FYC Assignment and Syllabus: Composition Scholars that Influenced Me

For a refresher, an excerpt from my assignment/syllabus is as follows:

“Assignment 1 (in class)-Review the picture shown…..and describe using 140 characters or less (a restraint of Twitter) what you interpret from the picture.  All of the student’s responses will be shown on the screen in the front of the class and we will examine the similarities and differences present among each student’s description.

The syllabus includes assignments that will hopefully help the students connect how they ‘compose’ and use technology now, to the evolution of composition and technology (to some extent)..…Shaughnessy in her DIVING IN section specifically addresses the notion of the teacher making a decision to become a “student of new disciplines and of his student’s” (p. 297), which is really another hallmark of this assignment.  I would suspect that many of the students are much more familiar with Twitter than I would be.  Bruffee, of course, talks a lot about collaborative learning and stresses that the collaboration be a “social engagement in intellectual pursuits-a genuine part of students’ educational development” (414).  This is what I would hope for from any syllabus or set of assignments”.

For this blog post, I have chosen to focus on five other composition scholars from the list of course keywords that have influenced my outlook on FYC goals and delivery of composition assignments.

Donald Murray-writing as a process

What is most memorable to me about Donald Murray’s work is his emphasis on writing as a process.  He considered writing to be a challenge and always a different experience and that the importance for any writer was to embrace that experience.  He was also instrumental in identifying the similarities between the writing process and successful learning strategies.  I took these philosophies into account when defining my syllabus and corresponding assignments in trying to present technology as an experience both to learn and to write about.

David Bartholomae-appropriate discourse

In addition to being a recommended author for additional resources, David Bartholomae also has an essay published in Cross-Talk in Comp Theory (NCTE, 2011).  The essay entitled “Inventing the University” discusses the student’s attempt at using appropriate ‘discourse’.  In his essay “Writing Assignments:  Where Writing Begins”, Bartholomae quotes Edward Said, “To begin to write is to “know” what at the outset cannot be known except by inventing it, exactly, intentionally, autodidactially”.  In my assignment, I have tried to incorporate the parallels between changing technologies and their changing discourses.  The casualness of Twitter compared to the formality of the written essay is used as a concept and as a writing tool.

   

Peter Elbow-the Mother Tongue

In describing the ‘Mother Tongue’ Peter Elbow discusses his struggle in teaching students ‘correct’ English.  “Standard Written English is no one’s mother tongue” (p. 644).  Elbow uses this to support teaching different cultures, dialects and even social classes.  While perhaps not the intent of his essay, using a variety of technologies in an assignment, supports this same position.  For example, 'texting' literacy is distinct from standard written English as words are often reduced to mere acronyms, yet this language is understood across a range of cultures.  The act of using the touch screen on an iPhone is the same, regardless of the language being spoken.  In my assignment(s), I use Twitter as a starting point to represent a universal ‘mother tongue’.

Patricia Bizzell-contact zones

Contact Zones are described by Patricia Bizzell as distinct areas of literary cultural divide.  The zones are defined largely in terms of historical circumstances and multiculturalism.   The connection between my assignment(s) and contact zones is in the interpretive analysis of a visual image.  A student’s experience, history and culture will lead them towards one kind of interpretation.  By presenting all initial ‘Tweets’ to the entire class for discussion, existing contact zones will be introduced.

Richard Fulkerson-four philosophies of composition

Richard Fulkerson is well known for his description of the four philosophies of composition which include the formal, expressive, rhetorical and mimetic.  Most writers have a natural tendency towards a certain kind of composition philosophy, but can be taught the differences and significance of each.  The assignment(s) I propose address these philosophies at different times through evaluation of different technologies and through the use of those technologies.  Twitter, for example, lends itself to a very expressive philosophy.