic analysis of the results of these qualitative instruments led to the design of a new framework for working with incoming cohorts of GTAs at her institution prior to the start of each fall semester. Findings New GTAs often emphasize strict source type parameters in research assignment design and expect their students to engage in expert research behaviors. Emphasizing the assignment design expertise of instruction librarians during new GTA orientation may lead to more assignment design consultations with first-time college writing instructors. Collaborative assignment design consultations between librarians and GTAs can improve the alignment of research assignment parameters with their shared goals for students' research and writing skills and habits of mind, including seeing research and writing as iterative and inquiry-based processes. Research limitations/implications While not every instruction librarian works with GTAs, working with instructors to collaboratively design research assignments that shift focus away from using specific search tools and locating particular types of sources opens possibilities for what librarians are able to achieve in one-shot instruction sessions, in terms of both lesson content and pedagogical strategies used. Originality/value The existing literature on first-year writing addressing faculty and librarian assignment design collaborations, and research assignments more generally, does not often explicitly examine the experiences of librarians who primarily work with GTAs. This paper adds to this literature by highlighting specific obstacles and unique opportunities in librarian–GTA teaching partnerships in first-year writing courses.

scholarly journals The Research Prospectus in First-Year Writing (and Beyond)

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol L Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
College Level ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
High School Writing ◽  
Writing Research ◽  
Research Questions

This paper discusses a first-year writing research prospectus prompt designed to support first-year undergraduate students transitioning from high school writing—which often focuses on summary and synthesis—to college-level writing. In college, “research papers” often require knowledge production: developing research questions that address gaps in existing scholarship. My prospectus prompt offers a scaffolded structure for writers embarking on such college-level projects, and it also offers a tool to facilitate writing transfer, with the goal of enabling students to develop major research projects independently in other classes. It does so in two ways. First, it labels the components of major research projects (e.g. objects of study, research questions about those objects of study, and the theoretical frameworks used to analyze objects of study). Second, it provides a process for approaching research projects, including showing students how to develop research questions and how to move beyond summarizing and synthesizing other scholars.

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