Reaching Higher Ground: Towards Meaningful Engagement of Student Writers

1. Reaching Higher Ground: Towards Meaningful Engagement of Student Writers Examining Nelson’s “Reading Classrooms as Text: Exploring Student Writers’ Interpretative Practices” (1995); by Medea Chillemi

2. Students are Not Outsiders • They have navigated the ropes…(412) • How to respond • What to say • What teachers’ expectations are. • “…In learning how to be successful members of the culture of school, students may develop interpretative practices that may undermine the goals of disciplinary learning… • i.e. summarizing and reviewing rather than addressing the issues and solving the problems outlined in the argument Brown, Collins and Duguid “Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning” Educational Researcher (18) (1989): 32-42 2

3. And the Beat Goes On: Students as Insiders • Many students automatically invoked their standard approach and relied on well-learned habits of summarization and recitation, reading habits that reflect a legacy of schooling in which ‘accuracy and routine recitals’ are favored over reasoned exploration, analysis and thoughtful interpretation. (412) (citing Flower et als. at 183). • These students’ approaches are a product of the culture of school in which students learn early on that ‘it is the final product…that will be evaluated, not the steps one has taken to arrive at this product’ Sommers at 412 citing Marshall at p. 429 for highlighted quote 3

4. Game it: Give ‘Em What they Want • College student’s in McCarthy’s study offered he following advice for freshman about writing for their college courses: • ‘…[F]irst, you’ve got to figure out what your teachers want. And then you’ve got to gie it to them if you’re gonna get the grade’ (413). • ‘The crucial part of learning in the classroom is digging up what the professor expects’ (413, Nelson citing Anderson et als at 25). • Students who are successful members of the CULTURE OF SCHOOL learn how to read classrooms as text (413). • Anne Dyson – Students know how ‘to do school.’ • Our author Nelson reminds us that students are already insiders, long-standing members of the culture of school who may be “possessed by” certain assumptions about how to approach writing assignments. 4

5. Kate’s Vague History Assignment and The Pursuit of a Grade • Kate’s history professor requested that his students complete a 600-800 word-count paper about the Concord, MA men and their reluctance to fight in the Revolutionary War (414) • Here is an excerpt of the professor’s essay prompt: ….I would like you to capture the true sense of the era and the actual feelings of the characters. To accomplish this task, you may have to combine the “facts” of the reading with the less tangible proofs of intuition, imagination and interference. 5

6. See Kate Draft, Draft Kate Draft • In her initial draft, Kate’s tone was informal and she “drifted into fact” at the end. (414-415). She says that she was wordy in the attempt to get more feedback from the writing tutor. • She interpreted her professor’s instructions as a prompt to write creatively, but her professor said that her essay was “often confusing, unclear and sometimes just downright wrong.” He did not assign her a grade & he wanted to see her (415) • Kate is frustrated. She talks with a friend who received an A. Kate says that the only difference was that her friend “wrote like a textbook” (415) • Kate goes back to the writing tutor and professor, consults with others and redrafts with the new info. armed with how the professor wants her to write. Kate gets a B on the paper and high marks on the rest of her writing assignments for the semester…..(415-416). • So everything’s great right? 6

7. The Economics of Writing and Grading: Kate’s Conundrum • Kate summarizes her revised understanding of her teacher’s expectations: “He wants us to [provide] a logical outline…use examples from the reading…sound like a textbook-– that’s all he expects” (416). • Even though Kate got good marks, she reported that she was unwilling to take intellectual risks and spend more time developing arguments. • She was ‘torn between wanting to do [her] best and wanting to meet the standards which aren’t very challenging…[The teacher] just puts a number/grade and ‘good’ on papers- he doesn’t put much into the comments. More comments would mean that he put a lot of time in. If he doesn’t why should I?’ 7

8. Is Kate just a Gamer? QUESTIONS: • How did Kate view the classroom as text? Why did she do that? • Viewing the importance of product v. process (Lauer) • What are the lessons we can learn from her experience as students and teachers? • Have you had similar experiences? • What could her professor have done differently? 8

9. The Opposite Effect: The Professor Gives too Much Guidance • Students involved are Art, Debra and Brian (418). • Sociology experiment with writing assignment. • Professor gives freshman a 7-step guidelines for conducting and writing a report of fieldwork. • 2 Students, Art and Debra – Did not do the field work, just relied on the detailed assignment guidelines like a recipe book. They made up data & filled in the blanks. See 418-19 • Art got 75% • Debra- B+ Rolodex Rolode Recipe Book 9

10. Brian- The Frustrated Writer • Brian did the actual work, but he ultimately received a B (420). • From the outset Brian was frustrated: “This might seem helpful at first (having a specific guideline to follow), but it seems like more of a nuisance now. I don’t like being so restricted in my writing, being forced into a set of steps. It seems as if we’re being graded on how well we can follow directions, not how we can think on our own” (419). • Brian told Nelson that he was dissatisfied with the project; he should have chosen a different hypothesis, one that ‘fit he steps’ on an assignment sheet, and doctored his data to fit the hypothesis. • Brian wanted to take risks, but he felt too constrained by the protocol for the assignment. 10

11. Lessons of the Sociology Assignments • There will always be students who intentionally use their knowledge of how classrooms work to psych out and short-circuit assignments…The limited assumptions that shaped Debra’s and Art’s interpretations can shut down student’s options and subvert the larger curricular goals for assigned writing (420). QUESTIONS: • How would you have done things differently? Have you given students detailed rubrics and how has this worked out for you? • How extensive should a rubric it be? Does it depend on the subject matter? • What are your reactions as students? 11

12. Helen and Her Professor Think Critically • Helen’s professor assigns her a research paper regarding Victorian texts (421) • The Professor’s Directions: Remember that a research paper is NOT a report of FACTS, but a careful marshalling of the judgments, opinions, and ideas of others to support your own position. • Students were also required to turn in a written proposal 4 weeks before the final paper’s due date in which they identified the topic of their research, the argument they were expected to make, the work(s) they would interpret and the secondary sources they had read. • Q: How do these instructions stack up against Kate’s and Brian’s directions? 12

13. Helen Received Better Guidance; She “Worked Smarter.” • IMPORTANT: Kate, Debra and Art were not inherently smarter than Helen. They former chose the path of least resistance because that is what was modeled for them. • Kate took risks by discussing her confusion with her fellow classmate and the professor immediately. GAINING CLARITY IS KEY! • Even after she handed in her written proposal, Helen continued dialogue with her classmates. FLUIDITY • Q: Specifically, how is Helen fundamentally different than the students we’ve examined? 13

14. Helen’s Upside-Down Tree Approach • Helen does not limit herself to a thesis that she creates immediately. • Instead, she uses a broad approach at the beginning and then hones in on her topic and surprises herself with a unique viewpoint. • Research is done to determine what Victorian work she wants to examine • She has colloquies with her classmates and professor. • She questions her own initial assumptions – i.e. that Thomas Hardy has created a very true portrait of prostitutes In “The Ruined Maid.” See next slide. 14

15. Helen Flips Her Script • I think [the professor] wats us to use others’ arguments to develop our own. So, in a sense this isn’t a research paper (i.e. telling what’s already been said…) but rather an argument that requires research (422) • ….She returns to the library with renewed energy and, after spending several hours researching, reading and taking notes, she decided to revise her initial argument that “Hardy shows reality” in his poem [“The Ruined Maid”], explaining “I think [Hardy] may be showing what the public believes to be reality.” She presents her new argument: • Hardy has exposed this underworld of girls outcast from their families ad condemned by society, but he does not accurately portray their total degradation. If Melia had replied: “One’s pretty lifeless when ruined” instead of “One’s Pretty Lively,” Hardy would not have only exposed the seamier side of Victorian England, but he would have captured the lives of Victorian prostitutes. 15

16. How Have You Flipped the Script? QUESTIONS • As students have you ended up with different conclusions or thesis statements than those you had at the beginning of a project? • How can you both use the classroom as text in your writing and be unique at the same time? Missy Elliott’s Lyrics from “Work It” 16

17. Big Picture • Each of the case-study students’ stories offers a view of students as insiders, actively invoking their knowledge of how classrooms work and engaging in a variety of interpretations which influence how they define and approach their writing assignments. Each story also reveals how students’ responses to assignments can take unexpected turns or derail altogether (422) • Kate cynically chose to limit her goals and commitment in her history class. • Art and Debra derailed their assignment without a backward glance. • Helen’s reading of her classroom context led her to approach her assignment with a sense of authority and commitment that appeared to be missing in the others’ approaches. 17

18. Striking a Balance • Because students seem predisposed to view assignment guidelines as blueprints for the finished product, teachers must find ways to strike a balance between providing students with valuable information about ways of thinking and writing in different disciplines and preempting student learning and engagement by providing overly explicit instructions (424). • Helen’s ability to reflect critically and expand on her previous research writing experiences was fostered by her teacher’s semester long focus on exploring reading s a socially-constructed, interpretative act…He asked open-ended, authentic questions during class discussion and on written assignments... (425). 18

19. Reaching Higher Ground (Part 1) Teachers keep on teachin’/ Sleepers just stop sleepin’ from ”Higher Ground” by Stevie Wonder • By recognizing that students are insiders with a legacy of school reading and writing experiences that shapes their interpretations of writing assignments, we [teachers] can help students take more authority for their decisions as writers, to see how the act of interpreting an assignment involves negotiation among competing authorities: the authority of the textbook or assignment guidelines, the authority of previous school writing experiences, the authority of their own developing goals and ideas (427). • GOAL: Get students to question the legacy of schooling that has taught them to abdicate rather than assume authority for their decisions as writers and learners. 19

20. Reaching Higher Ground (Part 2) “Gonna keep on tryin’ til I reach my highest ground” • In one sense, these case study students are newcomers who need to be initiated into the various discourses of the academic community, to learn what it means to write as a historian or sociologist or a literary critic….(427-428) • In another sense, these case study students are insiders, already in possession of (or possessed by) a structure of assumptions about school writing assignments (428). • As both insiders & outsiders, our students’ success depends so much on their ability to appropriate a particular discourse as on their ability to to recognize and negotiate among the old and new ways of thinking and writing they are being asked to engage in. 20

21. Class Discussions/Reflections/Intentions: Steps to Higher Ground • What assumptions do we NOT make about students? • Set a bar high, but relate to students on their levels. Does it work? • A teacher is a tailor… • How? Teach students to think in contexts in your particular discipline. • Examples? • Suggested Viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elav44kQYUo “Rising to High Expectations” | Jessica Lander | TEDxBeaconStreet “You can’t just be told you can succeed...letting students experience authentic success is the only way to truly transform a student.” 21

22. Let’s Reach Together BBBL THANK YOU! Medea Chillemi 22 Ballet Study by Harvey Edward