Quickwrite 3/14

1. Michelle Kenney’s article “The Politics of the Paragraph” discusses the problems with teaching the five-paragraph essay. She disputes one common thought on formulaic writing, that writing formulas are like training wheels, and you need to “know the rules in order to break them.” In your own experience in high school, did you learn the five-paragraph formula or other formulaic writing? Did you find that it helped you become a better writer? If you were taught formulaic writing in school, did you have any issues when you started writing on the college level? Or did you find that formulaic writing helped prepared you for college writing?  
I absolutely learned to write with a formula. I can remember learning the 5-paragraph essay format in high school, and once I understood how to formulate that kind of essay, I applied it across the board to other essays, longer papers, all writing assignments. I found the formula to be an easy way to write an expository essay. When I got to college, however, I took Composition 1010, the freshman writing class. I found myself so completely frustrated with the way the professor would ask us to adhere so strictly to the formulas for each type of writing. It was not acceptable to write out of the bounds of the assignment formula. I was so incredibly frustrated and felt stifled with my writing. 

 I am beginning to feel that while there might be a benefit to formulaic writing, it does nothing to push the boundaries of creativity, it does not allow for thinking critically about what you're writing. If you just fit the sentences into the paragraph form, that seems to be enough. It's not enough for me anymore, and you can be damn sure it won't be enough for my students either.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Personal 2/28

I am really glad to see an entire week of assignments dedicated to personalized learning. I feel like personalized learning is coming at me from many different directions--it started with a Socratic  seminar in my SED 406 class last semester (when Kelli-Lynne and I had to research and play the role of Don Halquist, remember, Kelli?), I attended the EdCamp professional development earlier in the semester and this was a major topic that was discussed, I have a dear friend who works for the Highlander Institute who is a major supporter of personalized learning, and another good friend is a high school teacher in Barrington and will be presenting at the Blended Learning Conference in April. Needless to say, this is not the first time I'm hearing about personalized learning. NETFLIXING HUMAN CAPITAL I tackled the Roberts-Mahoney piece first, and it might be the first time I've read something describing the detriments of big data. And maybe she doesn't directly say that data ...
Read more

Leaning In 4/18

This Nate Bowling article was one of the first articles I came across this semester. It was extremely uncomfortable reading it, uncomfortable with the idea that someone--a teacher no less--would tell me that America doesn't care what happens to black students. OF COURSE I CARE! I felt immediately defensive but kept reading. One of the speakers at a conference I recently attended spoke about striving for equity and social justice in the classroom and started the conversation by saying that we would be discussing things that made us uncomfortable, and she wanted us to lean into that discomfort. Bowling makes his feelings very clear: segregation is alive and well in the U.S. and the white community is totally okay with it. Once more, my immediate internal response was to feel defensive. I reminded myself of something I often tell my own kids, that just because it isn't an issue in YOUR life doesn't mean it isn't the most important issue in someone else's. Lean in. ...
Read more

Writing Between Languages 3/21

When this class started, I mistakenly referred to Kelly Gallagher as "she." Every time I reference a new text since then, I read a little about the author, to make sure I'm using not only the correct pronoun, but I also want to know a little about the author. It's like reading the labels on food in the grocery store. I noted that Danling Fu learned how to write in English when she was in grad school, and as such has an important perspective as an English Language Learner, what works and doesn't. Gives me confidence that what I'm reading is important and accurate. Something that pops up early and often in this book is the idea of identifying students' home cultures as an asset instead of a deficiency. When she refers to her students as "funds of knowledge" it reminds me of literacy practices and Emdin's co-teaching article, which references students as experts. I think it's critical to recognize the importance of a student's first-...
Read more